116 West 29th Street

The building is a twelve-story masonry loft of the 1912 commercial type: a pier-and-spandrel front with terra-cotta ornament concentrated at the top floor, deep floor plates, and the large window openings that make these buildings worth converting. The Roebling Research Library's read of the DOB record shows envelope work filed in 2016 — a job to restore a vertical masonry crack running from the sixth to the eleventh floor and patch terra-cotta ornament at the twelfth-floor cornice, following a sidewalk shed erected the same year. A filing does not confirm completion or current condition; a shareholder should ask the managing agent whether the work was signed off and what the current facade cycle looks like.

Recorded transfers describe the apartment stock better than any published unit count does. Shares change hands under designations like 2E and 2W, 3C and 3W, 4C and 4E, 9C and 9W, 10C, 10E and 10W, and full-floor lines on the eighth and eleventh floors — an east/west/center split on the lower and middle floors resolving into whole floors above. A 2014 alteration combined two eleventh-floor apartments into one. So the practical reality is a building of half-floor and full-floor lofts, where the line and the floor level, not the room count, set value.

Modest and appropriate to the format: a part-time doorman, video intercom, and both passenger and freight elevators per listing records, with pets permitted. There is ground-floor and lower-level commercial space on the lot — city land-use records carry 13,900 square feet of retail area. Confirm who holds those commercial interests and whether rent or other payments flow to the cooperative before treating them as part of the operating budget: ask for the commercial lease terms, the expiration dates, and how the board underwrites that income when it sets maintenance.

We did not locate these policies in the records we searched, and we will not guess at them. For this cooperative, the financing ceiling, minimum down payment, post-closing liquidity expectation, flip tax structure, sublet policy, pied-à-terre posture and the treatment of trusts and LLCs are board-set and are typically found in the offering plan and the managing agent's file. Listing records report that pets are permitted and that the building has a part-time doorman; beyond that, treat every policy question as open until the managing agent answers it in writing.

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 $1,276/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. Median listing discount 3.3% 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 1-00804-0049). 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.

Get the certificate of occupancy before you get attached. The 1980–81 conversion predates the online DOB record. Nothing we can reach in the public file documents a joint living-work quarters restriction here — the alteration filings carry an ordinary residential occupancy, recorded as "RES" and, in filings from 2016 forward, R-2, and none is flagged for the Loft Board — but the certificate of occupancy is the only document that settles the question, and the managing agent has it.

Underwrite the board package as a share purchase, not a deed. You are buying stock and a proprietary lease. That means a board package, typically a board interview, and a board that can decline without giving a reason. Financing limits and post-closing liquidity requirements vary by building and lender; confirm this building's in its application instructions, and expect the board to look at liquid reserves as well as income. Run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator before you make an offer, not after — its thresholds are illustrative screening thresholds, not approval.

Ask five questions in writing. The maximum financing percentage; the flip tax and who pays it; whether subletting is permitted at all, and after what seasoning period; whether pied-à-terre and trust or LLC ownership are entertained; and whether there is a live assessment. In a building this size, any one of them can decide the deal.

Read the commercial income, and read the taxes. Confirm whether the retail space's rent flows to the cooperative and how large a line it is in the budget, and note that the J-51 benefit is long gone, with nothing left to phase out; future bills still change with assessments, rates and any other benefits.

Know what the rezoning did. The August 2025 Midtown South action changed the zoning under and around this building. Ask your attorney what M1-8A/R11 in the MSX district means for the block's development pipeline, for light and air on your exposures, and for the cooperative's own unused development rights.

Lead with the loft, and be precise about the address. The building is indexed by the city as 114 West 29 Street across a three-building tax lot. Buyers searching public records will land on the wrong record and reach the wrong conclusions about floor count and unit count. Get ahead of it: state the BIN, state the twelve stories, and explain the merged lot in the first conversation.

Correct the public record in the marketing, with sources. City land-use data records four floors for this parcel. It is wrong for this building, and a buyer's attorney will find it. Show the DOB filings that record twelve stories and the recorded transfers on the twelfth floor.

Assemble the policy stack before you list. Because we did not locate it in public records, buyers' attorneys will ask the managing agent the same questions, and each request can add time. Get the financing ceiling, flip tax, sublet policy and current assessment status in hand at listing.

Position against condominium loft product, honestly. Your buyer is cross-shopping converted-loft condominiums with lighter approval mechanics. The co-op answer is scale and basis; the board process is the cost. Say both.

If you're considering 116 West 29th Street, also evaluate:

• 46 West 29th Street — pre-war NoMad loft cooperative; the closest like-for-like on tenure and vintage
• 249 West 29th Street — 1927 Art Deco loft cooperative on the Chelsea–NoMad border
• 22 West 26th Street — pre-war loft cooperative near Madison Square Park
• 130 West 30th Street — Cass Gilbert's landmarked Assyrian Revival loft tower, converted to condominium; the landmarked alternative a block north
• 121 West 19th Street — the Lion's Head, a 1903 Chelsea loft converted to condominium; the condo-mechanics comparison
• 141 Fifth Avenue — 1897 Merchant's Bank building converted to a boutique Flatiron condominium
• 11 East 29th Street — Sky House, the full-service NoMad condominium tower; the new-construction alternative
• 118 East 29th Street — boutique pre-war condominium on the Flatiron–Rose Hill seam