136 Baxter Street (The Machinery Exchange)
136 Baxter Street, New York, NY 10013
Little Italy
BBL 1002357501 · BIN 1087870
- Year built
- 1915
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 12
- Floors
- 7
- Landmark
- No
- Pets
- Not documented in the records located for this page — confirm with the managing agent
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
- $2,097
- Listing discount
- 2.6%
- Recorded sales
- 34
- On record
- 2008–2025
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 prices as a loft rather than as a serviced condominium, and its operating budget is correspondingly light.
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 covering stucco and stone patching indicates the exterior maintenance cycle has been running normally.
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.
For twelve residences that structure keeps common charges low relative to serviced condominium inventory in SoHo and Tribeca, and it is a large part of why this building's carrying cost reads the way it does. The trade-off is that a small denominator carries every capital project, and a twelve-unit condominium in a 1915 masonry building has real exposure to façade cycles, roof, elevator and boiler with no staff structure to absorb the disruption. 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: All permitted under the standard condominium framework. Minimum lease terms for subletting should be confirmed with the managing agent.
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.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $1,046/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $7
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 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 record last verified 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. Per-square-foot is the correct unit of analysis, and it will read materially below comparable loft plates in SoHo proper and in Tribeca — the discount is the address, the absence of an attended lobby and the small size of the building, not the quality of the space.
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. With twelve residences a building average is close to meaningless; line-and-floor analysis indexed to the last complete year is the only honest approach. Trading has been steady rather than heavy since the 2008 sellout — and because sponsor closings ran straight into the 2008–2009 credit dislocation, the earliest recorded prices are not a useful baseline for anything. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
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 | 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 | off-mkt |
| 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 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) 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
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 full taxes. No abatement has ever applied here. The monthly number is the number.
The corner is not a detail. Two exposures versus one is the largest variable in the building after floor level.
Read the reserve position. Twelve units in a 111-year-old masonry building means every façade, roof or mechanical project lands hard. Ask what has been done, what is scheduled and what is funded.
Understand what you are not buying. No doorman, no gym, no roof deck, no garage. That is priced in and it is why the carrying cost works — and it is permanent, because a twelve-unit building is not going to add staff.
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.
Price against loft product, not against serviced condominiums, and use floor-specific comparables indexed to the last complete year rather than a building average.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering The Machinery Exchange, also evaluate:
- 123 Baxter Street — condominium on the same street a block north; the nearest 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
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Greenwich Village — read The Roebling Team Guide to Greenwich Village.
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.
Considering a move at The Machinery Exchange?
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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.