Brian McMahon Preservation

 This six-family building was one of the first Tax Credit projects in Brooklyn. It was a ‘railroad flat’, with four or five rooms along a corridor extending from the front of the narrow apartment to the rear of the building. Since there were windows only on the front and back walls, a  light well or shaft was typically located in the middle of the building for windows opening to the interior rooms. The light wells would be shared by two apartments on the same floor, and/ or with units in abutting buildings. This building was vacant and basically unhabitable when McMahon and his partners acquired it. Bathrooms had been crammed into a three-foot space with a toilet and bathtub – and no sink. The building was renovated in accordance with the Secretary’s Standards, and held as a rental investment property to qualify for the historic tax credit. In 1988 it was converted to a housing cooperative keeping the tenants in place. Each of the six units is now valued in the range of $600,000.