Park Slope Townhouse Sets Neighborhood Record With $14M Sale

15 September 2025

Park Slope’s most expensive listing has become its most expensive sale.

A 6,500-square-foot townhouse at 535 First Street sold for $13.9 million, the Wall Street Journal first reported. The home entered contract in August with an asking price of $14.5 million.

The home originally hit the market asking $18 million in May 2024 with Brown Harris Stevens.

The sellers, Jeanne and Dennis Masel, bought the five-story home for nearly $6 million in 2017 and undertook a four-year renovation with Leroy Street Studio beginning in 2018.

The Masels cut the price at the start of this year to $17 million before re-listing it with Compass’ Tim Malone at $16.5 million in April and dropping the price again to $14.5 million at the end of May.

The sale takes the crown from 53 Prospect Park West, a townhouse around the corner from the Masels’ former home that initially sought $30 million when it hit the market in 2021. Poly Prep Country Day School bought the home for $13.5 from the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture in 2024 in an off-market deal.

Single- and multi-family homes have been some of Brooklyn’s most popular offerings for the past several years. In the second quarter, the borough saw its average price per square foot for 1-3 family homes increase almost 11 percent to $829 from last year, according to a market report from Miller Samuel.

In Park Slope in particular, while the number of sales in the first half of 2025 decreased 20 percent, the average price per square foot increased 2 percent year-over-year and homes on average sold for over their asking price, according to a townhouse report from Leslie Garfield.

The Massels’ townhouse, which sits less than a block from Prospect Park, has five bedrooms and three bathrooms. The garden level features a sunken den with a gas fireplace, an open kitchen with an 18-foot marble island and direct garden access. A second gas fireplace is in the parlor-level living room, and an open library with glass walls looks out to the backyard.

The third-floor primary suite has a walk-in dressing room, private terrace and en-suite bathroom. The top floor has more living space with retractable glass walls leading to two terraces.