170 Second Avenue
170 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10003
East Village
BBL 1004520006 · BIN 1006435
- Year built
- 1928
- Type
- Cooperative
- Landmark
- No
Every recorded sale at this building, 2003–2026
Bedroom-by-bedroom medians, the full transfer record, and how units trade against ask.
- 2BR median
- $2.5M
- Recent range
- $550K – $3.2M
- Listing discount
- 1.7%
- Recorded transfers
- 89
170 Second Avenue is a survivor of the East Village's brief moment as an aspirational address. In the 1920s, Second Avenue was the grand boulevard of the Lower East Side — the "Yiddish Rialto" of theaters and cafés — and developer Saul Birns built 170 in 1928 as upscale housing meant to keep prosperous residents in the neighborhood as the city pushed northward. The building's Art Deco lobby tells that story directly: a marble-and-terrazzo entry with checkerboard floors, hand-painted murals, and a fireplace, a level of ground-floor ambition rare for the corridor then or now.
What sets 170 apart today is exactly that combination of genuine pre-war character and an East Village location that has only grown more desirable. The building is a full-service, doorman cooperative — a category in genuinely short supply downtown, where most of the housing stock is walk-up tenements and smaller self-managed buildings. For a buyer who wants the layouts, ceilings, and lobby of a 1920s building with the convenience of an attended elevator building, in a neighborhood defined by St. Mark's Place, the East Village restaurant scene, and quick transit, 170 Second Avenue occupies a narrow and valuable niche.
Architecture and unit composition
The building is a fifteen-story Art Deco apartment house, its façade in the masonry idiom of the late 1920s and its interior public spaces carrying the period detail that makes it memorable. The lobby — marble, terrazzo checkerboard, murals, and a fireplace — is the building's signature, an artifact of the era when Second Avenue still imagined itself as a grand residential boulevard.
The roughly 76 residences carry pre-war bones: hard-plaster walls, proportioned rooms, real entry foyers in many lines, and ceiling heights above the downtown norm. The unit mix runs across the range of pre-war layouts, from efficient one-bedrooms to larger family apartments on the upper floors. As in most buildings of this vintage, the homes vary line by line — corner and higher-floor apartments capture the best light and the open views over the East Village's low-rise roofscape.
Building operations
170 Second Avenue runs as a traditional full-service cooperative. A full-time doorman attends the lobby, the elevator and building are professionally staffed, and a central laundry serves shareholders. The full-service posture is the building's operational distinction downtown — it delivers the staffing and security of an uptown co-op in a neighborhood where that is uncommon, which is a meaningful part of why the building holds its appeal.
As a cooperative, the building governs ownership through a board approval process, with maintenance covering the building's operating costs, staff, and underlying expenses. Pre-war co-ops of this size typically carry the customary board posture on financing, subletting, and pied-à-terre ownership; buyers should plan for a board package and interview as part of any purchase. The building's standing as one of the corridor's few doorman co-ops keeps it firmly in demand.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- Per unit / month range
- —
Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available filing classified the facade as SWARMP — Safe With A Repair and Maintenance Program: the engineer identified conditions requiring monitoring or repair before the next inspection cycle. The scope, timeline, and how the building funds the work are building-specific — we review the filings and board materials for you.
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — the licensed engineer the city requires to sign the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent). Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library.
See the full facade history →Recent sales
Recent transfers at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. Apartment-level facts are independently verified before publishing; sale prices reflect the recorded transfer amount at the NYC Department of Finance.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 11, 2026 | 3E | 1 BR · 1 BA | $770,000 | -3.8% | |
| Apr 30, 2026 | 5A | 2 BR · 1 BA | $1,415,000 | -2.4% | |
| Feb 11, 2026 | 9B | 3 BR · 2 BA · 1,340 sf | $2,750,000 | $2,052/sf | -1.6% |
| Nov 19, 2025 | 5C | 1 BR · 1 BA | $875,000 | +0.0% | |
| Aug 27, 2025 | 6B | 2 BR · 1.5 BA | $2,500,000 | +0.0% | |
| Mar 17, 2025 | 8B | 2 BR · 2 BA | $2,999,999 | -0.0% | |
| Jul 1, 2024 | 3D | 2 BR · 1 BA | $1,710,000 | -2.3% | |
| Apr 18, 2024 | 16E | 1 BR · 1 BA | $1,110,000 | +11.0% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $1,902/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 1.2% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Other recent transfers
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 4, 2020 | 16B | $2,890,000 |
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 1-00452-0006) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
This is a pre-war cooperative, so plan for a board package and interview, and budget the closing costs and maintenance that come with full-service staffing. The trade-off is real value: a doorman elevator building with genuine Art Deco character is a rare thing in the East Village, and that scarcity supports both livability and long-term resale.
Buy for the layout and the light. In a 1920s building the homes differ line by line — foyers, room proportions, and ceiling height are the draw — and the higher and corner lines hold the best light and views. Review the building's financials and any planned capital work, as you would for any pre-war co-op, and weigh the value of full-service staffing and a landmark-grade lobby against the lower carrying costs of a self-managed downtown building.
Underwrite the location precisely. You are on the Second Avenue spine, steps from the East Village's restaurants, St. Mark's Place, and the crosstown and downtown trains — convenient and lively, with the energy of one of Manhattan's most active neighborhoods at your door.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with what is genuinely scarce: a full-service, doorman, Art Deco pre-war cooperative in the East Village. That category is thin downtown, and buyers who want pre-war character with an attended elevator building have few alternatives — frame the building's full-service posture and its muraled marble lobby as the differentiators they are.
Market the apartment's pre-war bones — foyers, room proportions, ceiling height, light — and present the layout to make them legible. Price against the neighborhood's other full-service pre-war co-ops rather than against walk-up condos and tenement conversions, and use the building's relative rarity to frame scarcity. Higher-floor and corner homes should be marketed on their light and views.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 170 Second Avenue, also evaluate nearby downtown cooperatives and ownership buildings:
- 305 Second Avenue — Gramercy-edge cooperative to the north
- 323 Second Avenue — Second Avenue cooperative nearby
- 205 Third Avenue — pre-war cooperative on the Third Avenue corridor
- 84 Third Avenue — a 2012 East Village condominium
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across East Village + NoHo — read The Roebling Team Guide to East Village + NoHo.
The full playbook — what goes in the package, how boards read your financials, the interview, and the timeline — plus sample cover, reference, and personal letters you can adapt.
Considering a move at 170 Second Avenue?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 170 Second Avenue would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.