237 Lafayette Street
237 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012
Nolita
BBL 1004950002 · BIN 1007521
- Year built
- 1911
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 21
- Floors
- 12
- Landmark
- No
- Pets
- Not documented in the package on file — confirm with the managing agent
Every recorded sale at this building, 2005–2025
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $2,438
- Listing discount
- 6.2%
- Recorded sales
- 14
- On record
- 2005–2025
The name on the stock certificate tells the story. Lafayette Artists Corporation was incorporated on October 1, 1977, at the moment when downtown loft tenants were converting the buildings they had been living in illegally into cooperatives they owned. The city's own records track the work: two J-51 grants, initiated in 1979 and 1980, certifying a combined $221,300 of alteration cost against a twelve-year exemption and a 90 percent abatement. That is the conversion, and it is documented — PLUTO's 1986 alteration year reflects later work, and brokerage records dating the conversion to 1975 predate the corporation's own charter.
What the co-op produced is a twelve-story loft building of 21 apartments, two to a floor, on a 50-foot lot between Prince and Spring. Because the building sits in a C6-2 commercial district inside the Special Little Italy District rather than in SoHo's manufacturing zoning, its residential use was legal on conventional terms from the start. The certificate of occupancy issued in February 2011 classifies the apartments R-2, Class A, zoning use group 2. This is not a Joint Living–Work Quarters building, and the distinction matters: buyers coming from SoHo lofts a block west, where artist certification and use group 17D govern, will find the paperwork here simpler.
The landmark question is also worth resolving precisely, because the answer is counterintuitive. Nothing on this tax block is designated. The SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District Extension, designated in 2010, covers 238 through 250 Lafayette and the Crosby Street lots behind them — the block immediately across the street — and the boundary runs down the middle of Lafayette. Verified lot by lot against LPC's own database, 237 Lafayette is outside it. That means alterations here do not require a Certificate of Appropriateness, and it also means the block's low-rise context is not protected.
The financial picture is the part a buyer should read most carefully, and it is unusual in both directions. On the good side: the corporation owns the building outright. There is no underlying mortgage on the balance sheet and none recorded in ACRIS, which removes the single largest refinancing risk most prewar cooperatives carry. On the other side: real estate taxes accounted for roughly 69 percent of total operating expenses in the most recent statements on file, cash at year end was under $60,000, and the corporation's own notes state that its governing documents do not require accumulating funds for future repairs, that no study of remaining useful lives has been done, and that when funds are needed the corporation "plans to borrow, increase maintenance assessments, or delay repairs until funds are available." The statements are a compilation, not an audit; the accountants expressly disclaim any opinion.
Read together, those facts describe a specific kind of building: a debt-free, thinly capitalized, tax-heavy loft cooperative that funds capital work when it arrives rather than in advance. That is neither good nor bad on its own. It is a posture, and it should be priced.
Architecture and unit composition
Twelve stories and 150 feet on a 5,005-square-foot lot — a tall, narrow 1911 loft rather than a wide SoHo warehouse. The elevation is beige brick over a three-story dark metal base, with arched openings at the top floor and a bandcourse above the tenth. Terra cotta appears in the trim; the 2019 facade filing describes repairs to terra-cotta and masonry cracks, brick spalls, a rebuilt parapet on one exposure and waterproofing at the window lintels, following a Local Law 11 cycle-six campaign in 2009 that addressed rusted lintels and bulged masonry. Windows were replaced under permit in 2023.
Two apartments per floor across floors two through eleven produces half-floor plates of roughly 2,000 square feet with light on two exposures; the fourth floor is a single full-floor apartment. The upper floors are the building's premium: the twelfth floor holds one apartment and a half apartment, a spiral stair to a new roof bulkhead was permitted in 2009, and the arched top-floor openings give those units a window rhythm the lower floors do not have. Column-and-beam loft structure, high ceilings and deep window reveals throughout; individual condition varies widely, because apartments here have been renovated one at a time since the late 1970s.
The ground floor and mezzanine are commercial. The store unit was sold out of the corporation and has been separately held since 2008; the certificate of occupancy records retail at the first floor and cellar and office space at the mezzanine.
Building operations
Not a doorman building. The most recent financial statements on file show a superintendent service line, elevator service, alarm and sprinkler service, insurance and extermination, with no concierge or staff payroll of the kind a full-service house carries. Access is by video security and key-locked elevator, and freight service handles moves and deliveries. Moves are scheduled with the managing agent, run Monday through Friday between nine and five, carry a $500 fee in each direction, require the shareholder to pay building staff for freight elevator operation, and require a certificate of insurance five days in advance naming the corporation and the managing agent as additional insureds.
Recent capital work on file includes a water tank replacement contracted in 2018 and the two facade campaigns described above. There is no reserve fund policy. Ask the managing agent for the most recent statements, the current maintenance schedule, and whether any assessment is live or contemplated.
Policy framework
Ownership form: Cooperative. You purchase shares of Lafayette Artists Corporation and a proprietary lease. Board approval is a condition of closing and the board is not required to give a reason for refusal.
Board package: One original and five copies. The package on file requires the completed purchase application, the contract of sale, three years of signed federal tax returns, recent bank and brokerage statements verifying every figure on the application, a letter of employment confirming position, length of employment and income, three recent pay stubs, three personal reference letters, three business reference letters, a reference letter from the current landlord or managing agent stating the monthly rent or maintenance, a credit check authorization, an emergency contact form, and executed lead paint, window guard and smoking policy forms. Three years of returns and three business references is a heavier package than most cooperatives of this size ask for.
Interview: Required. The board may also require other proposed occupants to appear.
Financing: Capped at 75 percent of the purchase price. Bank commitment letter and three Aztech recognition agreements are required with the package.
Post-closing liquidity: Not published. Plan on demonstrating meaningful reserves after closing and run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator before you offer.
Fees at purchase: $500 application fee to the managing agent, $500 to the corporation for review of the application, and $75 per applicant for the credit check. The package states that buyer and seller are responsible for any additional costs the corporation incurs to complete the transaction, including closing costs.
Use restrictions: No structural alterations without prior written board consent; no use of the apartment for other than residential purposes; and a separate signed acknowledgment that units may not be used for business purposes.
Subletting, flip tax, pied-à-terre, trusts and LLCs: None of these appears in the purchase package on file. In a 21-unit cooperative these are board-level questions with real answers that simply have not been published; get them from the managing agent in writing before contract. Do not assume the SoHo default in either direction.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- Per unit / month range
- —
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
See full Local Law 97 analysis — emissions history, scenarios, methodology →Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available FISP filing classified the facade as Safe — no repairs were required at that inspection. Facade inspections run on a fixed five-year cycle; future inspection, repair, and any assessment decisions remain building-specific.
How to read this, and where it comes from
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — the licensed engineer the city requires to sign the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent).
Penalties shown are amounts DOB assessed against filings on record across 2005–10 to 2025–30. The FISP dataset does not record whether they were paid, contested or remain open, so treat the figure as history rather than a current balance and confirm the building’s standing with the managing agent.
Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
Recent sales
Recent transfers 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 19, 2025 | 9W | 2 BR · 1 BA · 2,000 sf | $3,400,000 | $1,700/sf | -5.4% |
| May 8, 2025 | 12 | 4 BR · 5 BA | $11,400,000 | -12.0% | |
| May 8, 2025 | 12W | 2 BR · 2.5 BA · 1,700 sf | $5,400,000 | $3,176/sf | +0.0% |
| May 8, 2025 | 12E | 2 BR · 3 BA | $6,000,000 | -16.7% | |
| Feb 25, 2021 | — | 5 BR · 3 BA · 4,500 sf | $4,200,000 | $933/sf | -6.7% |
| Feb 24, 2021 | 4 | 5 BR · 3 BA · 4,500 sf | $4,200,000 | $933/sf | +0.0% |
| Jun 9, 2020 | 5W | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,700 sf | $2,750,000 | $1,618/sf | -3.5% |
| Feb 22, 2016 | 5E | 2 BR · 2,200 sf | $3,000,000 | $1,364/sf | -22.1% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2025) cleared a median $2,438/sf across 2 sales. Median listing discount 6.2% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
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 1-00495-0002) 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 on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.
What to know if you’re buying
No mortgage is the headline; no reserve is the fine print. A debt-free cooperative removes refinancing risk entirely. It does not remove capital risk. Read the statements, note that they are compiled rather than audited, and underwrite the possibility of an assessment.
Taxes dominate the maintenance. Roughly seven dollars in ten of the operating budget goes to real estate taxes, and the lot carries no abatement of any kind. Maintenance increases here will track the assessment roll more than they track operating costs.
J-51 is long gone. The 1979 and 1980 grants expired in the early 1990s. Any analysis that treats this as an abated loft building is thirty years out of date.
It is not landmarked — and neither is the block. No Certificate of Appropriateness is required for exterior work, which simplifies alterations. It also means nothing constrains what can be built nearby.
Get the sublet and flip tax answers in writing. Neither is in the file. Both change the math.
Business use is prohibited by signed acknowledgment. Despite the corporation's name and the building's loft history, this is a residential-only house. If you plan to see clients or run a practice from the apartment, resolve it before contract.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the balance sheet. No underlying mortgage is a genuinely differentiating fact in a downtown cooperative and buyers' attorneys will confirm it in minutes. Say it first.
Explain the maintenance. A high maintenance figure that is mostly real estate taxes reads very differently from a high maintenance figure that is mostly debt service. Show the composition.
Prepare the buyer for the package. Three years of tax returns, three business references and three personal references is a real lift. Buyers who learn about it late lose momentum; buyers who are briefed early clear the board.
Price the floor, not the building. With two apartments per floor across twelve floors and forty-five years of one-at-a-time renovation, there is no building average. Run the Renovation Cost Calculator against your asking strategy.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 237 Lafayette Street, also evaluate:
- 225 Lafayette Street — Lafayette Street loft condominium two blocks south; the condominium alternative on the same street
- 210 Lafayette Street — Lafayette Street loft condominium; the west-side comparison
- 285 Lafayette Street — larger Lafayette Street loft conversion north of Houston
- 295 Lafayette Street — Puck Building penthouse condominium; the top of the corridor
- 34 Prince Street — Prince Street condominium one tax block west; a separate building on a separate lot, and a useful Nolita comparison
- 11 Prince Street — Nolita condominium of similar scale
- 8 Prince Street — boutique Nolita condominium; the small-building alternative
- 93 Mercer Street — SoHo loft cooperative; the closest peer by tenure and plate
- 515 Broadway — block-through SoHo loft cooperative at far greater scale
- 129 Lafayette Street — Lafayette Street loft conversion further south
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across East Village + NoHo — read The Roebling Team Guide to East Village + NoHo.
The full playbook — what goes in the package, how boards read your financials, the interview, and the timeline — plus sample cover, reference, and personal letters you can adapt.
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 237 Lafayette Street?
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A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 237 Lafayette 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.