140 East 28th Street

The building is a wide-lot prewar of the type Bing & Bing produced repeatedly in the early 1930s: a masonry mid-block elevation, generous window openings, thirteen stories rising to a roof deck, and a floor plate deep enough to run apartments front and back. At 98,000 square feet of residential area across 107 apartments, the average unit is compact by prewar standards — this was built as a middle-market apartment house, not a Park Avenue trophy, and the plans reflect that. There is a penthouse level at the top of the stack, and city records carry a 1989 alteration year that predates the digital filing record.

Combinations have begun. Department of Buildings filings record an interior renovation and combination of two second-floor apartments in 2026, along with a steady run of single-apartment renovations — a seventh-floor unit, a tenth-floor unit, an eleventh-floor unit, and work in the penthouse. As in most prewar co-ops where the small lines are worth more joined than separate, the physical apartment count is drifting below the recorded 107, and a floor plan from an older listing may no longer describe what exists.

The landscaped roof deck is the building's signature amenity and appears in the corporation's own capital schedule, which records roof-deck furniture among recent building improvements.

Two buildings on this tax block are easy to confuse in a data search, and they have nothing in common.

128 East 28th Street is The Luminaire — an eleven-unit condominium completed in 2021, on tax lot 7501 of the same block, with its own sponsor history including a period of pre-foreclosure distress. It is a boutique new-construction condominium: eleven units, condominium tenure, right of first refusal, contemporary construction.

140 East 28th Street is tax lot 58 on that same block: a 1931 Emery Roth prewar of 107 apartments, cooperative tenure, board approval and interview, converted in 1983, with a two-tier flip tax and a 2033 underlying mortgage. Same block, same street, nothing else shared. Search by BBL 1008830058 or BIN 1018189 rather than by street address, or the two records will run together.

Read this section before making an offer. The building is in the middle of two capital programs at once, and one of them is structural.

The exterior cycle. A sidewalk shed has been in place since a November 2023 filing. Façade repairs were filed by the corporation in August 2024, and suspended scaffold equipment for exterior repair and façade inspection was filed in August 2025, again in November 2025, and again in February 2026. Because the building carries no landmark designation, that work proceeds under Department of Buildings review alone, which simplifies scheduling but does not reduce cost.

The sub-cellar structural work. This is the less common item. Filings by the corporation in April 2025, again in January 2026, and again in April 2026 describe reinforcement of deteriorated steel column ends in the sub-cellar and cellar, together with temporary shoring and structural slab reinforcement. Steel deterioration at column bases in a 1931 building is usually a water-intrusion problem of long standing, and remediation is expensive and slow. A buyer should ask specifically what the engineer's report found, what the remaining scope is, how it is being funded, and whether it and the façade work are being carried together.

Mechanical work already completed. The corporation replaced the boiler and oil burner in 2023 and changed the fuel grade from No. 4 to No. 2 oil, installed a new gas-fired hot-water heater, and relined the masonry chimney. An elevator modernization was carried in the capital schedule of the audited financials as in progress with a further commitment outstanding. Six washers and six dryers were installed for residents' use in 2022, and the financials also record a lighting upgrade and entrance-door replacement.

How it gets paid for. The corporation has no reserve study and no governing-document requirement to fund one, holds better than $1.8 million in cash, runs a recurring per-share operating assessment, and has an undrawn $500,000 credit line and a $5 million underlying mortgage that does not mature until 2033. The financing is in place; what is not fixed is the rate, which repriced off its 3.99 percent interest-only period on May 1, 2025. Between the rate step-up and two live capital programs, the maintenance trajectory is the thing to underwrite here — not the current maintenance figure.

Flip tax — the item that most changes a seller's net. Two and a half percent of the gross sale price, reduced to one percent if the seller acquired the shares on or before July 1, 2015. This is documented in the audited financial statements on file, not inferred. A shareholder who bought in 2014 and one who bought in 2016 face materially different transaction economics on the same apartment at the same price, and any pricing conversation here should begin by establishing which side of that date the seller sits on.

Financing and board approval. Management-sourced records place the financing ceiling at 75 percent, meaning a 25 percent minimum down payment. Purchase is by board package and interview. Post-closing liquidity requirements, debt-to-income limits, guarantor and co-purchase policy, and the board's posture on trust and LLC ownership are not published for this building — they are the items that actually decide whether an application clears, and they must be obtained from the managing agent before an offer is written. The board's purchase application is on file in The Roebling Research Library and sets out what a package must contain.

Subletting. Permitted after two years of ownership, with board approval, on one-year terms, to a maximum of five years, per management-sourced records. That is a moderately permissive policy by prewar co-op standards and worth confirming in the current house rules, along with the sublet fee schedule.

Pets and pied-à-terre. Both permitted per management-sourced records; both subject to house rules and board discretion in the ordinary way.

Alterations. The corporation maintains a formal alteration agreement, on file. Anyone buying to renovate should read it before signing a contract, not after.

Recent sales

Recent transfers 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. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2025): a median $819/sf across 2 sales. The building has traded as recently as 2026. 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 1-00883-0058) 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 on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

Ask about the sub-cellar steel. This is the most consequential open item in the building. Request the structural engineer's report, the completed and remaining scope, the funding source, and whether an assessment is contemplated.

Ask what the underlying mortgage now costs. The interest-only period at 3.99 percent ended on April 30, 2025 and the loan repriced. The principal and the 2033 maturity are fixed and documented; the rate is not, and it flows straight into maintenance.

Understand the assessment as structural, not temporary. The recurring per-share operating assessment has been in place across the years on file and is deliberately timed against the city's shareholder tax-abatement refund. Model it as part of the carrying cost, and ask the managing agent how the two net out for the specific apartment.

Get the board's real requirements in writing. The 75 percent financing ceiling is published; the post-closing liquidity requirement, debt-to-income limit and guarantor policy are not, and they are what decide board packages.

There is no abatement and no reserve study. Full real-estate-tax cost is already in the maintenance, and the corporation has no funded plan for future major repairs. That is not unusual for a 1983 conversion of a 1931 building, but it should be priced in rather than assumed away.

Check the apartment against the filings. Combinations and gut renovations have been filed steadily. Confirm what physically exists before relying on any published layout.

Establish your flip tax tier first. If you acquired your shares on or before July 1, 2015, your transfer fee is one percent rather than two and a half. That difference belongs in the net-proceeds conversation at the outset, and it is a genuine advantage over a neighbor who bought later.

Lead with the pedigree, attributed correctly. Emery Roth, built by Bing & Bing, 1931. Avoid the "Emery Roth & Sons" attribution that circulates for this building — the firm did not carry that name until 1938, and a knowledgeable buyer will notice.

Have the capital narrative ready. The façade cycle, the sub-cellar structural work, the completed boiler and elevator projects, the reserve position and the 2033 mortgage maturity will all be asked about. Presenting them as a completed and in-progress program, with the reserve and credit-line position alongside, is far stronger than answering them one at a time under pressure.

Position against the block's condominium inventory honestly. The new construction on this block trades at a substantial premium with condominium flexibility. The cooperative's counterarguments are price, prewar space, full-service staffing, a roof deck and a fixed underlying mortgage. Make them explicitly.

Price to the stack, not the building. Floor, light and renovation condition drive value here more than any building-level factor. Comparables should match on all three.

If you're considering 140 East 28th Street, also evaluate:

• 137 East 28th Street — directly across the street; the closest peer on the block
• 128 East 28th Street — the eleven-unit 2021 condominium on the same tax block; the tenure-and-era contrast rather than a true comparable
• 150 East 27th Street — Gotham House, the full-service condominium alternative one block south
• 117 East 29th Street — prewar co-op comparison a block north
• 118 East 29th Street (120 Gramercy Hill) — nearby full-service alternative
• 11 East 29th Street (Sky House) — the contemporary condominium comparison for buyers testing prewar against new
• 145 Lexington Avenue (The Gramercy 145) — Lexington Avenue alternative in the same submarket
• 1 Lexington Avenue (49 Gramercy Park North) — prewar Gramercy co-op with a comparable service level
• 220 East 73rd Street (Eastgate) — a Bing & Bing / Emery Roth cooperative of the same family uptown, for buyers who want the architecture in a different neighborhood
• 230 East 73rd Street (Eastgate) — the same enclave, a slightly later building