18 Orchard Street
18 Orchard Street, New York, NY 10002
Chinatown
BBL 1002987502 · BIN 1003839
- Year built
- 1920
- Type
- Condominium
- Floors
- 2009
- Landmark
- No
Every recorded sale at this building, 2013–2025
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $1,472
- Recorded sales
- 6
- On record
- 2013–2025
This is one of the smallest ownership buildings on Orchard Street: four apartments, one per floor, over a commercial unit at grade. It was made in a single move. An Alteration Type 1 permit was issued in October 1998, the condominium declaration was recorded in August 1999, and by that November all four residences had gone to four separate buyers. Nothing about the building has changed structurally since.
The consequence is a market that barely exists. In more than twenty-five years there have been only a handful of arm's-length resales — one residence in 2013, another in 2014 — with the balance of recorded activity consisting of mortgages, refinancings and a 2022 transfer of one unit into its owner's living trust. Two of the four original 1999 purchasers or their estates were still on title well into the 2020s. That is not a defect; it is what a four-unit full-floor condominium looks like. But it means there is no reliable price series for this address, and any valuation has to be built from the surrounding Orchard, Ludlow and Canal Street loft conversions rather than from the building itself.
The second thing worth knowing is what is absent. There is no J-51 here — there never was. Most Lower East Side loft conversions of this vintage carry a J-51 abatement that steps down over a decade and then expires, and buyers underwriting them have to model the burn-off. This building was converted without one. Whatever the current tax bill is, that is the permanent number. Neighboring lots on the same block do carry J-51 histories, which is why it is worth checking rather than assuming.
Architecture and unit composition
The building is an early-twentieth-century Lower East Side loft-and-store type — masonry, roughly 25 feet wide, five floors over a cellar on a lot about 89 feet deep, with commercial space at grade and workshop floors above. PLUTO dates it to 1920 and listing records to 1915; neither is documented by a filing available online, and the exact year is unresolved.
The 1998–99 conversion produced full-floor residences reached by a keyed elevator — roughly 7,535 residential square feet across four apartments, so plates in the neighborhood of 1,800 square feet each, with the top residence larger because it takes in the penthouse level. Because they are full-floor and were never marketed as a standardized line, layouts and areas differ meaningfully and should be verified per unit. The commercial unit at grade and cellar is a separate tax lot in separate ownership and has traded independently of the residences since 1999 — a detail that matters, because the residential owners do not control it.
Building operations
There is no staff, no doorman and no amenity program. The capital record is what a four-unit building's record looks like: interior partition and plumbing work in 2000 and 2004, a roof catwalk and terrace structure in 2003, a parapet railing in 2008, sprinkler modifications on the fifth floor and penthouse in 2010, bulkhead, skylight and exterior restoration in 2011, and a sidewalk shed, scaffold and hoist for facade work in 2013 and again in 2021.
Those facade cycles are the operative item for a buyer. With four residential owners and one commercial owner there is no reserve of any scale and no building income to absorb a facade program — the next Local Law 11 cycle is a five-way conversation. Ask for the current filing status, the engineer's report, the reserve position and the assessment history, and ask specifically how the commercial unit's share is allocated.
Policy framework
No offering plan for this condominium was located in the Compass Offering Plan Library or in The Roebling Research Library, and the building has no management-sourced policy record. The pet policy, any pied-à-terre restriction, subletting rules and minimum lease term, financing limits, and any flip tax or transfer fee cannot be stated here and must be obtained in writing from the managing agent before an offer is made. What the public record does establish: units here have been owned by an individual, by limited liability companies and by a living trust, so entity and trust ownership have been accommodated. In a five-unit condominium the board's right of first refusal and the house rules — not the declaration — govern day to day, and with four residential votes the practical question is who the other three owners are.
Local Law 97
This building is below the 25,000 sq ft threshold at which LL97 emissions caps apply. No regulatory capital pressure from this law specifically, current or 2030.
See full Local Law 97 analysis →Recent sales
The building trades as small-format Lower East Side loft product and should be compared per square foot against the converted and infill condominiums on Orchard, Ludlow, Essex and lower Broome, not against the corridor's newer full-service towers, which carry a very different common-charge load. Two things drive pricing: full-floor plates with elevator access into the apartment, scarce at this size on this stretch; and a genuinely thin float, which cuts both ways — scarcity supports price when a unit comes up, and the absence of recent comparables makes appraisal harder. Indexed to the last complete year, the Canal-and-Orchard end of the corridor prices below the Rivington and Essex blocks to the north. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
Recent closings 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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 25, 2024 | 3 | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,800 sf | $2,650,000 | $1,472/sf | -11.7% |
Market read. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2024): a median $1,472/sf across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2025.
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 1-00298-7502) 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.
What to know if you’re buying
Get the offering plan from the managing agent — we could not locate one. Neither document library carries it. Until you have it you do not have the policy stack, the common-interest schedule or the original unit areas.
There is no J-51 and never was. Do not model a burn-off. The current tax bill on your unit lot is the number you keep.
Understand the commercial unit. Separate tax lot, separate owner, its own common-interest share. Ask how its charges are allocated and what use is permitted.
Confirm the floor count against the plan. City records say five stories; some filings and listing records describe six levels. For the top residence in particular, verify what you are buying.
Underwrite five-owner governance and the facade cycle. Four apartments and one store, no staff, no meaningful reserve. Read the last two audits and the minutes, and get the Local Law 11 status before contract.
What to know if you’re selling
Assemble the document file before you list. With no plan in circulation and no management portal, the buyer's attorney will ask for the declaration, by-laws, house rules, the last two audits and the facade file. Having them ready is the difference between a four-week and a ten-week contract.
Sell the clean tax position. No J-51, no abatement, no step-up. On the Lower East Side, where most conversions of this era carry a decaying benefit, that is a real and checkable advantage.
Price against the corridor, not against the building — there is no usable price series at this address — and do not let buyers conflate this with the larger Orchard Street condominiums. 48 Orchard is a 26-unit 2003 building and 196 Orchard is a 94-unit 2018 tower. This is four apartments over a store.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 18 Orchard Street, also evaluate:
- 21 Ludlow Street — 23-residence prewar loft conversion around the corner; the closest comparison on building type
- 48 Orchard Street — 26-unit 2003 condominium a few blocks north on the same street; the newer, larger alternative
- 196 Orchard — the 94-unit 2018 Orchard Street condominium; the full-amenity comparison
- 133 Essex Street — 16-residence mid-2000s condominium one avenue east
- 202 Broome Street — Broome Street condominium at comparable scale to the north
- 242 Broome Street — newer Broome Street condominium in the Essex Crossing footprint
- 38 Delancey Street — larger Delancey Street condominium with retained commercial floors; the mixed-use comparison
- 61 Rivington Street — 11-residence adaptive reuse of a 1905 library; the small-building conversion peer
- 100 Norfolk Street — 38-residence 2016 condominium north of Delancey
- 150 Rivington Street — 45-residence 2018 condominium; the new-development benchmark for the corridor
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.
Considering a move at 18 Orchard Street?
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A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 18 Orchard Street 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.