- Year built
- 1855
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 11
- Floors
- 7
- Landmark
- No
- Pets
- Permitted. The offering plan's house rules permit dogs, cats, caged birds and fish, subject to the board's right to restrict size, weight and number
The building is older than the city data says it is, and the gap is 60 years. PLUTO carries 1915. The documentary record puts construction in 1855–56, for the music publishing house Mason Brothers — the firm run by the sons of Lowell Mason, the psalmist and music educator — which announced in December 1855 that it would move "to the capacious and elegant store now being erected for us in Duane Street, a few doors west of Broadway," and took occupancy that March. A contemporary described it as unmatched "in point of elegance in this country." What PLUTO is almost certainly dating is the rebuild that followed the fire of January 1911, when the owner added an elevator, strengthened the floors and installed electrical wiring and steam heat. Any analysis of this building that starts from a 1915 construction date starts from the wrong building.
The nineteenth-century occupancy is unusually well documented and unusually combustible. After Mason Brothers sold out in 1869 the property passed to the head of a plate-glass and mirror firm, whose looking-glass factory occupied the upper floors with a silvering department on the third. That third floor then caught fire, or nearly did, four times across five decades — a drying-drum gas explosion in 1882, a press-room fire in 1901, a backdraft in 1911 that threw firefighters down a flight of stairs, and a three-alarm shoe-and-rubber fire in 1927 that filled City Hall Park with smoke. Printers, typewriter wholesalers, hardware dealers and, for decades, shoe manufacturers cycled through the floors. The building's structure, and the repairs made to it, are a direct product of that history.
Residential use arrived in 1982, when the upper floors were converted to apartments — one on the second floor and two each on the third through fifth. That configuration lasted almost twenty years. In May 2000 the owner filed the Alteration Type 1 that produced the building as it stands: two additional stories in matching brick, designed as a neo-Romanesque Revival penthouse that reads as part of the original elevation, bringing the building to seven stories, 85 feet and eleven dwelling units. That job was not signed off until May 2012 — twelve years from filing.
The condominium came at the end of that sequence, and it came as a non-eviction plan. The offering plan was accepted for filing on May 20, 2011 and expressly governs the rights of rent-stabilized and rent-controlled tenants in occupancy at the time, non-purchasing tenants and their successors. Eleven residences and two ground-level commercial units were offered; two further cellar commercial units were held back. Unit deeds ran from June 2012 into April 2013, and the residences have traded steadily in the open market since. This is a converted rental, and the conversion mechanics still matter — a buyer should confirm with the managing agent whether any non-purchasing tenancy remains in place.
Architecture and unit composition
The lot runs roughly 49 feet along Duane Street to a depth of 100 feet, with a building footprint about 49 by 87 feet and roughly 31,300 square feet of zoning floor area. The base is the original cast-iron storefront of fluted Corinthian columns and wide double doors. Above it, four brick floors are organized as two stacked pairs of two-story arched bays, separated by a brownstone cornice and finished with a stepped corbel table — a brick-fronted variant of the Duane Street loft type, in a district where most of the surviving fabric is stone or iron.
The penthouse addition sits above that, two stories of matching brick in a neo-Romanesque Revival idiom. It is the reason the building reads as seven stories today when Department of Finance records for the pre-conversion lot still showed five.
Residences occupy floors two through the penthouse. Department of Finance sizes them from roughly 1,096 to roughly 4,000 square feet, with the largest carried as an open loft. The upper residences include terraces. Two owners hold adjacent unit lots, which is common in loft buildings where floors were split and later recombined; a buyer should establish from the floor plan and the recorded schedule which lots a given residence actually comprises. The oversized arched window openings on the Duane Street front are the defining interior feature on the original floors.
Building operations
The building runs lean by design. The offering plan discloses a non-resident superintendent, on the express basis that a condominium of fewer than thirteen residential units is not required to keep one on site, and contemplates owners engaging a part-time superintendent for at least twenty-five hours per week. Two elevators are under service contract. Common electricity covers hallways, cellar and sub-cellar, mechanical systems and the elevators; unit electricity is separately metered. There is no doorman, no amenity program and no staffed lobby.
The capital record shows the ordinary Tribeca loft cadence — sidewalk shed and pipe scaffold cycles in 2002, 2011 and 2016, a boiler installation in 2013, and repeated interior alteration filings at unit level. Two items deserve direct questions at diligence. First, the offering plan disclosed that the property held a temporary certificate of occupancy arising from the penthouse work, with the sponsor undertaking to obtain a permanent certificate within two years of the first closing; a 2016 Alteration Type 1 then amended the certificate again for a change of use in the cellar. Confirm the current certificate-of-occupancy status before contract. Second, four of the fifteen unit lots are commercial or storage lots in tax class 4, and their common-charge share and capital participation sit inside the same condominium as the residences.
Policy framework
Ownership form: Condominium. Purchases close through a right of first refusal rather than a cooperative board approval.
Pets: Permitted under the offering plan's house rules — dogs, cats, caged birds and fish — with the board reserving the right to restrict size, weight and number.
Subletting: Permitted. Short-term rentals and Airbnb are not permitted. Smoking is not permitted.
Pied-à-terre, corporate purchase and corporate lease: All permitted per management-sourced records.
Post-closing liquidity: Required per management-sourced records — an unusual requirement in a condominium and worth quantifying with the managing agent before you write an offer.
Insurance: Homeowner's insurance and renter's insurance are both required.
Flip tax: None. The plan provides that no transfer fee is payable to the board or the managing agent, apart from the working-capital contribution of two months' common charges due at closing.
Real estate taxes: No exemption or abatement appears on the residential unit lots in the FY2027 roll, and no J-51 grant appears for this lot in the Department of Finance's historical J-51 file. Underwrite full unabated taxes.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- Per unit / month range
- —
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
See full Local Law 97 analysis — emissions history, scenarios, methodology →Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available filing classified the facade as SWARMP — Safe With A Repair and Maintenance Program: the engineer identified conditions requiring monitoring or repair before the next inspection cycle. The scope, timeline, and how the building funds the work are building-specific — we review the filings and board materials for you.
How to read this, and where it comes from
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — the licensed engineer the city requires to sign the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent).
Penalties shown are amounts DOB assessed against filings on record across 2015–20 to 2020–25. The FISP dataset does not record whether they were paid, contested or remain open, so treat the figure as history rather than a current balance and confirm the building’s standing with the managing agent.
Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
Recent sales
Recent closings 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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 26, 2012 | 4RW | 1,265 sf | $1,150,000 | $909/sf |
| Jun 25, 2012 | 1 | 3,228 sf | $1,545,375 | $479/sf |
| Jun 6, 2012 | 3 | 4,000 sf | $2,749,275 | $687/sf |
Market read. Most recent trades (2012) cleared a median $687/sf across 3 sales.
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00150-7504) 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; square footage from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.
What to know if you’re buying
Confirm the certificate of occupancy. The offering plan disclosed a temporary certificate arising from the penthouse addition, with a sponsor undertaking to obtain a permanent one. A 2016 alteration amended it again. Get the current document.
This was a non-eviction conversion. Ask the managing agent whether any non-purchasing tenancy from the 2011 plan remains, and in which unit. It is a routine question with a material answer.
Ignore PLUTO's 1915. The building dates to 1855–56. Age matters for structure, for insurance and for how you read the capital plan.
The building has no resident staff. That is disclosed in the plan and is the reason common charges look attractive. Price the trade-off honestly.
Establish which lots a residence comprises. Several owners hold adjacent unit lots. The recorded schedule, not the floor plan, is the controlling document.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the plate and the light. Full-floor and half-floor lofts with oversized arched openings on a block that is otherwise not landmarked is a specific, findable proposition.
Correct the year built. Buyers pulling city data will see 1915 and price a different building. The 1855–56 Mason Brothers provenance is both accurate and a genuine differentiator on this block.
Be direct about staffing and taxes. No resident super and no abatement. Sophisticated Tribeca buyers will find both; presenting them alongside the low common charges produces a better outcome than letting them surface late.
Price against loft conversions, not towers. The comparable set is the small converted loft condominiums of the Duane and Reade Street grid.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 108–110 Duane Street, also evaluate:
- 66 Reade Street — separate condominium on the same tax block, inside the Tribeca South Historic District; the landmarked alternative next door
- 134 Duane Street (Main Duane) — converted Duane Street loft condominium a block west
- 137 Duane Street — small Duane Street loft ownership at comparable scale
- 142 Duane Street — Duane Street loft building held as a cooperative; the tenure alternative on the same street
- Duane Park Lofts (166 Duane Street) — larger converted loft condominium at Duane Park
- 100 Reade Street — Reade Street loft conversion one block north
- 10 Leonard Street — boutique Leonard Street loft condominium
- 24 Leonard Street — small Tribeca loft condominium with similar economics
- 108 Leonard Street (The Clock Tower) — the full-service landmark alternative at much larger scale
- 105 Chambers Street — nearby converted loft ownership south of Duane
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Tribeca — read The Roebling Team Guide to Tribeca.
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent.
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