140 West 10th Street

Berger & Baylies drew the two buildings as a near-unified composition in red brick with brownstone and terra-cotta trim. Per historical records, the brickwork runs across both without a seam. Continuous stone bandcourses and shallow projecting end bays tie the two together, with terra-cotta spandrel panels between the third and fourth floors, portrait keystones over the fourth-floor windows and brick-and-stone arches over the central fifth-floor openings. The design splits at street level and at the roofline. No. 140 has double doors inside a stone portico at the top of a stoop. No. 138 has a single door set between two wooden storefronts; LPC notes the building was designed from the start with shops on the ground floor. Each building has its own bracketed cornice. Historical records describe both façades, storefronts included, as surviving substantially intact.

Recorded share transfers name apartments by floor, front or rear, and east or west (3FE, 5RW and so on), which reflects the four-per-floor plan. At least one combination is in the record: the two rear apartments on the third floor were sold together in 2014 and now transfer as a single apartment. ACRIS also records a 2005 share transfer of first-floor commercial space, which indicates that at least part of the retail is held inside the cooperative. Whether all of the commercial space is corporation-owned or shareholder-owned is not documented here. Ask the managing agent.

Façade and roof. DOB records a sidewalk shed for façade repair on both buildings in 2007, and a 2008 permit for exterior façade and roof-level repairs covering Nos. 138 and 140 together. The DOB filing notes that the two share one block and lot. Local Law 11, the city's façade inspection program, applies to buildings taller than six stories. At five stories these two are outside it, and neither has a façade inspection filing on record. Buyers should still ask when the brick, brownstone and terra-cotta trim were last surveyed. In a landmarked building that work runs through LPC.

Debt. ACRIS records underlying mortgage instruments from 1996 through 1999 and a satisfaction of record in 2015. We found no mortgage recorded on the lot since then. That suggests the corporation may carry no underlying mortgage, which would be unusual and worth confirming. A line of credit or an unrecorded facility would not show up in this search. Ask for the most recent audited financial statements.

Tax. Department of Finance history shows a J-51 exemption begun in 1962 on a 12-year schedule, visible through the 1973 tax year. Nothing has replaced it. Current abatement records carry the cooperative abatement for eligible shareholders.

Sponsor position. Not documented. Recorded share transfers since 2004 cover about twenty different apartments sold to different buyers, which is the pattern of an open-market cooperative. We have not seen a schedule of unsold shares.

Recent sales

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00610-0048) 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.

This is a share purchase. Expect a board package, an interview and board discretion. The financing ceiling, minimum down payment, post-closing liquidity requirement, and the rules on purchases through a trust or LLC, co-purchasing and guarantors are not documented in anything we hold. Get them from the managing agent in writing, then run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator against your own numbers.

Ask about the flip tax, pets, sublets and pied-à-terre use before you spend money on diligence. None of the four is documented for this building.

Confirm the debt position. If the corporation carries no underlying mortgage, maintenance is carrying operations and taxes alone, and the building has room to borrow for capital work. If there is an unrecorded facility, you need its terms. Either way, the audited statements settle it.

Budget for landmark review. Window replacement and any change visible from the street requires an LPC permit. Interior renovation follows the alteration agreement and DOB.

Walk-up economics cut both ways. No elevator and no doorman keep the carrying cost down. Top-floor buyers are paying for light and quiet with the stairs.

Lead with the façade and the block. The 1887 front survives largely intact, wooden storefronts included, inside the 1969 historic district. For Village buyers that matters.

Assemble the building file before you list. No offering plan or financial statements for this building are in general circulation. The seller who can hand over current financials, the house rules, the flip-tax terms and the sublet policy gets a faster board package and fewer retrades.

Price the apartment as it exists. A combined apartment and a single apartment on the same floor are different products. Renovation condition in a tenement layout moves price more than it does in a larger prewar plan. Run the Renovation Cost Calculator before you set the ask.

If you're considering 140 West 10th Street, also evaluate:

• 281 West 11th Street — a 1901 five-story walk-up in the same historic district, converted to a 19-apartment cooperative in 1989
• 149 West 12th Street — a three-building cooperative between Sixth and Seventh Avenues; the multi-building structure in a larger form
• 126 West 11th Street — The Unadilla, a prewar Greenwich Village cooperative
• 226 West 11th Street — a seven-residence 1838 rowhouse cooperative; the smaller, older alternative
• 256 West 10th Street — Hudson Mews, a three-building cooperative on the same street, converted in 1978
• 141–145 West 13th Street — the Village Mews church-conversion cooperative in the same historic district
• 23 Greenwich Avenue — Saint Germain, the full-service cooperative around the corner opposite Jefferson Market
• 45 West 10th Street — a full-service postwar cooperative on the same street east of Sixth Avenue