140 Nassau Street (The Morse Building)

Fourteen stories and a penthouse on an irregular corner lot of roughly 5,960 square feet, with about 73,400 square feet of residential floor area over roughly 6,000 square feet of commercial at the base. Built FAR is about 13.3 against a current residential FAR of 10 — the building is larger than today's zoning would permit, which is typical for the block and a reason the floor plates are what they are.

The apartments are lofts in the honest sense: large-format plates, exposed brick, barrel-vaulted ceilings, arched window openings and hardwood floors, with mezzanines in some residences. Recorded designations run 2A through 15C, with A, B and C lines on most floors and combinations recorded at the upper levels (14A/B). Light and outlook depend heavily on line and floor — the Nassau and Beekman elevations are the designed ones, and the upper floors clear the surrounding low-rise commercial stock toward City Hall Park and the Brooklyn Bridge approaches.

The one landscaped amenity is the roof: Department of Buildings filings record rooftop fencing and planters installed in 2014, and management-sourced records describe the result as a landscaped panoramic terrace. It is the building's principal shared space and, in a co-op with no doorman, its social center.

A full-time superintendent, no doorman, and a small fixed-cost base spread across thirty-nine apartments plus a commercial owner-occupier at the base. At conversion the building ran two passenger elevators — one automatic, one manual — under separate service contracts, and a non-union, non-resident superintendent; both arrangements have since changed, and current staffing should be confirmed with the managing agent.

Capital posture. No audited financial statements for this cooperative were located in either the Compass offering plan library or The Roebling Research Library at the time of writing, so the capital position below is drawn from Department of Buildings filings and ACRIS rather than from financials. Recorded work includes cornice removal and replacement in fiber-reinforced polymer with a precast concrete water table (2002), lobby renovation with a sheet-metal-clad awning (2002–03), interior repairs including steel lintel beams at cracked masonry described in a 2011 filing as work at "The Morse Building," boiler and burner replacement with a new fuel oil tank and a stainless chimney liner (2011–13), a facade repair campaign with sidewalk shed and pipe scaffold (2013–16), cellar slab repairs (2015 and 2018), and the roof terrace build-out (2014). That is a consistent decade-and-a-half of envelope and mechanical work, which is what a landmarked masonry building of this age requires.

Underlying mortgage. The recorded chain runs from a consolidated East River Savings Bank first mortgage of $1,150,000 at conversion, through a long relationship with the National Consumer Cooperative Bank across 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2011 refinancings with an assignment to Fannie Mae, to a mortgage with Apple Bank for Savings recorded September 28, 2018 and a further Apple Bank consolidation and modification recorded October 28, 2021. We did not establish the current principal balance, rate, amortization or maturity from the records reviewed. Obtain them from the managing agent. For a thirty-nine-apartment cooperative, the underlying note is one of the two or three numbers that actually determine future maintenance.

Original use and date. Commercial offices, completed 1880, enlarged 1901–02.

The alteration that created residential use. The offering plan on file states that the building "is located within a C6-4 zoning district in which residential uses are permitted," and that "[b]uilding plans for conversion of the second through top floors of the Building to a multiple dwelling under Article 7-B of the Multiple Dwelling Law of the State of New York have been approved by the Department of Buildings of The City of New York." Article 7-B is the article that governs converting non-residential buildings to residential use, and it is what carried this conversion. The ground floor stayed commercial. The sponsor's scope, described in the plan, included enclosing one staircase, installing a trash compactor, refurbishing one existing elevator and carpeting the lobby.

BSA variance or rezoning. Neither. Residential use was permitted as of right in the C6-4 district; the plan records a Department of Buildings approval and no Board of Standards and Appeals action, and no rezoning. The plan also contemplates issuance of a temporary or permanent certificate of occupancy for the building before closing.

Joint Living-Work Quarters for Artists. None. JLWQA is a use category tied to particular manufacturing districts and to certification of the occupants as artists. This lot is C6-4 in the Special Lower Manhattan District, where residential use was permitted outright, and nothing in the offering plan, the Department of Buildings record or the recorded documents refers to artist certification or joint living-work quarters. The apartments were created as conventional dwelling units.

Loft Law and Interim Multiple Dwelling status. Not conclusively established. The Loft Law of 1982 exists to legalize buildings that were already occupied residentially without legal authority. This building's residential conversion was approved by the Department of Buildings and marketed under a filed offering plan in 1980, two years before that statute, and no Loft Board interim multiple dwelling record for the property was located. A filed offering and approved conversion plans do not alone establish completed lawful occupancy or exclude all historic Loft Law coverage. We were not able to query the Loft Board's own register directly. Have counsel obtain the relevant CO/TCO, occupancy history and Loft Board coverage records before reaching a conclusion.

J-51. The offering plan on file, in its June 1980 amendment, told subscribers that "[s]uch real estate taxes may be abated in part if Sponsor secures an abatement under Section J51-2.5 of the Administrative Code." The sponsor secured it. Department of Finance J-51 records for this lot show a benefit initiated in tax year 1980, with a twelve-year exemption and a 90 percent abatement computed on certified alteration costs of $553,100, later adjusted to $522,000. The abatement was drawn down at $43,500 a year and was exhausted with a final partial credit of $9,162 in tax year 1991; the exemption line, initiated in 1981, ran through tax year 1992. Both components of the J-51 have been gone for more than three decades. Nothing in current Department of Finance records shows a live building-wide benefit; the only exemptions appearing on the lot are individual shareholder benefits that do not transfer with an apartment.

421-g. It never applied. 421-g is the Lower Manhattan commercial-to-residential conversion benefit created in 1995. This building converted in 1979–80, fifteen years earlier, and its tax records show no 421-g at any point. This distinction is worth stating plainly because it cuts the other way from what buyers usually encounter downtown: nearby conversions from the late 1990s did receive 421-g and have watched it burn off, sometimes while listing copy still advertised it. At 140 Nassau the tax records show no benefit to burn off and no expiry date to model. The records show no exemption since the early 1990s, so the maintenance you see reflects the current tax; future bills still change with assessments and rates, so confirm the building's current bill.

The framework here is open by Manhattan cooperative standards. Pied-à-terre and secondary-residence ownership are permitted. Corporate purchase or lease is permitted. Co-purchasing and guarantors are permitted. Pets are permitted, two per apartment, with none in common areas including the roof. Homeowner's and renter's insurance are required. Subletting is permitted with board approval on a published fee schedule, though term limits are not published.

Not published, and therefore to be obtained from the managing agent before contract: the financing ceiling, the post-closing liquidity requirement, the debt-to-income threshold, sublet term limits, the board's treatment of trust and LLC ownership beyond the stated corporate-purchase permission, and — importantly — whether a flip tax exists. The management-sourced fee schedule omits a flip-tax line, while listing records describe 1.5 percent. Those statements are not logically incompatible: an omitted line does not prove that no fee applies. Reconcile the dated schedules with the operative proprietary lease, bylaws and valid amendments before calculating the sale cost.

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 $1,311/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. 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 3.4% 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 1-00100-0026). 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.

Landmark jurisdiction is on your window. Individual designation covers the exterior. Windows, storefront, signage and anything on the roof visible from the street require Commission review. Ask what has already been approved and what the building's standing approvals cover before you plan an alteration.

There is no abatement to phase out. J-51 expired more than thirty years ago and 421-g never applied. No benefit step-up is ahead, but future bills still change with assessments and rates. Underwrite from the current tax bill, which is simpler than the exercise required at a benefited conversion.

Get the underlying mortgage terms. We did not establish the current terms from the records reviewed. Model any refinancing alongside operating costs, taxes, reserves and planned capital work before assessing possible maintenance changes.

Resolve the flip tax question in writing. Management's schedule omits a flip-tax line and listings report 1.5 percent. Have your attorney establish the current rate, basis and payer from the dated operative documents before you sign.

Do the co-op work. Shares, a proprietary lease, a board package and an interview. The financing ceiling and post-closing liquidity expectation are not published; establish them before you offer. Run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator.

Walk the roof and the block at night. The roof terrace is the building's shared amenity and its best argument. The block itself is quiet after business hours in a way that suits some buyers and not others.

Lead with the landmark and the loft. Individual designation, 1880 construction, barrel vaults, arched windows and exposed brick are the reasons a buyer chooses this building over a Financial District condominium conversion. Photograph the ceiling volume.

Say the tax story out loud. "No abatement, none to expire" is a selling point downtown, where buyers have been trained to fear 421-g burn-offs. Put it in the materials rather than leaving it for the attorney to discover.

Market the occupancy flexibility. Pied-à-terre use is permitted, which widens your buyer pool; confirm secondary-residence and corporate purchase terms in the proprietary lease and house rules before marketing them.

Assemble the file. Current financials, the current tax bill, the underlying mortgage terms, the Landmarks status of any alteration you made, and a definitive answer on the flip tax. Model your net with the Seller Closing Cost Calculator.

If you're considering 140 Nassau Street, also evaluate:

• 55 Liberty Street (Liberty Tower) — the closest analogue in the portfolio: an individually landmarked early skyscraper converted to a cooperative, with the same trade of architecture for amenity
• 42 Ann Street (Keuffel & Esser Company Building) — an individually landmarked 1893 building two blocks south, converted to a small condominium; the condominium alternative and a useful contrast on abatement history
• 3 Hanover Square (Cotton Exchange Building) — downtown office-to-cooperative conversion in a historic building
• 130 Fulton Street (The Fulton Building) — the nineteenth-century Fulton Street conversion nearby
• 119 Fulton Street (Fultonhaus) — small Fulton Street conversion condominium
• 111 Fulton Street — larger Fulton Street loft-format condominium
• 99 John Street — the large John Street office-to-residential conversion; the volume alternative
• 5 Beekman Street (The Beekman Residences) — nearby Beekman residences; distinguish their construction and services from the historic Temple Court building when comparing
• Southbridge Towers — the former Mitchell-Lama cooperative immediately east; the value comparison in the same catchment
• 25 Broad Street (The Broad Exchange Building) — landmark office conversion further into the Financial District