A quartet of Brooklyn Heights townhouses have sold for $11.5 million, records show.
Melissa Pearsall Hirsch, through an entity called Valentines Way Co., signed the deed offloading the four properties — 60-66 Clark St. — that have been in her family’s name since 1979.
Hirsch, a lawyer by trade, has roots in the tony neighborhood. She is the daughter of Nancy and Otis Pearsall, known in the close-knit community as the “Mother and Father of Brooklyn Heights” after settling there in 1956 and making it their life’s mission to preserve its history, according to local preservationists.
The Hirsch family bought the 5-story contiguous townhouses, between Hicks and Henry streets and right across from the historic Hotel St. George, in 1979 under the same entity for an unknown amount, according to city records.
Last year JLL was tapped as the exclusive broker to sell the properties and first listed them for $15 million in September, according to information from StreetEasy. The price was slashed by 14% a month later and then they went into contract in February, ultimately selling for about 23% less than the initial asking price. JLL’s Hall Oster, Teddy Galligan and Conrad Martin are the listing agents, according to StreetEasy, but they did not return requests for comment by press time.
The four townhouses span about 27,600 total square feet and include 39 apartments, a majority of which are rent stabilized, records show. The Hirsches modernized the buildings in the early 1980s and also created private green space, accessible only to the residents, named Valentine’s Park in honor of one of the original owners, Valentine Everett, according to the marketing materials for the properties.
The buyer appears to be Midtown-based residential real estate company R. A. Cohen & Associates, records show. Robert Cohen signed the deed himself, although he used a limited liability company named in honor of the park. Founded in 1990, Cohen’s firm focuses on historic and emerging neighborhoods throughout the city and suburbs, according to its website. He did not return a request for comment by press time.
Attempts to reach Melissa Pearsall Hirsch — who is also a descendant of the Rev. Samuel Mather, one of Yale’s founders, according to a writeup of her 2000 wedding in The New York Times — were not successful by press time. And Steven Uffner, an attorney at Midtown-based law firm Goldberg Weprin Finkel Goldstein, who appears to have been involved in the transaction, also did not return a request for comment by press time.
