133 West 17th Street

Six floors of Class III non-fireproof loft construction, 90 feet wide and 82 feet deep, with a cellar. The 1979 conversion installed a new 2,000-pound self-service passenger elevator inside an existing masonry shaft, wet-sprinklered the public corridors behind a one-hour-rated enclosure, built a new metal-pan stair from cellar to roof plus a second cellar egress stair directly to the street, and added a masonry refuse chute and cellar compactor. The public halls were finished in wood.

The apartment plan is four units per floor, floors one through six:

• Floors 1 (1A–1D) — duplex apartments with cellar work rooms, restricted at conversion to artists' joint living-work quarters or conforming commercial and manufacturing use
• Floors 2 through 5 (A–D lines) — full loft floors, four to a floor
• Floor 6 (PHA–PHD) — each with a mezzanine equal to roughly one third of the apartment's floor area, and an exclusive-use portion of the roof

Combinations have been filed. Department of Buildings filings record a merger of apartments 5A and 5B, and a series of penthouse renovations on the sixth floor. If that work was completed, the marketed unit count runs below 24; confirm with the managing agent.

The Department of Buildings record shows a steady run of capital filings. Facade repairs with sidewalk sheds and scaffold in 2003 and 2005. Building-wide automatic smoke and heat detection with a sprinkler fire alarm system in 2016. An exterior restoration filed in 2019 — lintel and sill replacement, brick and masonry repairs, parapet cladding, railing and roof-access ladder installation, and metal fascia repair. A lobby and corridor renovation filed in 2019 covering flooring, doors, air conditioning and new lighting on every floor. A gas meter room built out in 2020. More recent filings cover sidewalk vault repair, gas piping and sprinkler work. Completion and current condition need confirming from engineering reports and board materials.

Amenities are proportionate to a 24-unit house: the shared roof recreation area, an intercom, an elevator, cellar storage, and in-apartment laundry permitted by the lease. There is no doorman and no gym. The conversion budget contemplated a non-resident superintendent handling public-area cleaning, heating and minor repairs; confirm current staffing with the managing agent.

Three legal facts govern this building, and all three are documented rather than inferred.

The BSA variance. The Board of Standards and Appeals approved the conversion on July 11, 1978 under Calendar Nos. 111-78 BZ and 112-78A. The block was M1-5 at the time. It is C6-2A today, a contextual commercial district in which residential use is permitted as of right — so the zoning constraint that necessitated the variance no longer exists in the same form.

Joint living-work quarters for artists. Under the terms of the 1978 BSA resolution, apartments 1A, 1B, 1C and 1D may be used only for conforming commercial or manufacturing uses, or as joint living-work quarters for artists. The resolution did not require purchasers of those four apartments to obtain artist certification from the Department of Cultural Affairs, but the sponsor required affidavits of intent to occupy them as artists' quarters, and the proprietary lease as drafted carries the same restriction. The plan itself notes that the proprietary lease may be amended by shareholder vote. Given the subsequent rezoning to C6-2A, whether and how the 1978 restriction still binds those four apartments is a question for counsel — the current certificate of occupancy and the proprietary lease as amended govern, and both should be pulled at offer stage if a first-floor duplex is in play.

J-51. The offering plan projected that benefits would begin July 1, 1979, with exemption running to June 30, 1991 and abatement calculated on a certified reasonable cost estimated at $210,000. The Department of Finance roll records what actually happened: an abatement initiated in the second quarter of 1979 on a twelve-year term at 90 percent, on a certified alteration cost of $492,100 — more than double the plan's estimate — plus a separate twelve-year exemption initiated in 1980, with benefits carried on the roll through tax year 1994. Where the plan and the roll disagree, the roll is the record of what was granted. Either way the benefit is fully expired and has been for three decades.

Loft Law. The building was legalized by variance in 1978 and cooperatively owned from 1979, before Article 7-C took effect in 1982, and no Department of Buildings filing on the property carries a Loft Board designation. Interim Multiple Dwelling status does not appear to apply.

The policy stack here is unusual in shape, and worth reading closely before you make an offer.

Primary residence only. The corporation compliance letter that every purchaser signs states that the apartment will be used solely as a primary residence. This is a primary-residence house — pied-à-terre buyers should look elsewhere.

Board package and interview. One original and six copies of the package go to the managing agent, with a purchase application per purchaser, the shareholder's application to transfer shares, a $50 per-applicant credit inquiry fee and a $350 application fee. After verification the package goes to the board and an interview is scheduled. Closing takes place at the managing agent's office no sooner than one week after approval.

Financing. No maximum financing percentage appears in the documents on file — a live question, since most Chelsea loft co-ops publish one. If financing, the package requires the mortgage application, the loan commitment letter and three original recognition agreements. Establish the current financing ceiling and any post-closing liquidity standard with the managing agent before you write an offer; neither is published.

Fee stack. No percentage flip tax appears in the documents on file. At closing the seller pays a $750 transfer fee to the managing agent, a $2,000 administration fee to the corporation, a $500 non-refundable move-out fee and a $500 refundable move-out deposit. The purchaser pays $150 for recognition-agreement processing if financing, a $500 non-refundable move-in fee and a $500 refundable move-in deposit. These amounts come from the board package on file and should be reconfirmed.

Subletting, trusts and entities. A sublet policy and an alterations policy both exist and are referenced in the documents; their terms are not stated in what is on file. Trust and LLC ownership is likewise unaddressed in the documents on file. In a 24-unit primary-residence cooperative, assume the board takes these case by case and ask directly.

In-unit laundry. Permitted by the proprietary lease without prior written consent. Worth knowing when comparing against buildings that require board approval and a wet-over-dry review for every machine.

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 (2025) cleared a median $1,629/sf (floor-adjusted) across 3 sales. 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 0.0% from the last ask.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00793-0020). 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.

Underwrite the apartment line, not the building average. A first-floor duplex with a cellar work room, a mid-floor loft, and a sixth-floor mezzanine penthouse with roof rights are three different products in the same corporation.

Pull the certificate of occupancy if you are buying 1A through 1D. The 1978 artists'-quarters restriction is real, it is written into the proprietary lease, and it interacts with a zoning change that came later. Your attorney should resolve it before contract.

Establish the unwritten policy stack early. Financing ceiling, post-closing liquidity, sublet terms, and the board's posture on trusts and guarantors are none of them published. Run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator against a conservative assumption, then confirm with the managing agent. Note that primary residence is a screen rather than a formality — a signed compliance letter to that effect is part of the closing file.

Ask for the underlying mortgage and reserve position. The 1979 blanket mortgage was $725,000 with a balloon and has been refinanced several times since. The current underlying loan, its maturity, and the reserve balance are the numbers that matter most in a 24-unit house, and they live in the audited financials.

Lead with the physical facts that survive diligence — ceiling height, column and beam condition, window count and exposure, and on the sixth floor, mezzanine square footage and roof allocation.

Document the building's capital record. Filings for a 2016 sprinkler and detection installation, a 2019 exterior restoration and a 2019 lobby and corridor renovation should be accompanied by completion sign-offs and current condition reports for buyer review, without assuming what every attorney requests or how often small co-ops omit them.

Be plain about the fee stack. Flat fees rather than a percentage flip tax is a selling point in a market where 1 to 3 percent flip taxes are common. Say so, with the amounts. And screen buyers for package strength before accepting an offer — this is a small primary-residence cooperative with a real interview. Run the Renovation Cost Calculator if the apartment is in estate condition.

If you're considering 133 West 17th Street, also evaluate:

• 121 West 17th Street — the closest true comparable: a cooperative on the same tax block, converted in the same era
• 154 West 18th Street — another Block 793 cooperative conversion, through the block to the north
• 113 West 17th Street — the condominium alternative on the same block
• 151 West 17th Street — condominium a few doors west, toward Seventh Avenue
• 144 West 18th Street — mid-block condominium conversion on the same block
• 100 West 18th Street — Sixth Avenue-corner condominium on Block 793
• 63 West 17th Street — the same street, east of Sixth Avenue, at the Flatiron edge
• 111 West 16th Street — one block south, similar boutique scale