102 East 22nd Street (Gramercy Arms)

Ten stories of red brick over a terra-cotta base, with a setback penthouse level above, on a hundred-foot frontage. The Art Deco program is concentrated in the polychrome terra-cotta bands and the three-story piers; interiors retain the prewar vocabulary of the period — beamed ceilings, hardwood floors, arched openings, entry galleries.

Roughly 68,000 square feet of residential area across ninety-two apartments works out to an average near 740 square feet, which tells you the mix honestly: this was built as a building of studios, one-bedrooms and small two-bedrooms, lettered A through I on most floors. What has changed is the top of the range. Two decades of combinations have produced a second tier of larger homes — 9ABC, 11A/11B, 2AB, the paired D/E and B/C lines on several floors — and those trade at a multiple of the small-line pricing. Penthouse-level apartments carry terraces; a 2010 filing records exterior masonry repair at the terrace of 11E, and a 2017 filing added side-mounted guardrails at the main roof parapet.

Institutionally financed and consistently maintained. The exterior record shows masonry reconstruction in 2006, facade repairs with sidewalk shed and pipe scaffold in 2012, exterior brick repair in 2014, further masonry wall repairs in 2015, the courtyard reconstruction and accessible ramp in 2015, a lobby renovation with new lighting, finishes and entry doors in 2016, roof-parapet guardrails in 2017, ordinary facade maintenance in 2020, and a further shed and scaffold cycle running 2020 into 2021. That is the profile of a building working through Local Law 11 cycles on schedule rather than deferring them.

The underlying mortgage is in the public record and has grown with the capital program. The corporation placed $2,650,000 plus a $500,000 line with a cooperative lender in May 2005, consolidated to $3,250,000 in June 2013, and consolidated again to $3,800,000 in August 2019 with a new gap note of roughly $805,500. Across ninety-two apartments that is moderate leverage, but the maturity matters: get it. The audited financial statements will show reserves, the maintenance base and any assessment history, and we obtain them for clients at offer stage rather than characterizing them from recorded documents.

Sponsor-affiliated shares appear to remain. ACRIS records share transfers out of an entity carrying the sponsor's name — Gramercy Concourse LLC — as recently as April 2019 and November 2024. Thirty-seven years after conversion, that suggests a residual block of unsold shares still working its way out, which is common in 1980s conversions and carries specific consequences: possible rent-regulated holdover tenancies, a different voting posture, and lender scrutiny of sponsor concentration. Ask the managing agent directly how many unsold shares remain and how many apartments are rented.

This lot has an unusually long J-51 record, and all of it is spent.

• An initial benefit with an initial year of 1967, twelve-year term at a 75 percent abatement rate, against $17,800 of certified alteration cost — capital work done while the building was still a rental.
• A benefit with an initial year of 1983, ninety percent rate, against $33,200 of cost, exhausted in tax year 1994.
• A benefit with an initial year of 1990 — the cooperative's post-conversion capital program — ninety percent rate, against $103,500 of certified cost, running fourteen years and exhausted in tax year 2001.
• A final benefit with an initial year of 1997, ninety percent rate, against $13,400 of cost, exhausted in tax year 2007.

Nothing remains. The last J-51 credit against this lot was taken in 2007. The modest exemption still carried on the current roll — roughly $217,000 against a total assessment near $10.9 million — appears in DOF's exemption detail as individual benefit lines held in the cooperative corporation's name rather than as a building-wide abatement, which is how shareholder-level exemptions are recorded on a co-op lot. For underwriting purposes, treat the maintenance you are shown as an unsubsidized number with no cliff ahead of it.

None of this building's house policies are published. The 1987 offering plan is not in our library; the policy stack must come from the managing agent. Obtain the following, in writing, before offering: financing ceiling and minimum down payment; post-closing liquidity requirement, usually a multiple of maintenance plus debt service and often the binding test rather than debt-to-income; sublet policy — seasoning, term cap, fee, renewal practice, which in a building with this much turnover is a live question; flip tax — existence, base, rate, and which side pays; pied-à-terre policy, and how it has been applied in practice rather than how it reads; and trust, LLC and co-purchase rules. The recorded transfer history shows shareholders conveying into revocable trusts in 2021, 2023 and 2026, and estates conveying to beneficiaries, so trusts and estate transfers are evidently workable — but the board's current written policy governs. The board package and interview are the gate; budget six to ten weeks from accepted offer to closing.

If a combination is part of your plan, ask the same questions again in that context. Two dozen combinations have been approved here since 2000, which is strong evidence the board entertains them, but the alteration agreement, the engineering requirements and the board's current appetite are things to establish before you buy two apartments.

Recent sales

Recent transfers at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.

Market read. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2023): a median $1,074/sf across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2026. Median listing discount 2.3% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00877-0084) and verified listing data. Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified by The Roebling Team research desk. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price.

Ask about unsold shares before anything else. Sponsor-named share transfers appear in the record as recently as November 2024. The count of remaining unsold shares and rented apartments affects your lender, the board's economics and the building's regulatory posture.

Comp within your pool. A combined 9ABC and a single-line studio are the same building and not the same market. Insist on line-level comparables.

The J-51 series is gone, and that is good news. The last credit was taken in 2007. There is no burn-off ahead. Confirm the current maintenance and run the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator against it.

Underwrite the underlying mortgage and the facade cycle together. $3.8 million consolidated in August 2019, against a documented and ongoing Local Law 11 program. Get the maturity, the rate, the reserve balance and the most recent facade filing status from the financials.

It is not landmarked, and neither is most of this block. The Gramercy Park Historic District line clips only the corner. Window replacement and exterior work go to DOB, not to LPC — a meaningful cost and timeline difference from the park-front buildings.

Verify the BBL. 139 East 23rd Street is a different tax block. A separate cooperative several blocks south also uses the name Gramercy Arms. Check block 877, lot 84 on the contract.

Lead with the courtyard and the terra cotta. The forecourt entrance and the polychrome Art Deco banding are the building's differentiators against the postwar inventory a few blocks east, and buyers respond to them in person more than in photographs.

Price to your line, and prove it. With this much in-building turnover you can support an asking price with the building's own record. Do that rather than reaching for park-front comparables.

Say the abatement history is closed. "Last J-51 credit taken in 2007, nothing pending" is a clean answer to the question every prewar co-op buyer asks.

Document the capital record. Courtyard reconstruction, lobby renovation, repeated facade cycles and roof guardrails are all in the DOB file. Provide the financials and let a buyer's attorney verify them.

If your apartment is a combination, market the plan, not the letters. Buyers do not know what 5DE means. They know what a real two-bedroom with a dining room means.

If you're considering 102 East 22nd Street, also evaluate:

• 121 East 22nd Street — the nearest East 22nd Street ownership alternative; the new-development contrast
• 205 East 22nd Street — East 22nd Street cooperative east of Third Avenue; the value comparison
• 4 Lexington Avenue and 7 Lexington Avenue — the immediate Lexington Avenue neighbors at the top of this block
• 1 Lexington Avenue — Gramercy Park North corner; the park-front step up
• 151 East 20th Street and 230 East 20th Street — Gramercy prewar cooperatives of comparable scale
• 112 East 19th Street and 105 East 19th Street — the smaller, quieter East 19th Street houses
• 200 East 21st Street and 250 East 21st Street — the postwar alternatives one block south
• 139 East 23rd Street — a separate building on tax block 879; listed here so it is not mistaken for this one