21 Monroe Place

The building rises four stories over a garden level, with front and rear apartments paired at each level — the plan's schedule runs from 1F and 1R at the bottom through the top-floor pair. Apartments are small and regular: most are one-bedrooms at three and a half rooms with one bath, with one smaller and one larger, their share allocations turning on the variables the plan's own opinion letter lists — number of rooms, size, layout, fenestration, floor, position in the building, terraces, garden, and view.

The two outdoor apartments are the scarce inventory. In a ten-unit walk-up inside the historic district, private outdoor space of either kind is the feature that most reliably sets a resale record, and the garden and terrace apartments should be treated as their own comparable set rather than measured against the interior lines. At conversion the sponsor installed a new Weil-McLain steam boiler with pressure control, header, and equalizer, plus two seventy-five-gallon water heaters — a plant long since past its original service life, so current heating and hot-water equipment should be confirmed from the co-op's records. Electricity and cooking gas are individually metered; heat is carried in maintenance. Exterior work runs through the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

21 Monroe Housing Corp. has operated the building since the closing that followed the 1984 plan; the corporation's New York City filings date the start of its business here to December 1984. Operations are as lean as the building is small: no resident staff, an outside-labor line rather than a payroll, and a board drawn from a ten-shareholder pool. The bylaws are correspondingly plain — no compensation to officers or directors, amendment by two-thirds of the shares or two-thirds of the board, and the standard conversion-era limits on how long the sponsor could hold board control.

Diligence here is financial-statement diligence. Ask for several years of audited statements, the current mortgage terms and maturity, the reserve balance, the assessment history, and the board's plan for the façade and roof; in a corporation this size a single capital cycle is a large per-shareholder number, and a long record of modest maintenance depends on shareholders having funded that work rather than deferred it. The Roebling Research Library holds the plan, bylaws, house rules, proprietary lease, purchase application, and financial statements for client diligence.

Pets: No bird or animal may be kept or harbored unless the corporation expressly permits it in writing in each instance, revocably. Confirm current practice — boards frequently administer this rule more permissively than it reads.

Subletting and resale: Consent by board resolution, or in writing from a majority of the directors, or by written consent or vote of shareholders holding at least 65 percent of the outstanding shares, with the corporation entitled to charge its reasonable legal and other expenses. The historical 65-percent shareholder-consent route should be checked against the operative proprietary lease, bylaws and valid amendments; current practice alone does not establish whether that route remains available.

Noise, floors, and windows: The house rules require floor coverings adequate to minimize noise transmission to the apartment below, restrict music and loudspeakers overnight, confine construction to weekday daytime hours, and require approval for shades, awnings, window guards, ventilators, and air-conditioning devices — with anything street-visible also requiring Landmarks approval.

Flip tax, financing minimums, pied-à-terre: Not documented in the papers available. Confirm against the current house rules and purchase application.

Recent sales

Recent transfers 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.

Market read. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2023): a median $1,118/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2026. Median listing discount 0.0% from the last ask.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00237-0053). 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 on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

Visit the street and the apartment. The Unitarian church and courthouse are nearby landmarks. Assess noise at different times and test any location adjustment against dated comparable sales.

Ten shareholders means ten-shareholder economics. Read several years of audited statements, the mortgage maturity, the reserve, and the assessment history. One façade cycle divided ten ways is a real number.

Get the pet rule in writing. The rules require express written board permission in each instance. If a dog is part of your household, resolve that before you sign.

No elevator, no staff. Package handling, trash, and snow are shareholder concerns — the trade for the maintenance figure. The garden and terrace apartments are the building's scarce premium inventory and should be comped as their own type.

Lead with Monroe Place. The address carries genuine weight. Name the church, the courthouse, and the quiet, and let the block do the work.

Present the current carrying costs. Supply the apartment's maintenance and assessments, the services included and the current financial statements; compare actual totals with staffed alternatives rather than inferring a saving from unit count or payroll.

Document the capital record. Buyers in ten-unit corporations worry about assessments. A clean record of completed façade, roof, and boiler work converts that worry into confidence.

Comp against the district's small walk-ups. The right set is the ten-to-fifteen-unit prewar co-ops on the nearby residential blocks, not the Montague or Remsen Street elevator buildings.

If you're considering 21 Monroe Place, also evaluate:

• 123 Henry Street — a ten-unit co-op on the same tax block, converted two years earlier; the closest direct comparable
• 22 Monroe Place — the larger co-op across the street; the same address with services and scale
• 28 Monroe Place — mid-size Monroe Place co-op peer
• 108 Pierrepont Street — ten-unit Greek Revival house co-op one block south; house-scale living at similar unit counts
• 161 Henry Street — turn-of-the-century co-op on the same block, at a middle scale
• 153 Henry Street — the large prewar elevator co-op on the same block; the service alternative
• 20 Pierrepont Street — small prewar co-op peer around the corner
• 35 Pierrepont Street — prewar co-op on Pierrepont at a moderate scale
• 15 Clark Street — prewar co-op at the Clark Street end of the block
• 130 Clinton Street — full-service prewar co-op alternative on the district's eastern spine