Superman’s supposed Brooklyn Heights apartment is now a $5M condo

The Man of Steel was said to have lived in the Standish—though in the comics, it was in Metroplis, not New York

Brooklyn Heights's Standish Arms Hotel has been a neighborhood fixture for more than a century now, first as—duh—a hotel, then as one of the many pieces of real estate owned by the Jehovah's Witnesses, then as a high-end rental building. Now, it's in the process of yet another transformation: Developers DDG and Westbrook Partners are turning the building into the Standish, a 29-unit condo.

The building launched sales last year, and one of its apartments has a rather fun backstory. The building, you see, provided the inspiration for Clark Kent's residence—the Standish Arms Apartments—in the early Superman comics. The Man of Steel supposedly lived on the fifth floor of the building, and as luck would have it, one of that floor's units is on the market for $4.985 million. (Another went into contract for close to $5 million—not exactly a price that newspaperman Clark Kent would have been able to afford.)

The apartment itself has been listed for a while, and in fact got a price bump earlier this year. It's a 2,914-square-foot four-bedroom, three-bathroom (and one powder room) pad, and like the other apartments in the building, it's been given a modern makeover. There's custom cabinetry, a 41-foot great room, a marble-covered bathroom with a rain shower, and a huge master suite, but some of its vintage elements—namely two huge bay windows—remain.

Amenities for the building include a fitness center, kids' playroom, and a landscaped roof deck (the better to help one leap tall buildings in a single bound, perhaps?). In addition to the Superman pad, there are three other apartments currently up for grabs, all through Corcoran. Alas, there are no photos of this particular unit, so pictures of the model residence—seen here—and floorplan, below, will have to suffice.

• Listing: 171 Columbia Heights, #5B [Corcoran]
• The Standish [Official]