We Buy Victorians, Two-Families & Mixed-Use From St. George to Mariners’ Harbor

Housing Stock

What the North Shore Is Built From

The North Shore is Staten Island’s oldest, densest and most varied region. It wraps around the island’s northern edge, along the Kill Van Kull from the Goethals Bridge east to St. George, then south along Upper New York Bay past Tompkinsville, Stapleton and Clifton to Rosebank and Fort Wadsworth at the foot of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.

It grew up in the 1800s as a string of villages around ferry landings, shipyards, oyster beds and breweries. That history is still visible in the frame Victorians, Italianate and Queen Anne houses on the hills of St. George, New Brighton and Stapleton Heights, the large older houses of Livingston and Randall Manor, and the storefront buildings on Bay Street, Port Richmond Avenue and Richmond Terrace.

Further west and inland, in Port Richmond, Elm Park, Mariners’ Harbor, Graniteville and Westerleigh, the stock shifts toward early-20th-century frame houses and postwar two-families, semi-detached homes and newer attached houses. Grymes Hill and the surrounding hills add 1920s houses with harbor views, garden apartments and some large estates. The region also has most of Staten Island’s public housing and many of its older apartment buildings.

Common Condition Issues We See

• Frame houses needing roofs, siding, porches and foundation work
• Older wiring and plumbing in houses split into apartments years ago
• Basement and ground-floor units without permits in two-families
• Landmark review requirements in historic districts
• Flood exposure on low blocks near Richmond Terrace and the bay
• Steep or wooded lots with special district restrictions

Zoning

Zoning on the North Shore

The North Shore has more zoning variety than any other part of Staten Island. Along the east shore, the Bay Street Corridor rezoning, approved by the City Council in June 2019, created a special district along Bay Street and part of Canal Street between St. George, Tompkinsville and Stapleton that allows more apartments, retail and office space, with Mandatory Inclusionary Housing requirements for new residential development. St. George has had its own Special St. George District since 2008, and the former Navy homeport in Stapleton falls in the Special Stapleton Waterfront District.

Up the hills, the Special Hillsides Preservation District, in place since 1987, covers steep areas of St. George, Ward Hill, Tompkinsville, New Brighton, Randall Manor, West Brighton, Silver Lake and Grymes Hill. It limits tree removal, grading and the size of what can be built on steep slopes. Emerson Hill lies in the Special Natural Area District, where the City Planning Commission reviews site alterations.

Most residential blocks are also in Staten Island’s Lower Density Growth Management Area, with stricter parking, lot and yard rules than similar districts elsewhere in the city. The Council’s December 2024 changes to City of Yes for Housing Opportunity limited backyard ADUs and transit-oriented development to the Greater Transit Zone, so some citywide changes may not reach a given North Shore lot. Low-lying blocks along Richmond Terrace and the bay are also subject to flood zone rules. Confirm what applies to your property with a zoning professional or attorney.

Regulated Buildings

Rent-Stabilized Buildings on the North Shore

Staten Island has far fewer rent-stabilized apartments than the other boroughs, but the North Shore is where most of the island’s older apartment buildings are. Prewar and mid-century buildings near the ferry in St. George, walk-ups in Tompkinsville and Stapleton, and garden apartments on Grymes Hill and in West Brighton can include stabilized units.

Since the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, owners have had fewer tools to raise regulated rents while taxes, insurance and repair costs have kept rising. We buy stabilized and mixed-status buildings with tenants in place and value them on actual income. Learn more on our rent-stabilized building page, or see our 421-a page for newer buildings with a tax exemption.

Where We Buy

North Shore Neighborhoods We Buy In

We buy in every North Shore neighborhood. Here is a short guide to each one, with a link to its own page.

St. George

St. George sits at the island’s northeastern tip around the ferry terminal, which also serves the Staten Island Railway and the island’s buses. It is Staten Island’s civic center, with Borough Hall and the courthouses on Richmond Terrace, the ballpark and Empire Outlets on the waterfront. Behind it rise the hillside blocks of Ward Hill, with Victorian houses, small apartment buildings and harbor views, much of it in the St. George/New Brighton Historic District or the Hillsides district. We buy houses, walk-ups and mixed-use.

Tompkinsville

Tompkinsville, one stop south of St. George on the railway, is where Victory Boulevard meets Bay Street. It is one of the island’s most urban neighborhoods, with brick buildings, storefronts and early-20th-century housing, and it is home to the community often called Little Sri Lanka. Bay Street here was part of the 2019 rezoning. We buy mixed-use buildings, small apartment buildings, row houses and two-families.

Stapleton

Stapleton was the island’s old commercial center, laid out in the 1830s, with Tappen Park and the former Edgewater Village Hall at its heart and the Urby apartments on the former Navy homeport. Above it, Stapleton Heights includes the St. Paul’s Avenue-Stapleton Heights Historic District, designated in 2004, with freestanding houses on St. Paul’s, Cebra and Marion Avenues. We buy Victorians, two-families, mixed-use on Bay and Canal Streets, and land.

Clifton

Clifton runs along Bay Street south of Stapleton, with its own railway station and side streets like Vanderbilt Avenue, Tompkins Avenue and Targee Street. It includes Park Hill, a large complex of six-story apartment buildings built in the 1960s, and Fox Hills, named for a golf club that once occupied the area. Housing mixes older one-families, duplexes and attached homes. We buy houses, two-families and small buildings.

Rosebank

Rosebank is where Hylan Boulevard begins, a historically Italian American neighborhood that is home to the Alice Austen House and the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum on Tompkins Avenue. To the south, Shore Acres is a quiet, tree-shaded enclave of 1930s houses off Bay Street, and Fort Wadsworth anchors the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. We buy detached houses, two-families and estate homes.

New Brighton

New Brighton lies along the Kill Van Kull between St. George and Snug Harbor, on streets laid out in the 1830s like Hamilton Avenue, Jersey Street and Westervelt Avenue. Its hills hold Victorian and shingle-style houses, including those in the Hamilton Park area and the St. George/New Brighton Historic District, alongside public housing and apartment buildings. We buy historic houses, multi-family conversions and mixed-use.

Randall Manor

Randall Manor sits just south of Snug Harbor between Bard, Henderson, Lafayette and Forest Avenues and is one of the few affluent enclaves on the island away from the central hills. It includes Livingston, the area around Bard Avenue and Snug Harbor known for large older houses, many built before 1900, on tree-lined streets. We buy single-family homes, estate properties and large lots.

West Brighton

West Brighton stretches from the Richmond Terrace shipyards up past Castleton Avenue and Forest Avenue toward Clove Lakes Park and the Staten Island Zoo, with Snug Harbor at its eastern edge and Walker Park, home of the Staten Island Cricket Club. It has frame houses, two-families, the West Brighton Houses and commercial strips on Forest and Castleton Avenues. We buy homes, mixed-use and small buildings.

Port Richmond

Port Richmond runs from the Kill Van Kull to Forest Avenue between Clove Road and the Bayonne Bridge. Port Richmond Avenue is its historic main street, home to the Ritz Theater building and a Carnegie library, and Heberton Avenue is known for historic houses. It has a large Mexican American community. We buy two-families, frame houses, storefront buildings and waterfront-adjacent property.

Elm Park

Elm Park is a small neighborhood west of Port Richmond around Morningstar Road and Innis Street, near Port Richmond High School and the approach to the Bayonne Bridge. It has long-standing Polish American roots around St. Adalbert’s Church, and a mix of frame houses, two-families and newer attached homes. We buy houses and two-families in any condition.

Mariners’ Harbor

Mariners’ Harbor, on the Kill Van Kull west of Elm Park, takes its name from its oystering and maritime past and later shipbuilding. It includes Arlington in the northwest, Port Ivory, the former Procter & Gamble site, and Howland Hook, home of the container terminal near the Goethals Bridge. Housing includes older frame homes, newer attached two-families and the Mariners Harbor Houses. We buy homes, two-families and land.

Graniteville

Graniteville, named for its 19th-century trap rock quarries, sits where the Staten Island Expressway crosses Forest Avenue, Richmond Avenue and South Avenue, beside the Graniteville Swamp. Mostly rural until the bridge era, it filled in with attached houses, two-families and apartment complexes after 1964. We buy townhouses, two-families and parcels near wetland edges.

Westerleigh

Westerleigh grew out of Prohibition Park, a temperance campground founded in 1877, which is why many streets honor temperance leaders, such as Neal Dow Avenue and Fisk Avenue, or states that backed anti-liquor laws. Bounded roughly by Forest Avenue, Victory Boulevard, Jewett Avenue and Stewart Avenue, it is a settled neighborhood of detached and semi-detached houses. We buy family homes and estates here.

Castleton Corners

Castleton Corners centers on Victory Boulevard and Manor Road, between Westerleigh and the hills of Sunnyside and Todt Hill. Castleton Hill Moravian Church and St. Teresa’s face each other on Victory Boulevard, and the Staten Island Armory sits on its edge. Housing is mostly detached and semi-detached homes and two-families. We buy houses and mixed-use on Victory Boulevard.

Grymes Hill

Grymes Hill rises above Stapleton along Howard Avenue, home to Wagner College, Casa Belvedere and 1920s houses with harbor views. Nearby are Silver Lake, around Silver Lake Park and Victory Boulevard, Sunnyside to the south along Clove Road, and Emerson Hill, across the Staten Island Expressway, a wooded area of winding private-feeling roads in the Special Natural Area District. We buy houses, estates and hillside lots.

Inherited Property

Selling an Inherited North Shore Home

Inherited houses are among the most common properties we see on the North Shore. A Victorian bought by grandparents, a Port Richmond two-family where a parent lived downstairs, or a Westerleigh house that has not changed since the 1970s often ends up with heirs who live elsewhere and need a practical way to settle the estate.

Letters From the Surrogate’s Court

Staten Island estates go through the Richmond County Surrogate’s Court at 18 Richmond Terrace in St. George. An executor named in a will receives letters testamentary; when there is no will, an administrator receives letters of administration. That fiduciary usually signs the contract. Depending on the will and the circumstances, other heirs may need to consent or the court may need to approve the sale. We can visit the house and agree on terms while letters are pending, and we work with the estate’s attorney on timing.

When Heirs Disagree or Live Far Away

Siblings often disagree about whether to sell, rent or renovate, and about price. Some heirs are in New Jersey, some in Florida or further away. A written offer gives everyone the same number, and we can arrange access through a relative, neighbor or tenant so no one has to fly in for showings.

Vacant Houses, Repairs & Tenants

Vacant North Shore houses carry real costs: taxes, water and sewer charges, insurance that can be hard to keep on an empty home, winter heat, and the risk of break-ins or burst pipes in an old frame house. We buy estate homes as they are, with contents, deferred repairs, open permits or a tenant in the second unit, and take over tenancies at closing. See our Staten Island inherited property guide, or the Brooklyn guide if the estate also holds Brooklyn property. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.

Why Owners Sell

Why North Shore Owners Sell to Us

• An inherited Victorian or two-family with heirs in different states
• An old frame house that needs more work than the owner wants to fund
• A Bay Street or Port Richmond Avenue building with a vacant storefront
• A small apartment building with regulated tenants and rising costs
• A two-family with a tenant, arrears or an unpermitted unit
• Landmark review in the St. George/New Brighton or Stapleton Heights districts
• A hillside lot that is hard to sell because of special district rules

Most of these owners want the same thing: a fair, clearly explained price, a contract run by their attorney and a closing on their schedule.

Potential

Where North Shore Value Is Hiding

The North Shore has the island’s most transit-connected land, close to the ferry and the railway, and the Bay Street corridor rezoning opened more room for mixed-use and apartment development along that spine. Corner lots, underused storefront buildings and parking lots near Bay Street can be worth more than their current use suggests.

Elsewhere, value often comes from restoring a historic house, converting a dated two-family into well-run rental units, or carefully building on an oversized lot within Hillsides and Natural Area rules. We look at each property for what it is today and what it could realistically become. See what we buy.

Your Options

Your Options for Selling on the North Shore

Listing With a Broker

Listing can make sense for an updated, vacant house with legal units and clean records, and some North Shore buyers specifically seek out historic homes near the ferry. Expect commissions, inspections, appraisals and lender timelines, and know that houses needing major work or with tenants often narrow the buyer pool.

Renovating or Developing Yourself

Restoring a Victorian, legalizing a unit or building on Bay Street can add value, but it means Department of Buildings filings, possible Landmarks Preservation Commission review, special district rules and time. It suits owners with capital and experience.

Selling Directly to Us

We make one written offer, with no repairs, no showings and a closing date you choose. We buy with tenants, estates, violations and landmark constraints. You trade some potential upside for certainty and simplicity. Start on our sell your property page.

How It Works

How Selling to Us Works

• Send the address and a few details by form, phone or email
• We respond within one business day and research zoning, records and comparables
• We visit once, at a time that suits you, your tenants or whoever holds the keys
• You receive a written offer with no obligation
• You choose the closing date and we work with your attorney

Your sale stays private, with no online listing and no sign on the house.

Market Context

The North Shore Market Today

The North Shore draws buyers who want a house with character close to the ferry, and investors who see the Bay Street corridor and the rezoned waterfront as long-term opportunities. At the same time, older housing, more tenant-occupied buildings, landmark rules and higher repair costs mean many North Shore properties do not fit neatly into a standard mortgage-financed sale.

A direct buyer does not depend on an appraisal or a buyer’s loan approval. We make an offer based on the property and its potential and explain how we got there. If you want to compare it with a listing, we encourage that.