136 Baxter Street (The Machinery Exchange)
136 Baxter Street, New York, NY 10013
BBL 1002357501 · BIN 1087870
- Year built
- 1915
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 12
- Floors
- 7
- Pets
- Not documented in the records located for this page — confirm with the managing agent
- Landmark status
- Not an individual landmark; not in a historic district
- NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission and City Planning records, updated February 2026
- Maximum financing
- 80% of the purchase price
- Doorman
- Requires confirmation
Every recorded sale at this building, 2008–2025
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf, 2025
- $2,097
- 1 sale
- Listing discount
- 2.6%
- Recorded sales
- 33
- On record
- 2008–2025
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at The Machinery Exchange would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.
This is a stable. That is not a figure of speech: 136 Baxter Street was built in 1915 to house horses for the police headquarters a block west on Centre Street, and its structure — heavy timber, cast iron, thick masonry, wide bays and tall floors — was designed for animals and wagons rather than for people. In 1927 it became the Grand Machinery Exchange, a warehouse trading in industrial equipment, and the painted name survives on the brick. Twelve apartments now sit inside it.
The conversion was filed in September 2005 and produced two things at once. It made the building residential, and it made it taller: the Alteration Type 1 application raised the building from six stories to seven, adding a penthouse level above the warehouse. The architect of record at DOB was Edgar Rawlings, with Ohlhausen DuBois Architects credited on the design in architectural records. The condominium subdivision was filed in April 2008 and the first deeds were recorded that September, at the exact moment the credit markets closed — which is a useful fact when reading the building's early trading history, because sellout ran through the worst window of the last twenty years.
What the conversion did not do is erase the building. Residences keep exposed brick, timber beams and cast-iron columns, ceilings in the ten-to-fourteen-foot range, and the original warehouse window openings, which are large and irregular in the way that only genuine industrial fenestration is. There is no roof deck, no gym, no garage and no attended lobby — a virtual doorman, a full-time resident manager and deeded storage cages instead. That is a deliberate proposition: the building offers loft interiors with limited services; assess prices and operating costs from dated sales and current budgets rather than infer them from the service model.
The location is the second half of the argument. Baxter at Hester is not really Chinatown, not really Little Italy and not really SoHo; it is the point where all three stop. The J, Z, N, Q, R and 6 are a two-minute walk at Canal Street, and the 4, 5, A, C and E are inside a half mile.
There is one item here a buyer must not skip. DOB has never issued a final certificate of occupancy for the conversion. The building has run on temporary certificates renewed roughly twice a year since 2012 — the most recent, a renewal without change covering twelve dwelling units, issued in August 2026. Renewed TCOs are common in small conversions and are not by themselves a defect, but they are a live condition rather than a closed one, and they can bear on financing, insurance, and a lender's willingness to fund. It belongs at the top of the diligence list.
Architecture and unit composition
The site is an irregular corner lot of roughly 4,780 square feet with about fifty feet on Baxter Street and a hundred on Hester. The building covers essentially all of it — 28,598 gross square feet by PLUTO's measure, roughly 25,000 residential and 3,500 retail. Being a corner is the most consequential architectural fact about the building: two full exposures on every floor, which is what makes the loft plates work.
The elevation is plain red brick, industrial in proportion, with wide segmental window openings sized for freight rather than for domestic light — which is exactly why they deliver so much of it. The painted Grand Machinery Exchange signage remains legible. The conversion added the seventh floor as a set-back penthouse, and a 2016 Local Law 11 job was filed for stucco and stone patching; completion and the façade's current condition need confirming.
Inside, these are loft plates rather than apartments laid out around corridors: golden pine ceilings, cast-iron columns left in place, exposed brick and beams carried through the living space, per brokerage records. Ceiling heights vary by floor the way they do in industrial buildings — the lower floors were built to take load and were built tall. The penthouse has a wood-burning fireplace, genuinely rare in downtown condominium inventory. Two commercial condominium units occupy the base.
Building operations
The building is run lean and deliberately so: a virtual doorman rather than an attended lobby, a full-time resident manager, and deeded storage cages assigned to units. No roof deck, no fitness room, no garage, no bicycle room.
The staffing model and twelve-residence count do not establish lower common charges than serviced SoHo or Tribeca buildings. Assess current budgets, reserves and planned façade, roof, elevator and boiler work, including the declaration’s allocation between residences and the two commercial units. Ask the managing agent for the current reserve balance, the most recent façade filing status, whether any assessment is live or recently concluded, and — first — the current status of the temporary certificate of occupancy and what remains outstanding to convert it to final.
Policy framework
Ownership form: Condominium. Transfers close through the board's right of first refusal rather than a cooperative approval.
Pied-à-terre, subletting, LLC, trust and foreign ownership: Not documented; confirm in the declaration, bylaws and house rules, including minimum lease terms for subletting.
Pets: Not documented in the records located for this page. Confirm the policy and any weight or breed limits with the managing agent before contract.
Minimum down payment: 20 percent per listing records.
Flip tax: Not documented in public records. Confirm any resale capital contribution with the managing agent.
Real estate taxes: No exemption of any kind appears on the unit lots in the FY2027 assessment roll. Underwrite full unabated taxes on the specific unit.
Financing and purchase requirements
- Maximum financing
- 80% of the purchase priceSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
Considering an apartment here? Send Corey the listing to discuss the building's costs and purchase requirements.
Own an apartment here? Request an apartment-specific pricing review.
Monthly carrying charges in recent sales
- Common charges + taxes, per room
- $1,000 per room a monthMedian of 3 recorded sales since October 2023Source: recorded sales, refreshed October 2026
- Common charges + taxes, per square foot
- $2.44 per square foot a monthMedian of 3 recorded sales since October 2023Source: recorded sales, refreshed October 2026
- Common charges alone, per square foot
- $1.09 per square foot a monthMedian of 3 listings since October 2023 that give the annual taxSource: listing records, refreshed October 2026
- Real estate taxes alone, per square foot
- $1.35 per square foot a monthMedian of 3 listings since October 2023 that give the annual taxSource: listing records, refreshed October 2026
Common charges plus real estate taxes, combined into one monthly figure the way New York condominium listings show them. Add a mortgage payment for the monthly outlay. The split into common charges and taxes comes from the listings that also give the annual tax, a different sample, so the two lines need not add up exactly to the combined median; a tax abatement can hold taxes below the full amount until it expires. A summary of recorded sales and listings, not a current bill; charges change.
Building staffing and amenities
- Doorman
- Requires confirmationSources differ. Confirm with building management.
- Attended lobby
- YesSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Virtual or video entry
- YesSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Live-in superintendent
- YesSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Elevator
- YesSource: NYC Department of Buildings elevator records
- Amenities noted
- StorageSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
Staffing and amenities as our building profile and recent listing records describe them. A feature not listed is not confirmed absent. Outdoor space, parking and some facilities can belong to particular apartments or to a separate owner; confirm access for the specific apartment.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $5,425/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $38
- Modeled exposure split equally across 12 units (the residential count on the city's lot record). Not an assessed amount; condominium owners are typically charged by each unit's common-interest percentage.
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City data last refreshed 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 inspector (QEWI) identified conditions requiring monitoring or repair, with repairs due by the deadline stated in the filing. 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 — a licensed professional engineer or registered architect who meets DOB’s FISP qualifications and signs the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent).
Penalties shown are amounts DOB assessed against filings on record across 2010–15 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 data last refreshed September 2026.
Recent sales
The Machinery Exchange trades as downtown loft product and should be priced against it: converted industrial buildings with genuine ceiling height, original structure and light service programs. Use total prices and per-square-foot figures where reliable, comparable areas exist. Dated sales matched for condition, layout, exposure, services and carrying costs are needed to establish any discount to SoHo or Tribeca and its possible causes.
Two features carry disproportionate weight. The first is the corner: units with both Baxter and Hester exposure are structurally different from those with one, and the difference does not average out. The second is floor and ceiling height, which vary across a four-foot band. Evaluate the dates, transaction types and apartment mix before using a building average; twelve residences alone do not make aggregates meaningless. Line and floor comparisons are useful, and the 2008–2009 sponsor prices may inform historical analysis when qualified for market conditions, incentives and unit differences rather than treated as current-value anchors. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
Recent closings 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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 21, 2025 | PHA | 3 BR · 3.5 BA · 2,575 sf | $5,400,000 | $2,097/sf | -1.8% |
| Dec 17, 2024 | 3C | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,638 sf | $3,425,000 | $2,091/sf | -3.5% |
| Apr 18, 2024 | 4AB | 4 BR · 4 BA · 2,600 sf | $4,800,000 | $1,846/sf | +1.1% |
| Aug 10, 2023 | PHB | 3 BR · 3 BA · 2,748 sf | $5,850,000 | $2,129/sf | -6.4% |
| Jul 15, 2021 | 5C | 2 BR · 1 BA · 1,750 sf | $3,500,000 | $2,000/sf | +0.0% |
| Mar 2, 2021 | 5A | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,668 sf | $2,825,000 | $1,694/sf | -4.2% |
| Jan 5, 2021 | 4A4B | 2,575 sf | $3,750,000 | $1,456/sf | — |
| Jan 4, 2021 | 5B | 2 BR · 2.5 BA · 1,601 sf | $2,600,000 | $1,624/sf | -3.5% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2025) cleared a median $2,097/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. Median listing discount 2.6% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Full closing history with price-per-square-foot over time, the complete retrade record, and every line that has traded.
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00235-7501; each condominium apartment is its own tax lot). 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.
What would your apartment rent for?
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Buying here? Condo closing costs with a mortgage typically run 3 to 6% of the price. See NYC co-op and condo closing costs, line by line.
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What to know if you’re buying
Resolve the certificate of occupancy first. The building has operated on renewed temporary certificates since 2012, most recently in August 2026, and no final certificate has ever issued under the conversion job. Have your attorney establish what is outstanding, and confirm with your lender that a TCO does not affect the loan.
Underwrite the current tax bill. The exemption roll shows no exemption on record; check the apartment's tax bill for any abatement, and expect future bills to change with assessments and rates.
The corner is not a detail. Two exposures versus one is the largest variable in the building after floor level.
Read the reserve position. The age and twelve-residence count alone do not establish the financial impact of a façade, roof or mechanical project; review its cost, reserves and allocation across residential and commercial interests. Ask what has been done, what is scheduled and what is funded.
Understand what you are not buying. No attended doorman, no gym, no roof deck, no garage — the building runs on a virtual doorman and a full-time resident manager. The service list alone does not establish its price effect, affordability or future staffing; confirm current staffing and costs in the budget and ask whether the board is considering service changes.
Check the ground floor. Two commercial condominium units sit at the base. Current tenancy, hours and venting are worth a direct question, particularly for the second floor.
What to know if you’re selling
Sell the history — it is documented and unusual. A 1915 police stable that became the Grand Machinery Exchange, signage still on the wall, is a story that survives repetition and is verifiable.
Get ahead of the certificate of occupancy. Have the current TCO, the renewal history and a clear explanation ready before the first offer. Buyers who discover it late assume the worst.
Compare relevant loft sales and adjusted alternatives. Account for floor, ceiling height, exposure, condition, service differences and sale date; serviced condominiums or appropriately qualified aggregates need not be excluded categorically.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering The Machinery Exchange, also evaluate:
- 123 Baxter Street — condominium farther south on the same street; a direct comparison by address and buyer pool
- The Police Building (240 Centre Street) — the individual landmark this building was built to serve, converted to residences; the same history, at a different scale and price tier
- 199 Mott Street — small Nolita condominium; the boutique alternative a few blocks north
- 161 Grand Street (The Solita) — Little Italy condominium; comparable scale and neighborhood seam
- 185 Grand Street (The Grand Mulberry) — Little Italy condominium; a newer-build alternative in the same catchment
- 129 Lafayette Street — loft conversion two blocks west; closer to SoHo pricing, similar building fabric
- 225 Lafayette Street — larger loft conversion on Lafayette; the full-service alternative in the same corridor
- 30 Crosby Street (The Loft) — boutique SoHo loft conversion; the closest peer by unit count and character
- 211 Elizabeth Street — small Nolita condominium; a different architectural argument at similar density
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. Where this page compares one building or neighborhood to another, that is our analysis of the recorded record — it names the measure, the period and the sample it rests on, and it is an observation about medians rather than a prediction about any particular apartment.
Considering a move at The Machinery Exchange?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
646.939.7375 · c.cohen@compass.com