147 West 22nd Street

Ten stories on a forty-five-foot mid-block lot. The design is restrained and well made: eight upper floors in buff brick over a two-story limestone base, an Adamesque terra-cotta frieze between the first and second floors, a Greek-key band crowning the second-story show windows, and a deeply overhanging cornice with close-set palm fronds under its soffit. Historical records describe the building as little changed from 1910, and its exclusion from landmark protection is a function of where the Ladies' Mile boundary was drawn along Sixth Avenue rather than of the building's quality.

The 1976 plan describes each typical floor as roughly 43 by 87 feet of open space outside the stair, elevator and bathroom core — close to 3,700 square feet clear. Sixteen apartments across ten floors means a mix of surviving full floors and half floors: recorded unit designations include full-floor homes, paired N and S lines on several levels, E and W lines at the base, and a tenth-floor unit that the offering plan endowed with the northern portion of the roof, measured from a line five feet south of the skylight to the north wall. That roof allocation is a real and unusual amenity attached to a specific apartment, and it is in the plan on file.

Front lines face West 22nd Street directly; rear lines face mid-block. Ceiling heights and window scale are loft-era throughout. Because the building is built to 10.23 FAR against a 7.52 residential allowance, there is no expansion capacity — roof-level additions are not available to this cooperative in the way they are to under-built neighbors.

This is a lean, hands-on cooperative, and the house rules on file say so plainly. There is no doorman. Shareholders are assigned tasks required for the proper upkeep of the building by the board "on an equitable basis," and each floor is responsible for cleaning and maintaining its own immediate stairwell one flight up and one flight down. Garbage goes to the curb between the lamppost and the hydrant on collection mornings. Security depends on residents relatching both leaves of the front door and not buzzing in strangers. There are two elevators — a passenger cab and a freight elevator that the rules describe as delicate and to be operated only by a knowledgeable user, signed in and returned to the basement after use. Roof and fire-escape alarms are keyed and reset by residents. Pets are permitted under the rules so long as they are not a health or safety risk and are not loose in the public areas.

That structure suits some buyers exactly and suits others not at all, and it is the single most important thing to understand before offering.

Underlying financing is in the public record. The corporation carried a $775,000 first mortgage placed with a cooperative lender in 1991, refinanced at $600,000 in 2001, consolidated back to $775,000 in October 2011, and consolidated again to $1,000,000 in January 2022 with a new gap note of roughly $385,500. Across sixteen apartments that is light leverage. The audited financial statements will show reserves, the maintenance base and any assessment history; we obtain them for clients at offer stage rather than characterizing them from recorded documents.

J-51, and its burn-off. DOF's historical file records a benefit against this exact tax lot with an initial year of 1979, a twelve-year term at a 90 percent abatement rate, against roughly $103,400 of certified alteration cost. The abatement balance ran down to a final partial credit in tax year 1989 and the accompanying exemption from increases in assessed value expired with the term. The benefit has been fully burned off for more than three decades, so unlike many conversion-era co-ops this building carries no pending abatement cliff — the maintenance a buyer sees today already reflects an unsubsidized tax bill. The current DOF roll shows no exemption on the lot.

JLWQA. Historical records of the 1979 conversion describe some of the thirteen apartments as joint living-work quarters for artists. Nothing in the DOB filing record available online carries a live JLWQA restriction today: filings classify occupancy as J-2 under the old code and as residential thereafter, and the ground-floor unit was converted to residential use in 2001 without any artist certification appearing in the file. Where a JLWQA designation survives on the certificate of occupancy it is an occupancy restriction with real consequences, so the original 1979 certificate of occupancy should be pulled and read at diligence rather than assumed away.

Loft Law and Interim Multiple Dwelling status. This building does not appear to be an IMD, and the chronology is the reason: Article 7-C reached buildings still occupied residentially without legalization in 1980–81, and 147 West 22nd Street had already been legalized in 1979 under a cooperative plan filed in 1976. Nothing in the DOB, DOF or ACRIS record indicates Loft Board coverage. The Loft Board's registration file is not published as open data, so this is an inference from a clean legalization record rather than a certified negative; put the question to the managing agent.

No BSA variance or rezoning appears in the record. The lot is mapped C6-3A, where residential use is permitted as of right, and no special-permit or variance filing surfaces in the building's DOB file.

The alteration record since reads as a small building maintaining itself: a domestic-water and sprinkler upgrade in 2011–12, unsafe-facade and chimney repairs under Local Law 11 filed in 2012 with a heavy-duty sidewalk shed, a further facade campaign in 2016 with shed and stair towers, roof and deck replacement in 2016, and a chimney liner and vertical extension in 2022. Apartment-level filings run steadily through the 2000s, 2010s and into 2025 — a building whose owners renovate.

The offering plan on file is from 1976 and cannot be relied on for current policy. It records what the original structure was — board consent required for any sublet or assignment, with no limitation stated on the directors' right to grant or withhold consent and the right to impose conditions, and no flip tax anywhere in the document. Fifty years of board resolutions sit on top of that. Obtain the following from the managing agent, in writing, before offering: financing ceiling and minimum down payment (small loft co-ops frequently cap below 80 percent); post-closing liquidity requirement, usually a multiple of maintenance plus debt service and often the binding test rather than debt-to-income; sublet policy — seasoning, term cap, fee, renewal practice; flip tax — whether one has since been adopted, its base and rate, and which side pays; pied-à-terre policy, and how it has been applied rather than how it reads; and trust, LLC and co-purchase rules. The recorded transfer history shows shareholders taking and conveying title through revocable and family trusts repeatedly since 2013, which suggests trusts are workable — but the board's current written policy governs. The board package and interview are the gate; budget six to ten weeks from accepted offer to closing.

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. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $1,379/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 4.1% 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 1-00798-0017) 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.

The director Steven Soderbergh owned and sold a full-floor apartment in the building; the sale was covered by The Real Deal and 6sqft.

Underwrite the operating model, not just the apartment. No doorman, resident-assigned upkeep tasks, resident-cleaned stairwells, a freight elevator you are expected to operate correctly. This is a participatory building. Read the house rules before you read the floor plan.

There is no abatement cliff here, and that is good news. The J-51 burned off at the end of the 1980s. The maintenance you underwrite is the maintenance — confirm the current figure and run the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator against it.

Pull the certificate of occupancy. Some of the 1979 apartments were created as joint living-work quarters for artists. Whether any such restriction survives on the current C of O is a question your attorney should answer from the document, not from a listing sheet.

Confirm you are buying on block 798, lot 17. 129 West 22nd Street is a different cooperative on the same block; 146 West 22nd Street is a different building on block 797 across the street. Check block and lot on the contract.

Underwrite the underlying mortgage. One million dollars consolidated in January 2022 across sixteen apartments. Get the rate and the maturity; a refinance is a shareholder event in a building this size.

There is no roof-level upside — but there may be roof rights already spoken for. The building is built above the district's residential FAR, and the 1976 plan allocated the northern portion of the roof to the tenth-floor unit. Confirm what, if anything, comes with the apartment you are buying.

Lead with the floor plate and the light. A full-floor or half-floor loft on a mid-block Chelsea street is the product; the cooperative structure and the participatory operating model are what you explain second, honestly and early.

Say the abatement is gone, and say it early. Buyers in converted Chelsea lofts are conditioned to ask about pending burn-offs. "Fully exhausted at the end of the 1980s" is a clean, competitive answer.

Document the capital record. The Local Law 11 facade campaigns, the roof and deck replacement, the water and sprinkler upgrade and the 2022 chimney work are all in the public filing record. Provide the financials and let a buyer's attorney verify them.

Comp inside the building first. With sixteen apartments and consistent lines, your own building's history beats block condominium sales, which price on a different structure.

If you're considering 147 West 22nd Street, also evaluate:

• 129 West 22nd Street — the other loft cooperative on this same tax block; the closest like-for-like, converted in 1981
• 148 West 23rd Street — same tax block, fronting the parallel street
• 125 West 22nd Street and 133 West 22nd Street — condominiums on this same tax block; the deed-ownership alternatives
• 146 West 22nd Street — a separate condominium on tax block 797, across the street; listed here so it is not mistaken for this building
• 140 West 22nd Street — the opposite blockfront; another Chelsea ownership alternative
• 162 West 22nd Street — boutique Chelsea cooperative a block west; the smaller-unit, lower-carry alternative
• 154 West 18th Street — Chelsea loft co-op of comparable scale
• 121 West 17th Street — loft-format Chelsea co-op to the south
• 139 West 19th Street — prewar Chelsea cooperative