133 Second Avenue (The Theatre Condominium)

The building is a five-story masonry corner at Second Avenue and St. Marks Place, with a full commercial base and residences above. It has 5,748 square feet of land and roughly 20,600 square feet of building area, of which about 9,000 is retail and about 11,600 residential — so the commercial half of the building is nearly as large as the residential half, which is why the condominium's structure gives the commercial unit as much weight as it does.

The eleven residences run across the upper floors as full-floor and part-floor homes. A 2006 alteration, filed two years before the conversion, created mezzanines with additional bathrooms in two third-floor apartments, so some of the inventory reads as double-height or duplexed rather than as a flat plate. Ceiling condition, light and exposure vary sharply by floor and by corner, and the Second Avenue and St. Marks Place elevations are two very different acoustic environments.

Because the immediate neighbors to the north — the Ottendorfer Library and the Stuyvesant Polyclinic — are individually designated New York City landmarks that cannot be demolished or materially enlarged, the north-facing light and air here are effectively protected by someone else's landmark designation rather than by this building's own. That is a real and durable advantage, and it is the sort of thing that does not show up in a listing.

This is a small self-contained condominium rather than a serviced building. There is an elevator, a common roof garden governed by its own posted rules, and a video intercom per listing records; there is no doorman, no live-in super, and no amenity program. Operating costs are correspondingly low, but so is the denominator: eleven residential units share the residential common charges, and any capital event — roof, façade, elevator modernization, Local Law 11 cycle — lands on a very small group.

Prospective buyers should read the current operating budget and reserve position rather than the common charge alone, and should specifically ask how the residential and commercial units share building-wide costs. The financial statements and operating budget on file in The Roebling Research Library provide the baseline; the current versions should come from the managing agent.

Ownership form: Condominium. Resales close through the board's right of first refusal rather than a cooperative-style approval, which produces a fast and predictable closing timeline.

Pets, pied-à-terre, subletting, LLC, trust and foreign ownership: All operate under the standard condominium framework. The building's house rules and roof-garden rules are the governing constraints and are on file; the current versions should be obtained from the managing agent, together with any minimum lease term.

Real estate taxes: No exemption or abatement appears on any residential unit lot in DOF's records. Underwrite the full unabated tax on the specific unit from day one. There is no J-51 in this building's record and none is referenced in the offering plan on file.

Flip tax: Not documented in public records. Confirm any resale capital contribution before pricing a sale.

Commercial unit rights: The sponsor retained the Commercial Unit under the plan with broad use and subdivision rights, and certain amendments to the declaration, by-laws and rules require the commercial unit owner's consent. Have your attorney read the declaration on this point specifically.

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.

Market read. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $1,667/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 2.6% 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 1-00464-7503) 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.

The building is not landmarked, and its neighbors are. The Ottendorfer Library and the Stuyvesant Polyclinic next door are individual landmarks; this tax lot carries no designation and sits outside the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District. That is good for your north light and irrelevant to your own façade obligations.

Read the commercial unit provisions. The sponsor retained a large ground-floor and cellar commercial unit with broad use rights on a busy retail corner. Understand what can open below you and what the residential board can and cannot do about it.

Underwrite full taxes from day one. There is no 421-a, no J-51, no abatement of any kind. The number does not step up later, which is a genuine advantage over abated inventory — but it starts higher.

Eleven units is a small denominator. Ask for the reserve position, the last Local Law 11 cycle, and the elevator's service history before contract. A single capital event divides eleven ways.

St. Marks Place is a working corner. Test the specific apartment on a weekend night, not on a Tuesday afternoon. Second Avenue and St. Marks are two different noise profiles and the difference is worth walking.

Verify the year built for yourself. Public records, the offering plan and preservation records give four different dates. If a lender, appraiser or insurer needs a construction year, expect to have to document which one applies and why.

Lead with the building's history, accurately. The Negro Ensemble Company's years at St. Mark's Playhouse are a documented and genuinely distinguished piece of New York theater history at this address, and they are why the condominium carries the name it does. Present it as history, not as a marketing claim.

Get ahead of the tax question. Buyers comparing against abated new construction will see a higher monthly at first glance. Show the full carrying number alongside the fact that it does not step up — run the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator and put the output in front of them.

Same-building comparables are thin. With eleven residences, price by line, floor and configuration against the wider small-condominium East Village set rather than against this building's last trade.

Document the mezzanine, if you have one. Where a residence carries a mezzanine added under the 2006 alteration, the approved plans are the difference between a selling point and a diligence problem.

If you're considering 133 Second Avenue, also evaluate:

• 14 Second Avenue — small Second Avenue condominium at the southern end of the corridor; the closest peer by scale and ownership form
• 24 Second Avenue — boutique Second Avenue condominium; similar unit count and no-amenity operating model
• 170 Second Avenue — Second Avenue cooperative a few blocks north; the co-op alternative on the same avenue
• 193 Second Avenue — Second Avenue cooperative in the heart of the old Yiddish theater blocks
• 87 St. Marks Place — cooperative on the same street, east of Avenue A; the other end of St. Marks
• 45 East 7th Street — small East Village condominium one block south
• 24 East 7th Street — East Village cooperative on the same block grid
• 253 East 7th Street — boutique East Village condominium; comparable scale, further east
• 111 Third Avenue — larger full-service East Village condominium; the amenity alternative two avenues west
• 105 Third Avenue (Pear Tree Place) — Third Avenue condominium; the doorman alternative nearby
• 63 Cooper Square — new-construction East Village condominium; the modern alternative at a different price and carrying profile