169 Spring Street

Six floors of brick over an irregular corner lot, 34,276 square feet in total, with roughly 25,980 square feet residential. The plan produces something unusual for a SoHo loft co-op: because the building wraps a corner and runs deep, apartments take compass designations rather than simple floor numbers. Recorded transfers and renovation filings carry 2W, 3E, 3W, 4W, 5N, 5SE and 5W — west-side, east-side and quadrant units on the same floors. Exposures differ materially between the West Broadway frontage and the Spring Street frontage, and a buyer should walk both before assuming that one line is comparable to another.

The apartment stock is loft stock: large floor plates, high ceilings, columns, and layouts that have been reconfigured by individual shareholders over four decades rather than by a single developer. The renovation filing record confirms this — apartments 2W, 3E, 3W, 4W, 5N and 5W have all been gut-renovated at different times between 2000 and 2026, several of them more than once.

This confuses buyers, brokers and city databases alike, so it is worth stating plainly.

There is one tax lot (block 502, lot 38), one BIN (1007736) and one cooperative corporation. On that lot the Landmarks Preservation Commission designates two buildings: 408–410 West Broadway, also known as 165–167 Spring Street, and 169 Spring Street. HPD registers the property across the range 165 to 169 Spring Street. PLUTO and the Department of Finance carry the lot's primary address as 165 Spring Street, because the tax-map address point falls at the corner end of the frontage. The cooperative's residential entrance is at 169 Spring Street, and that is the address the corporation is named for.

Practically, this means recorded share transfers for the same apartments appear under 165 Spring Street, 167 Spring Street, 167–169 Spring Street, 169 Spring Street and 408 West Broadway — sometimes for the same unit across successive sales. A buyer pulling city data on "169 Spring Street" and finding nothing has not found a gap in the record; the record is filed under 165 Spring Street. All five addresses describe the same cooperative.

PLUTO's historic-district field is unreliable in both directions, so this was checked against the Landmarks Preservation Commission's own building database by tax lot and by building identification number. Both buildings on lot 38 are filed under the SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District Extension, designated May 11, 2010 under LP-2362, and the designation instrument was recorded in ACRIS against this lot on August 10, 2011.

That is a different district from the one most buyers assume. The original SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District was designated in 1973 and covers, for example, 106 Spring Street two blocks east. The Extension was a separate 2010 action. And the lot's neighbor at 171 Spring Street sits in the Sullivan–Thompson Historic District, a third designation entirely. Three distinct historic districts are represented around this corner.

The practical consequence is the same in each case: a Landmarks permit is required before the Department of Buildings will issue one for exterior work, including windows, storefronts and facade repairs. The building's own record shows the process in action — the 2023 exterior restoration (brick replacement, stone patching and resetting, sill and lintel replacement) ran through Landmarks before it reached the Department of Buildings.

The corollary worth stating: LPC describes the material as brick. Buyers and marketing copy sometimes call this a cast-iron building because of the district's name. It is a masonry neo-Grec store-and-loft building inside a district named for its cast-iron neighbors — 422 West Broadway, half a block north, is the cast-iron one.

The house rules on file are explicit: "Lawful joint-living and working use of premises is allowed, so long as this does not interfere unduly with the other Lessees." They also make the original offering plan part of the house rules "insofar as it contains any conditions or limitations with respect to the use of premises," and they name Shael Shapiro as the architect whose consent was required for exterior and commercial-space changes during the first three years of the lease — Shapiro being one of the architects most closely associated with the legalization of SoHo artist housing.

The reviewed filings from 2001 forward carry J-2 under the old code, R-2 under the 2014 code, or "RES." Those building-code descriptions do not establish the absence of Joint Living-Working Quarters for Artists restrictions; review the operative CO and approved zoning use.

The reviewed historical house rules and later building-code labels do not establish the original conversion’s approval route. Obtain the archival alteration record, CO and operative proprietary lease before resolving artist-occupancy requirements. The December 2021 SoHo/NoHo rezoning mapped this lot M1-5/R7X, which provides a conventional-residential approval route but does not automatically convert existing JLWQA use or remove unit-specific obligations.

What this means for a buyer: ask the managing agent, in writing, whether the corporation or any individual apartment is subject to an artist-certification requirement, and have your attorney read the certificate of occupancy and the proprietary lease for the same question. Do not assume either answer.

The reviewed register search does not resolve the complete history. It lists 151 Spring Street and 158 Spring Street but not block 502, lot 38; obtain relevant coverage and removal orders before concluding that this property was never covered. Department of Buildings applications filed between 2004 and 2007 do carry a Loft Board flag of "Y," and filings from 2009 forward carry "N" — the underlying records are needed to explain the change. The 1979 fee deed and offering history do not alone establish lawful occupancy or rule out Loft Board involvement.

A small self-managed-scale cooperative with a managing agent and one active passenger elevator. There is no doorman, no gym and no amenity program; the product is the apartment and the corner.

The capital record is legible and mostly recent:

• 2023 — exterior restoration. Brick replacement, stone patching and resetting, and sill and lintel replacement, with a heavy-duty sidewalk shed and pipe scaffold. Check its actual cost, completion and funding against the financials; the filing alone does not rank it against other capital work.
• 2023 — roof-level work. General construction and replacement, structural modifications, HVAC relocation and plumbing modifications at the roof.
• 2021 — proposed roof deck removal, recorded in an alteration filing. Confirm completion, any replacement and current access; the filing does not establish a present roof amenity or its absence.
• 2015 and 2006 — facade cycles. Sidewalk sheds and, in 2006, a heavy scaffold 117 feet long and 45 to 65 feet high during facade repair.
• 2003 — sidewalk vault framing replacement; verify its cost and completion in the building records.
• Fire, 2006–2008. Department of Buildings filings record emergency roof and bulkhead replacement due to fire damage in October 2006, a 2007 application to "rebuild fire damaged portion of building that was destroyed," and 2008 repair of fire damage on the third floor. The filings describe the work; obtain completion or sign-off records and confirm its funding and whether any assessment remains.

HPD carries no open housing-maintenance violations. The Department of Buildings record shows thirty violations against the building over more than two decades, four of them currently active — a normal profile for a nineteenth-century commercial building, but one your attorney should reconcile against the current financials.

The reviewed materials do not establish the complete current policy framework. The only governing document located is the set of house rules annexed to the original offering plan, and its 1979-era date does not establish whether or how it has since been amended. From that document:

• Pets require the express written permission of the corporation and that permission is revocable. Do not assume a pet-friendly building.
• Joint living-working use is expressly permitted.
• Refuse collection and removal expense is borne by the shareholder, subject to board requirements — a commercial-building convention that survives in this lease.
• Floor covering: at least 80 percent of each room, excluding kitchens, baths, closets and foyer.
• The historical rules authorize board amendments by resolution. That authority and the document’s age do not prove that any particular term changed; obtain valid amendments and reconcile them with the governing lease and bylaws.

Financing ceiling, minimum down payment, flip tax, sublet policy and seasoning, pied-à-terre posture, co-purchase, guarantors, trust and LLC ownership, and board financial standards are not established as current in the materials reviewed. Get them in writing from the managing agent before you make an offer, not after.

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 $1,563/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. Median listing discount 0.7% 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 1-00502-0038). 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.

Get the governing documents before you get emotionally involved. The reviewed materials do not establish the complete current policy framework. Request, in writing: the current proprietary lease, the current house rules, the most recent two years of audited financial statements, the current offering-plan amendment, the certificate of occupancy, the underlying mortgage terms and maturity, and the board's minimum financial requirements. If the managing agent will not produce them, that is information too.

Underwrite the underlying mortgage. The corporation consolidated $1.8 million with National Cooperative Bank in February 2021, plus a $250,000 line. Establish current outstanding balances, credit-line draws, maturity, rate and share allocations; the recorded principal and unit count alone do not measure financial strain. Model any refinancing against the full budget.

Establish what the corporation owns. The ground-floor and cellar commercial interest was conveyed out in 2013. Whether the corporation retains any commercial income — and how much of the budget depends on it — changes the maintenance analysis materially.

Ask the artist-certification question directly. The historical rules permit lawful joint live-work use, while J-2/R-2 filing labels do not settle zoning JLWQA status. Ask for the operative CO, approved use, proprietary lease and any applicable occupancy restrictions in writing.

Review the scope of landmark approvals. Window, storefront and façade alterations generally require LPC approval, with some maintenance exempt and qualifying work eligible for staff review. Visibility alone does not determine the process, and cost and timing require actual scopes and bids. Review the recent exterior-work approvals.

Run the carrying cost honestly before you offer — True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator — and run the board math with the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator.

Market the corner and the light, and be precise about which address you use. An apartment on the West Broadway frontage is a different product from one on Spring Street. Use the address the unit is recorded under and explain the 165/167/169/408 relationship in the setup, because a buyer's attorney will find all of them and will ask.

Assemble the document package before you list. Provide the lease, house rules, financials, mortgage terms and CO so counsel can assess the unresolved issues; a complete package does not establish a fixed time saving. We assemble that package from the Research Library and the managing agent as a matter of course.

Get ahead of the 2023 facade work and the 2006 fire. Both appear in the public record and both will be found. Documenting that the work was permitted, completed, signed off and funded turns two potential objections into evidence of a building that maintains itself.

Condition is a material factor in a loft. Renovation scope moves the price. Run the Renovation Cost Calculator against your asking strategy before you set it.

If you're considering 169 Spring Street, also evaluate:

• 420 West Broadway — the closest possible comparison: a nine-residence loft cooperative on the same tax block, in the same 2010 historic-district extension, with the same address-confusion problem
• 80 Wooster Street — the SoHo loft co-op most closely associated with Shael Shapiro and the legalization of artist housing; ten residences plus separately held commercial space
• 106 Spring Street — a Spring Street loft cooperative two blocks east, in the original 1973 SoHo–Cast Iron district; a useful contrast on district and on J-51 history
• 93 Mercer Street — ten-loft cooperative with an unsettled unit count and separately held retail; a near-identical diligence profile
• 459 West Broadway — ten-residence West Broadway loft co-op with ground-floor commercial space
• 465 West Broadway — larger 1889 loft cooperative, converted 1985; the scale step-up on the same avenue
• 426 West Broadway — the condominium alternative on the same stretch, in an 1883 Robert Mook loft building
• 102 Wooster Street — SoHo loft condominium; the deeded-ownership alternative
• 139 Wooster Street — SoHo loft condominium a few blocks east
• 105 Wooster Street — fifteen-residence SoHo loft condominium