181 Sullivan Street
181 Sullivan Street, New York, NY 10012
BBL 1005257507 · BIN 1008247
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 5
- Floors
- 5
- Landmark status
- Not an individual landmark; in the South Village Historic District
- NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission records, updated February 2026
- Doorman
- No doorman
Every recorded sale at this building, 2007–2022
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf, 2022
- $2,090
- 1 sale
- Listing discount
- 1.9%
- Recorded sales
- 9
- On record
- 2007–2022
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 181 Sullivan 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.
Five full-floor apartments on a twenty-five-foot South Village lot, on the site of the Sullivan Street Playhouse.
The theater is the reason anyone knows this address. The Fantasticks opened there in 1960 and closed on January 13, 2002 after forty-two years — the longest run of any musical anywhere — and the playhouse stood empty for a few years afterward before the redevelopment took it down. LPC's building database records the site history in a single sentence: No. 181 was built on the site of the Sullivan Street Playhouse. Buyers should understand that the connection is to the site: the theater no longer operates, and the building that stands is the 2005–06 metal-and-glass rebuild.
The second thing to understand is the geometry, because it defines the asset. Five floors, one residence each, no commercial unit, no staff, no amenity. The reported 8,158 square feet divided by five is roughly 1,600 square feet, but that gross residential-area ratio does not establish each apartment’s usable interior area. That is a very small condominium whose capital funding depends on project costs, reserves, the budget and the board’s funding decisions, not the five-unit count alone. The linked acquisition and 2023 entity transfers of two units warrant review of current beneficial ownership and the declaration’s common-interest percentages; the number of units alone does not establish control. Neither fact is disqualifying; both belong in a buyer's underwriting.
The third is the tax position, which changed and is now settled. The residences carried a ten-year 421-a exemption that ran through FY2017/18 and was gone by FY2018/19. Any comparison against a pre-2018 listing history is comparing two different regimes. No benefit remains to phase out, which is a form of certainty.
Building operations
No doorman, no staff, no amenity program, no commercial income. Operations run through a managing agent; actual common charges, reserves and capital funding must be established from current financial records. The lack of staff does not by itself establish low charges or the available funding sources. Reserves, the assessment history, the elevator's age and condition, and the facade and roof status all have to come from the managing agent and the financials — none of it is in the public file, and no offering plan for this building sits in either library.
Architecture and landmark position
The building is Modern — LPC's own classification — clad principally in metal and glass, five stories on a 25-by-100-foot lot with 8,158 square feet of residential floor area. It reads as a contemporary insertion on a block of nineteenth-century mixed-use and tenement fabric, most of it Renaissance Revival and Italianate, much of it by Bernstein & Bernstein, Michael Bernstein and Ernest Flagg. It was built to that contrast deliberately, seven years before the district existed.
The designation question deserves precision because it is commonly stated wrong. This lot is in the South Village Historic District, designated December 17, 2013. It is not in the Sullivan–Thompson Historic District, designated 2016, which covers a separate area to the south. We verified the assignment by tax lot against LPC's own database rather than relying on PLUTO's district field, which is unreliable in both directions — here the two happen to agree.
The building was completed about seven years before the district was designated in 2013. LPC's database entry does not say whether the designation counts it as part of the district's historic character, and we have not confirmed that in the designation report. Either way, the building is regulated. LPC jurisdiction attaches to every property inside a district boundary. Proposed changes to the facade, windows, storefront line or rooftop elements should be checked for LPC permits and any required DOB approvals; ordinary-maintenance exemptions and staff permit paths depend on the scope. For a metal-and-glass building whose facade components have a shorter service life than masonry, that is a live operational fact rather than an abstraction, and it belongs in a buyer's reserve analysis.
Building staffing and amenities
- Doorman
- No doormanSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Elevator
- YesSource: NYC Department of Buildings elevator records
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
This building is below the 25,000 sq ft threshold at which LL97 limits apply to a building on its own. It is still covered if it shares a tax lot or condominium board with buildings totaling over 50,000 sq ft; confirm on DOB’s covered-buildings list.
See full Local Law 97 analysis →Recent sales
Compare these full-floor South Village homes using verified interior areas, layout, floor, condition and monthly costs. The gross residential-area ratio does not establish 1,600-square-foot interiors or a price ranking against larger converted loft buildings. Turnover has been genuinely thin — five units, and several of them have changed hands only once or twice since the 2007 sponsor closings, with two transferred into entities in June 2023, as described above. A buyer should expect the recorded set to be too small to average and should underwrite the specific floor, the specific light and the specific condition rather than a building-level number. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 26, 2022 | 2 | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,529 sf | $3,195,000 | $2,090/sf | +6.5% |
| Oct 21, 2021 | 3 | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,530 sf | $2,950,000 | $1,928/sf | -1.7% |
| May 14, 2021 | 3 | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,525 sf | $2,100,000 | $1,377/sf | — |
| Sep 11, 2017 | PH | 2 BR · 2.5 BA · 1,520 sf | $4,200,000 | $2,763/sf | -2.2% |
| Sep 14, 2012 | 4 | 2 BR · 1,524 sf | $2,875,000 | $1,886/sf | — |
| May 18, 2007 | 3 | 2 BR · 1,530 sf | $2,031,408 | $1,328/sf | -9.7% |
| May 16, 2007 | 2 | 2 BR · 1,530 sf | $2,031,408 | $1,328/sf | -9.7% |
| May 15, 2007 | 4 | 2 BR · 1,530 sf | $2,341,975 | $1,531/sf | +1.8% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2022) cleared a median $2,090/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. Median listing discount 1.9% 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.
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 1-00525-7507; 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.
What would your apartment rent for?
Enter your apartment and I'll send you what it would rent for, from comparable closed leases at 181 Sullivan Street and nearby.
Buying here? Condo closing costs with a mortgage typically run 3 to 6% of the price. See NYC co-op and condo closing costs, line by line.
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What to know if you’re buying
Read the reserve before anything else. Five units, one facade, one roof, one elevator. Ask for two years of financials, the reserve balance, the assessment history and current façade inspection and repair records. A five-story building is below the FISP/Local Law 11 threshold of more than six stories.
Understand the voting arithmetic. Two units were acquired by the same individual in 2012 and 2017, then transferred to separate entities in 2023; verify current beneficial ownership. Ask counsel to review the by-laws' quorum, voting and board-composition provisions in that light.
Do not model a tax abatement. The 421-a ended with FY2017/18. Pull the current bill.
LPC applies. The building is inside the South Village Historic District. Check proposed window, facade-panel and rooftop-equipment work for LPC permit requirements; some ordinary maintenance is exempt and qualifying work may be approved by staff.
Confirm the policy stack in writing. Pets, subletting, pied-à-terre use and entity purchase are not documented publicly for this building. Get the by-laws and house rules from the managing agent before contract.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 181 Sullivan Street, also evaluate:
- 177 Thompson Street — the immediate neighbor on the same tax block; pre-war South Village ownership
- 184 Thompson Street — the larger post-war alternative on the same block
- 136 Sullivan Street — First Sullivan Condominium; boutique condominium ownership on the same street
- 10 Sullivan Street — the contemporary architect-driven condominium at the corridor's southern end
- 209 Sullivan Street — small-building Village ownership a few blocks north
- 131 Thompson Street — South Village ownership alternative; compare actual unit counts and layouts
- 113 Prince Street — the SoHo loft alternative for buyers weighing full-floor product
- 520 LaGuardia Place — the nearby Village cooperative alternative
More Greenwich Village buildings
- 173 MacDougal Street — 1890 condominium
- 177 Thompson Street — 1903 co-op
- 181 MacDougal Street — 2023 condominium by Morris Adjmi Architects
- 184 Thompson Street — 1970 condominium
- 200 Mercer Street — 1870 co-op
- 215 Sullivan Street (209 Sullivan Street) — 1892 condominium
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, transit, and pricing across Greenwich Village — read The Roebling Team Guide to Greenwich Village.
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 181 Sullivan Street?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
646.939.7375 · c.cohen@compass.com