105 West 13th Street (Greenwich Towers)

The building presents as a postwar Village tower: red brick, gray granite base, setbacks at the upper floors that produce terraces on a minority of apartments. Roughly 94,100 square feet of building area sits on a 7,370-square-foot corner lot, of which about 84,100 square feet is residential and 10,000 square feet commercial. The lot is 50 feet on Sixth Avenue by 105 feet along West 13th Street, and the building fills it.

Apartments run from studios through three-bedroom configurations across the A through G lines. Combinations have been steady and are documented in Department of Buildings filings — 8F and 8G, 3F and 3G, 11C and 11D, 12F and 14F, 9A and 9B among them, most filed under the city's apartment-combination protocol. Buyers should expect that the larger apartments in the building are assembled rather than original, and should read the alteration history for any unit that has been combined. Lot-line windows on the north and east elevations were designated and replaced under a 2016 filing; a buyer relying on light from that side should confirm the lot-line status of the specific unit.

The building runs with Local 32BJ staff and a live-in superintendent, whose apartment the corporation holds as treasury stock — 220 shares acquired in 2007. Amenities are modest and honest: a central laundry room, bike storage, resident storage and rooftop access. There is no gym, no playroom and no doorman-plus-concierge tier of service in the management-sourced record; buyers looking for a full-service amenity package should calibrate expectations.

Capital posture, from the audited financial statements in The Roebling Research Library (confirm the statement year against the current set). The corporation refinanced in December 2019 with a $6,500,000 first mortgage at 3.30 percent, interest-only, maturing December 1, 2029, and took a $2,000,000 credit line at the same closing that was undrawn at the following year-end. Refinancing proceeds funded a reserve of roughly $1.9 million at that closing, a substantial reserve for a building this size at the time; ask for the current reserve balance, any draws and any later borrowing. Capitalized work disclosed in those statements included exterior restoration, window improvements, sprinkler lines, compactor repairs, commercial-space modifications and a lobby renovation.

Two assessment structures appear in the record and a buyer should ask where each stands. A short-term capital assessment of roughly 30 percent of monthly maintenance ran for six months from November 2018. Separately, the board instituted an operating assessment — initially 6 percent of maintenance, later set at $1.53 per share per month — specifically to cover the reduction in commercial income after the master lease expired; the board stated it expected to eliminate the assessment once commercial income recovered. There is also a recurring pass-through assessment tied to the shareholder real-estate-tax abatement; reconcile it against the abatement credit for the specific apartment. The corporation's governing documents do not require reserve accumulation and no formal reserve study has been performed.

The December 2029 maturity is the date to put in your diligence file. A buyer in 2026 or 2027 is buying into a building that will refinance an interest-only loan within a few years, on terms not yet known, with no amortization having reduced the principal. Ask the managing agent for the board's plan.

Board package. A demanding package by Village standards: a letter of introduction, the purchase application, the contract of sale, a completed flip-tax computation sheet, a financial statement with three months of supporting account statements, an employment verification letter with start date and salary, the most recent federal returns with W-2s and all schedules (business returns too, if self-employed), two personal and two business reference letters, a landlord or managing-agent reference, and — where financed — the loan application, appraisal, bank commitment letter and three executed originals of the recognition agreement. A board interview follows. Correspondence goes through the managing agent's transfer department, not through board members.

Financing ceiling. Not published. This is the single most important open item for a financed buyer here, and it must be settled with the managing agent before an offer.

Post-closing liquidity. No published standard. The package's demand for three months of statements across every account, plus full tax returns, tells you the board underwrites liquidity carefully even without a stated ratio.

Subletting. Prohibited without prior written board consent. Where permitted, the sublet fee is 10 percent of monthly maintenance, charged monthly for the duration.

Occupancy. The proprietary lease bars permitting non-family members to reside in the apartment for more than one month without written consent, and bars non-residential use.

Pied-à-terre, trusts and LLC ownership. None of these is addressed in the published record. Recorded transfers on this lot include a purchase into a living trust, which suggests trust ownership has been accommodated at least once, but that is inference from a single instrument, not policy. Ask the managing agent.

Flip tax. 7 percent of net profit, capped at $25,000, minimum $250, paid by the seller. Deductible categories are specified and the board has final discretion over which capital improvements qualify — improvements must be over $500, completed within 72 months, and performed under an executed alteration agreement. Sellers should assemble receipts early; the deduction schedule is where the money is.

House rules. Conventional but enforced: 80 percent floor covering in every room except kitchens, pantries, baths and foyers; no window air-conditioning units or ventilators without approval; construction noise limited to weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; dogs leashed or carried in public areas.

Recent sales

Recent transfers at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. 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. Most recent trades (2026 to date) cleared a median $1,150/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 1.9% 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 1-00609-0047). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price; square footage on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

Settle the financing ceiling first. It is not published anywhere. Get it in writing from the managing agent before you sign a contract.

Read the commercial story. The co-op took direct control of its retail spaces in 2019 and levied an operating assessment to bridge the income gap. Ask whether the assessment is still running, what the current retail rent roll looks like, and when leases expire.

Diary the December 2029 mortgage maturity. Interest-only at 3.30 percent, no amortization. Ask the board how it intends to handle the refinancing.

Check whether your apartment is a combination. Many of the larger units are. Pull the alteration history and confirm the work was done under an approved alteration agreement — it also determines what the seller could deduct from the flip tax, and what you will be able to deduct later.

You are outside the historic district. Renovation here is a Department of Buildings process only. That is a meaningful simplification relative to most of Greenwich Village.

Lead with the capped flip tax. Buyers' attorneys notice it, and it is a real number — at a $1.9 million sale this fee saves at least $13,000 against an illustrative uncapped 2 percent charge of $38,000. The saving is exactly $13,000 only if net profit under the building's fee schedule makes the $25,000 cap bind; otherwise it is larger.

Build the flip-tax deduction schedule before you list. Original purchase price, attorney and transfer-agent fees, commission, both transfer taxes, and qualifying capital improvements from the last 72 months with invoices attached. Board discretion is final; a clean schedule protects the number.

Assemble the board package early. Two personal and two business references, a landlord reference, full tax returns and three months of statements across every account. Buyers who start late lose weeks.

Be straight about the assessment. The operating assessment has a stated purpose and a stated exit. Explaining it is stronger than having a buyer's attorney find it in the financials.

If you're considering 105 West 13th Street, also evaluate:

• 175 West 13th Street — the Cambridge, at the Seventh Avenue end of the same tax block; architect not determined in LPC's record
• 141–145 West 13th Street — Village Mews, the 1846 church conversion on the same block, inside the Greenwich Village Historic District; the landmark-status counterpoint
• 118 West 13th Street — directly across the street on the adjoining tax block
• 65 West 13th Street — a loft-conversion condominium between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
• 60 West 13th Street — Village House, a postwar condominium on the same corridor
• 116 West 14th Street — the 14th Street alternative one block north
• 525 Sixth Avenue — the nearest Sixth Avenue cooperative peer
• 101 West 12th Street — larger full-service postwar cooperative one block south
• 50 West 15th Street — Chelsea-edge cooperative alternative
• 175 West 12th Street — Century Towers, a postwar condominium in the same pocket