173 East Broadway
173 East Broadway, New York, NY 10002
BBL 1002847503 · BIN 1003623
- Year built
- 1912
- Type
- Condominium
- Landmark status
- Individual landmark; not in a historic district
- NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission records, updated February 2026
- Doorman
- Full-time doorman
Every recorded sale at this building, 2005–2026
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf, 2026 to date
- $1,867
- floor-adjusted, 2 sales
- Listing discount
- 0.0%
- Recorded sales
- 76
- On record
- 2005–2026
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at The Forward Building 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.
There are few residential addresses in New York with the cultural weight of 173 East Broadway. Built in 1912 as the headquarters of the Jewish Daily Forward — the Yiddish-language daily that at its peak reached a circulation of roughly 200,000 and stood at the center of immigrant intellectual and political life — the building is a designated landmark and one of the great surviving monuments of the Lower East Side's golden age. Its name is still carved across the façade in both English and Yiddish, and bas-relief portraits of socialist thinkers look out over Seward Park to this day.
In the mid-2000s the building was converted into a small condominium of fewer than thirty residences, turning a Beaux-Arts office and printing house into some of the most distinctive lofts downtown. For a buyer, the appeal is rare on every axis: a true landmark address, condominium ownership flexibility, soaring industrial-scale ceilings, and a park-facing position at the heart of a Lower East Side that has become one of Manhattan's most dynamic neighborhoods.
Building operations
The Forward Building runs as a full-service condominium. Residents have a 24-hour doorman, a roof terrace with open views over the park and the Lower East Side skyline, and private storage. The combination of full-time staffing and a landmark address gives the building a service level uncommon among the neighborhood's smaller conversions.
As a condominium, there is no co-op board admission: purchases run through the condominium's application and right of first refusal. Confirm financing, leasing and ownership-entity rules (pied-à-terre, LLC, trust, investment) in the current declaration, bylaws and house rules. For buyers who want downtown character without a co-op board, the condominium structure is a core part of the value.
Architecture and residences
George A. Boehm's design is full-blooded Beaux-Arts: a ten-story masonry tower with a deeply ornamented terra-cotta and limestone façade, carved lettering, and the sculpted medallions that mark it as a building meant to be read as a civic landmark rather than a commercial loft. It anchors the head of East Broadway facing Seward Park and Straus Square — an unusually open, light-filled position for the dense Lower East Side.
The conversion is the building's other distinction. Because the structure was built as an office and printing plant, its floor-to-floor heights are extraordinary by residential standards — ceiling heights in the residences range from roughly 11 feet to as much as 17.5 feet, with homes spanning from around 600 square feet to over 4,200 square feet, including a penthouse. The result is a collection of genuine lofts — open volumes, oversized windows, and varied light and scale to assess in the specific residence — wrapped in a landmark shell.
Monthly carrying charges in recent sales
- Common charges + taxes, per room
- $966 per room a monthMedian of 8 recorded sales since October 2023Source: recorded sales, refreshed October 2026
- Common charges + taxes, per square foot
- $2.87 per square foot a monthMedian of 9 recorded sales since October 2023Source: recorded sales, refreshed October 2026
- Common charges alone, per square foot
- $1.27 per square foot a monthMedian of 6 listings since October 2023 that give the annual taxSource: listing records, refreshed October 2026
- Real estate taxes alone, per square foot
- $1.61 per square foot a monthMedian of 6 listings since October 2023 that give the annual taxSource: listing records, refreshed October 2026
Common charges plus real estate taxes, combined into one monthly figure the way New York condominium listings show them. Add a mortgage payment for the monthly outlay. The split into common charges and taxes comes from the listings that also give the annual tax, a different sample, so the two lines need not add up exactly to the combined median; a tax abatement can hold taxes below the full amount until it expires. A summary of recorded sales and listings, not a current bill; charges change.
Building staffing and amenities
- Doorman
- Full-time doormanSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Elevator
- YesSource: NYC Department of Buildings elevator records
- Amenities noted
- Media room, roof deck, storageSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
Staffing and amenities as our building profile and recent listing records describe them. A feature not listed is not confirmed absent. Outdoor space, parking and some facilities can belong to particular apartments or to a separate owner; confirm access for the specific apartment.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $30,993/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $86
- Modeled exposure split equally across 30 units (the residential count on the city's lot record). Not an assessed amount; condominium owners are typically charged by each unit's common-interest percentage.
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City data last refreshed October 2026.
See full Local Law 97 analysis — emissions history, scenarios, methodology →Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available FISP filing classified the facade as Safe — no repairs were required at that inspection. A filed Safe grade is not a guarantee of current condition: owners still maintain the facade and, where required, observe parapets each year. Future inspection timing (Local Law 49 of 2025 changed the cycle framework from October 1, 2026), repair and any assessment decisions remain building-specific.
How to read this, and where it comes from
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — a licensed professional engineer or registered architect who meets DOB’s FISP qualifications and signs the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent).
Penalties shown are amounts DOB assessed against filings on record across 2005–10 to 2020–25. The FISP dataset does not record whether they were paid, contested or remain open, so treat the figure as history rather than a current balance and confirm the building’s standing with the managing agent.
Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library. City data last refreshed October 2026.
Recent sales
Recent closings 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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 25, 2026 | 4A | 1 BR · 1 BA · 625 sf | $1,150,000 | $1,840/sf | -2.1% |
| Feb 11, 2026 | 4C | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,060 sf | $1,695,000 | $1,599/sf | -3.1% |
| Aug 26, 2025 | 10B | 2 BR · 2 BA · 2,745 sf | $7,495,000 | $2,730/sf | +8.6% |
| Aug 12, 2025 | 8B | 3 BR · 2.5 BA · 2,900 sf | $5,200,000 | $1,793/sf | -5.5% |
| Jun 10, 2025 | 6D | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,215 sf | $2,300,000 | $1,893/sf | — |
| Dec 30, 2024 | 3A | 1 BR · 1 BA · 625 sf | $1,100,000 | $1,760/sf | -5.6% |
| Dec 20, 2024 | 6C | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,380 sf | $2,650,000 | $1,920/sf | -0.9% |
| Nov 20, 2024 | 6A | 1 BA · 625 sf | $1,330,000 | $2,128/sf | -1.5% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026 to date) cleared a median $1,867/sf (floor-adjusted) across 2 sales. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 0.0% from the last ask.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
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 1-00284-7503; each condominium apartment is its own tax lot). 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.
Closed rents at The Forward Building, last 36 months
| Size | Leases | Median / month |
|---|---|---|
| 2 bedroom | 2 | $11,075 |
3 closed leases, October 2023 to September 2026. Most recent lease October 2025. Based on few leases. Sizes with fewer than 2 leases are not shown. Compiled by The Roebling Team at Compass from closed leases.
What would your apartment rent for?
The figures above are the building's closed leases. Enter your apartment and I'll send you what yours would rent for, from comparable leases at The Forward Building and nearby.
At the recent median sale of $1.7M (9 sales in the past 24 months, since October 31, 2024), a buyer putting 25% down would pay about $70,701 to close, or 4.2% of the price.
- Mansion tax: $16,950
- Mortgage recording tax: $24,472
- Title insurance: $7,627
- Attorneys, lender, building fees, reserves and filings: $21,652
Assumes a resale (the seller pays transfer taxes), a $4,500 attorney fee and a mortgage on the rest.
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What to know if you’re buying
This is a condominium, so the path is a right-of-first-refusal process rather than a co-op board interview; confirm financing, leasing and ownership-entity rules in the declaration, bylaws and house rules. The diligence here is building- and apartment-specific. Because this is a landmark conversion of an early-twentieth-century structure, review the building's financials, reserve, and any planned capital work on the historic façade and systems, and read the offering plan for the specifics of each unit's volume and layout — homes differ widely.
The building offers a designated landmark address, loft-scale ceilings, a full-time doorman, a roof terrace, and a park-facing position in a neighborhood whose restaurant, gallery, and nightlife density now rivals anywhere downtown — Essex Market and the Essex Crossing retail and cinema complex are a few blocks away.
What to know if you’re selling
The story sells itself, but it has to be told precisely. The landmark status, the carved façade, the ceiling heights, and the park exposure are durable differentiators that distinguish a home here from any conventional Lower East Side condominium. The comparable set is recent closings in the building and in the small cohort of distinctive downtown loft conversions — adjusted for the building's unusually wide range of unit sizes and volumes.
Because the residences vary so much, pricing is an apartment-specific exercise rather than a per-foot average. We position the landmark narrative, photograph the volume and light that make these lofts singular, and benchmark against the right comparable tier rather than the broad neighborhood number.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 173 East Broadway, also look at these Lower East Side condominiums and conversions:
- 222 East Broadway — Lower East Side building nearby
- 196 Orchard — Ismael Leyva Architects's 2018 Manhattan condominium
- 183 Chrystie Street — downtown condominium peer
- 215 Chrystie Street — design-forward Lower East Side condominium
- 7 Essex Street — Lower East Side condominium near Essex Crossing
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent. Where this page compares one building or neighborhood to another, that is our analysis of the recorded record — it names the measure, the period and the sample it rests on, and it is an observation about medians rather than a prediction about any particular apartment.
Considering a move at The Forward Building?
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646.939.7375 · c.cohen@compass.com