236 West 26th Street (The Capitol Building)

Twelve stories of 1925 loft construction on an 8,359-square-foot lot with an 84-foot street frontage, carrying about 86,280 gross square feet — a broad, deep floor plate rather than a narrow one. Apartments are lettered by orientation on the floor (2E, 3NE, 5NW, 8SE, 9W, 11NW), which is the give-away of a building where the plate was subdivided as units legalized rather than laid out at once by a developer. Unit sizes vary widely for the same reason, and some floors remain partly commercial. The lobby retains original 1920s brass detail and terrazzo flooring, and the corporation acquired the shares of one small commercial unit in January 2020 specifically in order to expand it.

Because the units were created individually and over two decades, there is no house standard for ceiling height, window line or mechanical systems. Every apartment here needs to be underwritten on its own drawings.

There is no single conversion moment. The record, read from DOB filings and certificates of occupancy, runs like this:

• The building was erected in 1925 as a loft. No new-building record survives in the digitized DOB file.
• The cooperative corporation took title and began operations on January 29, 1985, while the building's certificate of occupancy still carried commercial and factory use.
• July 17, 2001 — Alteration Type I job 102508350, filed by the cooperative itself, converted the building's occupancy from commercial to residential with 24 dwelling units proposed. This is the filing that created legal residential use at the Capitol Building. It was signed off. The zoning district on the filing is already C6-2A.
• 2004 — Alt-1 103845797, conversion of factory space to a residential Class A apartment.
• 2006 — Alt-1 104563615, an amended certificate of occupancy for the conversion of one apartment from commercial to residential use.
• 2012–2014 — Alt-1 121124513, conversion of retail space to a residential apartment with an amended certificate of occupancy.
• 2014 — Alt-1 122103883, enlarging an apartment and amending the certificate of occupancy. A certificate of occupancy issued in February 2016 records 24 dwelling units.
• 2015–2016 — further Alt-1 filings converting eighth-floor factory space and a third-floor apartment from factory to residential use.
• 2017 — Alt-1 123046747 takes the dwelling-unit count from 24 to 25. The certificate of occupancy issued June 11, 2019 records 25 dwelling units.
• 2019 — Alt-1 123851894, changing the use of a portion of the fourth floor from factory occupancy.

So the residential unit count grew from 24 to 25 between 2016 and 2019, and units continue to sit on the commercial side of the ledger. Before buying, a buyer should establish, in writing, whether the specific unit is a legal Class A dwelling unit on the current certificate of occupancy. That is not a formality in this building.

Joint living-work quarters for artists (JLWQA). Not applicable here. JLWQA is a zoning use permitted in specified M1 manufacturing districts — the SoHo, NoHo and Tribeca loft districts — and it requires artist certification. 236 West 26th Street is zoned C6-2A, a commercial district in which residential use is permitted as of right, and it was already C6-2A when the 2001 conversion was filed. The building's residential units are conventional Class A dwelling units under a certificate of occupancy, not artist joint living-work quarters. Listing copy describing the building as "live/work" is describing the practical mix of residential and commercial units, not a JLWQA designation.

Loft Law / Interim Multiple Dwelling status. We found no evidence that the building is or was a registered IMD. The 2001 Alteration Type I filing that created residential use carries the DOB Loft Board indicator as N, and the conversion was filed by the cooperative corporation as owner rather than pursued as an Article 7-C legalization. There is one caveat worth stating plainly: New York City Loft Board IMD registrations are not published as machine-readable public data, so this is an absence of evidence rather than a certified negative. A buyer's attorney should confirm IMD status and any residual Article 7-C rent regulation directly with the managing agent.

BSA variance. None located in the records available to us. None would have been required — residential use is as-of-right in C6-2A.

J-51. There is no J-51 history on this lot. The Department of Finance's J-51 exemption and abatement records, which run from 1968 through 2018, contain no entry for block 775, lot 60. PLUTO likewise shows zero exempt value on the property. There is therefore no J-51 burn-off schedule to model here, and no benefit expiring under a buyer.

The (E) designation. The lot carries city environmental designation (E) 92 for hazardous materials, and DOB alteration filings from 2001 forward flag it. The cooperative recorded a declaration against the property in October 2003 consistent with that designation. In practice this means environmental testing and remediation protocols attach to work that disturbs soil or subsurface conditions. It is a construction-management item, not a title defect, but it belongs in a buyer's file.

The Special Midtown South Mixed-Use District. The August 2025 rezoning that created the Special Midtown South Mixed-Use District does not reach this lot. We checked current city zoning records lot by lot: block 775 — this block, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues — remains C6-2A with no special purpose district. The adjacent blocks east of Seventh Avenue, blocks 801 and 802, were mapped into the special district with M1-8A/R11 zoning. The boundary runs between them. Buyers reading about the Midtown South rezoning and its effect on nearby loft blocks should not extend that reading to 236 West 26th Street.

PLUTO's owner field for this lot names an individual. That is wrong. ACRIS shows title held by Capitol Building Loft Corporation continuously since the deed recorded February 1, 1985, and the corporation's audited financial statements confirm it. Anyone pulling city data on this building should disregard the PLUTO owner name.

Staffing and amenities are modest and appropriate to a 46-unit building: a live-in superintendent, an elevator, a laundry room and a roof deck. There is no doorman.

From the audited financial statements on file for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018:

• Mortgage: a $5,000,000 first mortgage, interest only at 3.4 percent, maturing January 1, 2027, with prepayment penalties through January 1, 2026 and an annual 10 percent penalty-free prepayment allowance.
• Line of credit: a $500,000 unsecured revolving line with the same lender, also maturing January 1, 2027, undrawn at both year-ends, with a $25,000 minimum compensating balance.
• Liquidity: cash and equivalents of $1,055,258 plus $569,000 in certificates of deposit at December 31, 2019.
• Transfer fees: the corporation's stated policy is 2 percent of the gross sale price on the sale of shares, recognized at closing.
• Capital commitments: contracts of approximately $580,000 for exterior rehabilitation and approximately $380,000 for lobby rehabilitation, of which about $460,000 had been incurred at December 31, 2019.
• Expense mix: real estate taxes were 51.8 percent of total expenses, mortgage interest 13.8 percent.
• The corporation has not commissioned a reserve study and its governing documents do not require reserve accumulation.

Two honest caveats. First, the audited statements on file are for 2019; five subsequent years of operations are not in our file, and a buyer should obtain the most recent statements. Second — and this is the material one — the $5,000,000 mortgage is interest-only and matures January 1, 2027. The full principal comes due at maturity. If it has not already been refinanced, that is an imminent event for a corporation with only ten thousand shares outstanding, and it should be the first question a buyer's attorney puts to the managing agent.

All of the following is management-sourced and current to August 2026. None of it is published by the cooperative, and all of it should be re-confirmed at offer stage.

• Board approval and interview: required for purchases and for sublets.
• Financing: 80 percent of purchase price maximum.
• Post-closing liquidity: not published. Ask the managing agent for the board's current financial requirements before writing an offer.
• Flip tax: 2 percent of the purchase price, seller-paid. Worth stating explicitly because loft co-ops on nearby blocks vary on this — the flip tax at 142 West 26th Street, for example, is buyer-paid. Do not assume the local convention; confirm the building.
• Subletting: permitted with board approval on one-year terms, renewed by application. Fees run to a sublet processing charge, a renewal processing charge, credit checks per applicant and move deposits from both the shareholder and the subtenant.
• Pets: permitted with board approval.
• Pied-à-terre and trust or LLC purchases: not documented in the records available to us. Listing records describe the building as flexible on pied-à-terre use and co-purchasing; that is market description, not published policy. Confirm with the managing agent before you rely on it.
• Closing charges: the buyer's side carries an application fee, per-person credit checks, a processing fee, a transfer agent fee, a recognition agreement fee where financing is involved, and a refundable move-in deposit; the seller carries a refundable move-out deposit and the flip tax.
• Air conditioning: no unit may perforate the building wall; managing agent and building architect approval required.

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 (2025): a median $945/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2026. Median listing discount 2.2% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00775-0060). 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.

Confirm the unit is legally residential. This is the single most important question in this building. The certificate of occupancy has been amended repeatedly, unit by unit, from 2001 through 2019, and units remain on the commercial side. Get the current certificate of occupancy and match it to the apartment.

Ask about the January 2027 mortgage maturity. The corporation's $5,000,000 mortgage is interest-only. If it has been refinanced since our statements on file, get the new terms; if it has not, get the board's plan.

The flip tax is on the seller here — 2 percent. Confirm it in writing anyway, because the fee schedule is set by management and boards revise it.

Budget the closing fee stack. Application, credit checks, processing, transfer agent, recognition agreement and a refundable move-in deposit all sit on the buyer. Run them through the Buyer Closing Cost Calculator.

Do not import the Midtown South rezoning story. It stops at Seventh Avenue and does not reach this block. Nor is the building landmarked, and there is no J-51 benefit expiring underneath you.

Lead with the loft, then document the legality. Buyers are here for the plate, the light and the original fabric. But their attorneys will go straight to the certificate of occupancy. Have the current one, and the alteration history for the unit, ready before you go to market.

State the flip tax up front. Two percent of the gross price is a seller cost and it should be in your net-sheet from day one, not discovered at contract.

Get current financials in hand. A small corporation with an interest-only mortgage maturing in the near term will draw questions. Answering them with documents rather than reassurance is what closes the deal.

If you're considering the Capitol Building, also evaluate:

• 142 West 26th Street — the closest structural analogue: a small mixed residential-and-commercial loft cooperative, one block east; note the flip tax is buyer-paid there
• 146 West 26th Street — the Mihl Building, a 1922 fur-vault loft converted to condominium; the condo alternative at almost identical scale
• 144 West 27th Street — a c. 1911 loft converted to condominium around 2000; same block depth, same era
• 110 West 25th Street — a 1913 loft condominium conversion one block south
• 124 West 24th Street — a boutique 20-unit loft condominium conversion
• 128 West 26th Street — Novum W26; the new-construction condominium comparison on the block east of Seventh Avenue
• 101 West 24th Street — Chelsea Stratus; the full-service condominium tower alternative
• 140 Seventh Avenue — Chadwin House; the post-war condominium alternative on the avenue
• 100 Seventh Avenue — the avenue-front comparison in the same submarket