- Year built
- 1996
- Type
- Cooperative — a limited-equity, income-restricted HDFC
- Units
- 155
- Floors
- 8
- Amenities
- Fitness center (waiver plus monthly fee per the house rules on file), community room (rentable), children's playroom, package room, bike room, storage cages, central laundry, BuildingLink
- Pets
- Only with the cooperative's express written permission and registration under the building's pet policy, per the 2023 house rules on file
- Financing
- 20 percent minimum down per listing records — verify with the managing agent
Maple Plaza is one of the largest income-restricted homeownership buildings created in Manhattan in the 1990s: a 155-unit, eight-story cooperative occupying the entire block from Madison to Park Avenue between East 123rd and East 124th Streets, directly across Madison Avenue from Marcus Garvey Park. It was built as a New York City Housing Development Corporation project — the offering plan on file in The Roebling Research Library was accepted for filing in October 1997, with Sparrow Construction's sponsor entity offering 154 apartments for roughly $21 million in aggregate — and it remains what it was designed to be: a limited-equity HDFC where moderate-income households can own two- and three-bedroom apartments at a fraction of Manhattan market pricing.
The framework is the building. Maple Plaza HDFC was formed under Article XI of the Private Housing Finance Law; purchases are income-capped under HDC and HPD regulatory agreements, and the offering plan provides for resale-profit recapture toward the project's subordinate notes while they remain outstanding. This is ownership with restrictions, deliberately — the trade is dramatically lower pricing in exchange for caps on who can buy and what sellers keep. Buyers and sellers who understand that trade transact here successfully; those who treat it as a discounted market-rate co-op do not.
The building's history is also a case study in cooperative governance. Its early years were rocky — the sponsorship passed through several institutional hands, and construction defects (leaking roofs and windows) dogged the first board, as trade-press coverage in The Cooperator documented in 2005. The same coverage recorded the turnaround: a working board that pressed the developer on punch-list items, rebuilt operations, and helped organize neighboring Madison Avenue co-ops into a corridor-level association that pushed for the restoration of Marcus Garvey Park. Two decades on, the building runs with an attended lobby, professional management, current house rules (re-issued March 2023, on file with us), and a documented governance cadence that many market-rate co-ops would envy.
Location is the quiet upside. The building faces Marcus Garvey Park and its Mount Morris Park Historic District backdrop across Madison Avenue, sits one block from the Harlem–125th Street Metro-North station at Park Avenue, and is a short walk from the 4/5/6 at 125th and Lexington and the 2/3 at Lenox — one of the better transit positions in upper Manhattan.
Architecture and unit composition
Maple Plaza is a post-war-typology brick building of eight stories in a U-shaped, block-through plan, organized around a landscaped interior courtyard with an 87-space private parking lot and a medical-office base of roughly 12,500 square feet per city records. The apartment mix is family-scaled by design: of the 154 apartments offered under the plan, 126 are two-bedrooms, 25 are three-bedrooms, and only 3 are one-bedrooms, with select patio and balcony units noted in the plan's schedules. Park-facing west exposures look across Madison Avenue to Marcus Garvey Park; interior exposures face the courtyard. The architect of record is not firmly documented in public records, and we decline to guess.
Building operations
The building operates with an attended lobby (concierge/security coverage), a live-in superintendent, and New Bedford Management as managing agent per the 2023 house rules on file. The amenity set is substantial for the tier: fitness center (waiver and monthly fee), rentable community room, children's playroom, package room with delivery procedures, renovated bike room, storage cages, central laundry, and BuildingLink. House rules are detailed and enforced through a published fine schedule ($100 to $3,000 by violation level, per the 2023 house rules on file), covering noise, carpeting, renovations (structural work requires an alteration agreement — the building's form is on file with us), move-ins and large deliveries, and open-house procedures. The Roebling Research Library also holds the building's approved 2023 budget, recent financial statements, and certificates of insurance.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $91,476/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $49
Recent sales
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Recent transfers at this building, sourced from NYC Department of Finance records. Apartment-level detail (line, condition, asking-price context) verified upon consultation request.
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 15, 2026 | 516 | $502,000 |
| Aug 1, 2025 | 214 | $725,000 |
| Mar 18, 2025 | 514 | $680,000 |
| Aug 29, 2024 | 606 | $510,000 |
| Mar 27, 2024 | 804 | $750,000 |
| Sep 22, 2023 | 423 | $510,000 |
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 1-01748-0035) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
Qualify before you fall in love. This is an income-restricted HDFC: your household income must fit under the HDC/HPD caps (recent listing records cite roughly $98,000 for one- and two-person households and $114,500 for three or more — verify current figures with New Bedford Management), and the apartment must be your primary residence. Assemble income documentation early; the qualification review is the transaction's real gate.
Understand what "limited equity" means for your exit. The offering plan on file provides for resale-profit recapture toward the project's HDC and HPD subordinate notes while they remain outstanding. Whether and how that applies to a resale today is a question your attorney must answer against the current status of those notes — we flag it in every Maple Plaza diligence file.
The house rules are real. No in-unit washer/dryers, pets only with written permission and registration, no short-term rentals under heavy fines, a $500,000 liability-insurance requirement with annual proof, and an alteration-agreement process for structural renovations — all per the March 2023 house rules on file with us. Read them before offering, not after.
Budget the true monthly picture. Maintenance, the fitness-center fee if you use it, parking if you secure a space (87 spaces for 155 units — expect a waitlist; verify), and insurance. Run the Co-op Affordability Calculator and the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator against the specific unit.
The location underwrite is strong. Marcus Garvey Park frontage, Metro-North at Park and 125th one block away, the 4/5/6 and 2/3 within a short walk, and the 125th Street corridor's continuing investment cycle. For a primary-residence buyer, the daily-life math here is among the best in income-restricted Manhattan housing.
What to know if you’re selling
Your buyer pool is defined by the caps — market to it. Every prospect must fit the income limits, so marketing breadth matters less than qualification speed. We pre-screen Maple Plaza inquiries against the current limits and documentation requirements before showings, which is the single biggest protector of your timeline.
Price within the framework. Pricing here is shaped by the regulatory agreements, the recapture mechanics, and what income-qualified buyers can finance — not by open-market Harlem comparables. Same-building history is the only reliable anchor; we maintain it in The Roebling Research Library.
Follow the open-house procedure. The house rules on file require management consent for group showings, visitor sign-in, and an accompanied path through any common areas shown. Build it into the marketing plan from day one — improvised open houses create board friction that follows the deal.
Have the building's paper ready. Income-restricted transactions draw extra lender and attorney scrutiny. We provide the offering plan, current house rules, budget, and financials from the Research Library to buyers' counsel at contract, which keeps the qualification file and the diligence file moving in parallel.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering Maple Plaza, also evaluate:
- Maple Court (1901 Madison Avenue) — the sister limited-equity HDFC cooperative on the adjacent block, built 1990; the closest like-for-like
- Madison Plaza (1825 Madison Avenue) — a later building in the same Madison Avenue redevelopment corridor
- Madison Court — Partnership-program townhouse ownership in the same corridor
- 1400 on Fifth (1400 Fifth Avenue) — the 2004 condominium at 116th Street born of the same public-private development push
- 1485 Fifth Avenue (5th on the Park) — the market-rate condo alternative sharing Marcus Garvey Park frontage
- 100 West 119th Street (The Normandie) — boutique market-rate condo conversion west of the park
- Towers on the Park (Central Park North) — the late-1980s Housing Partnership condop at Central Park's northwest corner; the precedent for this model
- Esplanade Gardens (Lenox Avenue at 145th Street) — large Mitchell-Lama cooperative; the other major income-restricted homeownership stock uptown
The Roebling Team at Maple Plaza
The Roebling Team at Compass works Harlem — including its income-restricted HDFC and Mitchell-Lama stock, which most brokerages avoid because the frameworks take real work — as part of our upper Manhattan practice. We publish this building profile because Maple Plaza buyers and sellers deserve building-specific intelligence — the regulatory framework, the house-rule stack, and the qualification mechanics — not generic neighborhood commentary.
If you're considering a transaction at Maple Plaza, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.