141 Fifth Avenue (Merchants Bank Building)
141 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
- Year built
- 1897
- Type
- Condominium — 38 residential units per the offering plan on file
- Floors
- 15
- Landmark
- No
- Amenities
- Fitness center, common roof deck, package room, basement storage, keyed elevator access
- Pets
- Permitted per listing records
Every recorded sale at this building, 2024–2026
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Recorded sales
- 30
- On record
- 2024–2026
141 Fifth Avenue is the Flatiron district's signature residential conversion — the building whose copper-domed corner cupola anchors the Fifth Avenue and 21st Street intersection, and one of the few large-scale condominiums in the Ladies' Mile Historic District where the architecture itself is the product. Architectural histories trace the site to the 1854 mansion of banker Robert L. Cutting; after the mansion and its neighbor were sold in 1896, developer Henry Corn commissioned Robert Maynicke — among the most prolific commercial architects of the district, whose domed Sohmer Building stands two blocks north at 170 Fifth — to design an 11-story fireproof store-and-loft building. The Merchant's Bank of New York occupied the lower floors and gave the building its name. Within two years, new owner N. C. McCready had acquired the corner plot and hired Henry Edwards Ficken to extend the building to 21st Street "in the same character": Ficken raised the addition two floors, curved a cast-iron facade around the corner, and crowned it with the three-story dome that remains the building's identity.
The second act is the conversion. SL Green and Savanna Partners acquired the building in late 2005 for a reported $60 million; Savanna's affiliate, 141 Acquisition Associates LLC, filed the condominium offering plan accepted by the Department of Law on April 24, 2007 (the plan and its eleven amendments are on file in The Roebling Research Library), and CetraRuddy executed a restoration as ambitious as the conversion: the fifth-floor corner balcony removed in the 1950s was reconstructed, the stripped ground-floor ornament — Corinthian capitals, pilasters, gargoyles, and urns — was reproduced, two new floors were added invisibly above the cornice, and a roughly 3,200-square-foot triplex with three terraces was built inside the restored cupola itself, marketed at conversion for $12 million. The lower two floors remained commercial under separate ownership — a structure buyers should understand, since the residential condominium begins above an independently owned retail-and-office base.
The result occupies a specific market position: genuine 1890s Beaux-Arts fabric, historic-district facade protection, and a 38-unit boutique scale, in a corridor where most competing luxury product is either new-construction glass or much larger conversions. For buyers who want the Flatiron's architecture rather than its skyline, this is the reference building.
Architecture and unit composition
The facade reads in three registers: the Maynicke mid-block bays of limestone and terra cotta to the south, Ficken's curved corner with its banded columns and round windows, and the copper dome above. Within the Ladies' Mile Historic District, all of it is protected — exterior alterations require Landmarks approval.
The 38 residences of the conversion (34 units in current city records, reflecting combinations) run from one-bedrooms through three-bedroom lines of loft-scaled proportions — high ceilings, oversized windows, and the deep floor plates of a commercial building — capped by four penthouses, including the cupola triplex. Storage transferred separately at conversion via 40 storage-bin license agreements per the offering plan. Finishes date to the 2007–2009 conversion, and a spread between original-conversion condition and re-renovated units is now visible in pricing.
Building operations
A boutique full-service condominium: doorman, concierge, live-in superintendent, fitness center, common roof deck with open city views, package room, and basement storage. There is no pool or parking; the amenity program is proportionate to 38 units, which keeps common charges moderate for the tier — recent listings document common charges around $3,000–3,200 monthly on mid-size lines. The commercial base is separately owned, so residential owners should review the condominium's cost-sharing structure with counsel during diligence. The offering plan, amendments, and by-laws are on file in The Roebling Research Library.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $31,705/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $78
Recent sales
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Recent closings at this building, sourced from NYC Department of Finance records. Apartment-level detail (line, condition, asking-price context) verified upon consultation request.
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 23, 2026 | 2FL | $1,825,000 |
| Mar 16, 2026 | 35 | $3,600,000 |
| Mar 19, 2026 | 3K | $1,340,000 |
| Mar 13, 2026 | 7A | $2,525,000 |
| Mar 16, 2026 | 9B | $6,750,000 |
| Feb 18, 2026 | 7PR | $1,930,000 |
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 1-00849-7505) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
You are buying the facade as much as the floor plan. The dome, the curved corner, the restored balcony — these are historic-district-protected assets that no competing building in the corridor can replicate. The premium over generic Flatiron condo stock is rational; price it against the architecture-led conversions, not the glass towers.
Understand the commercial base. The lower floors were retained for commercial use under separate ownership at conversion. Your attorney should review how the condominium documents allocate costs, building systems, and lobby/entrance control between the residential and commercial components.
Line selection is a light-and-view exercise. Corner lines take the Fifth Avenue and 21st Street exposures; mid-block lines face south over lower Ladies' Mile fabric. The two added floors and penthouse tier carry the open-sky premium. Same-line history matters more than building averages.
Mansion tax applies essentially everywhere in the building. Run the Mansion Tax Calculator at the intended price point — most of the building's trades clear multiple threshold bands.
Verify the fee stack and rental terms. Transfer-fee, sublet, and structure policies are thinly documented publicly. We verify against the offering plan and by-laws on file, and current managing-agent requirements, during diligence.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the building's documented history. Maynicke, 1897, the Merchant's Bank, Ficken's dome, the CetraRuddy restoration — this is the best-documented narrative in the immediate corridor, and the buyer pool for architectural conversions responds to specifics. We market from the primary record, including the offering plan on file.
Position against the new-construction towers deliberately. Your buyer is cross-shopping 45 East 22nd and One Madison. The pitch is fabric and scale: protected Beaux-Arts architecture, 38 residences, and meaningfully lower per-foot pricing than new product — at the cost of a thinner amenity stack. Make the trade explicit.
Condition now differentiates. Conversion-era finishes are approaching twenty years old; re-renovated units clear at visible premiums. Run the Renovation Cost Calculator against your asking strategy before defaulting to as-is pricing.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 141 Fifth Avenue, also evaluate:
- 45 East 22nd Street — the Flatiron's new-construction tower benchmark; the glass alternative
- 15 Union Square West — landmark-fabric conversion peer at Union Square
- 175 Fifth Avenue (the Flatiron Building) — the corridor's icon, now undergoing its own residential conversion; the future supply to watch
- One Madison (23 East 22nd Street) — the Madison Square Park tower alternative
- The Grand Madison (225 Fifth Avenue) — large-scale pre-war conversion on Madison Square Park
- 212 Fifth Avenue — NoMad landmark office-to-condo conversion; the closest conversion-quality peer north of the park
- 10 Madison Square West — the converted Toy Center building; the bigger-amenity conversion alternative
- 260 Park Avenue South — landmark conversion of similar vintage at the Gramercy seam
The Roebling Team at The Merchant's Bank of New York Building, after the original lower-floor tenant
The Roebling Team at Compass works the Flatiron and Madison Square corridor as part of our broader downtown practice. We publish this building profile because 141 Fifth Avenue buyers and sellers deserve building-specific intelligence — conversion documentation, commercial-base structure, and architecture-true comparables — not generic neighborhood commentary.
If you're considering a transaction at 141 Fifth Avenue, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.