242 Lafayette Street

The lot has fifty-six feet of frontage on Lafayette; its width alone does not establish current apartment layouts or areas. Recorded unit labels run north and south on floors two through five; confirm the current legal layouts, street exposures and depth from approved plans, including the recorded 2013 combination. The reported residential building area divided by eight does not establish a 1,500-square-foot average interior or ceiling heights. Verify the actual plans and measurements; the interior renovation filings on record describe relocating non-load-bearing partitions and plumbing within open volumes, not reconfiguring a fixed room plan.

The north elevation is exposed brick in two bays with segmental lintels, a consequence of the 1897 rebuilding. The roof carries a wood deck and fence. Individual apartment renovations are documented across the record — 4N in 2016, 5N in 2018, 5S in 2015, a second-floor apartment in 2016, a fourth-floor apartment in 2002 — so condition varies unit to unit and should be assessed apartment by apartment rather than assumed from the building.

Two attempts to add space above were made and neither succeeded. A 2003 alteration proposed renovating a fifth-floor apartment and adding a 525-square-foot penthouse; a 2009 alteration proposed a new rooftop addition. Both remain at plan-examination disapproved in DOB's records, neither reached permit, and the building is still five stories. The lot is now inside a historic district, which changes the calculus for any future attempt. Do not underwrite roof rights here.

There is one passenger elevator and no staff. Capital work appears in the DOB record at the rhythm you would want from a small self-directed cooperative rather than in bursts: the gas boiler was replaced with two units in 2010, façade repair and repointing was filed in 2011, and a full roof program — membrane and flashing replacement, cracked masonry replacement, repointing, and new guard rails — was filed in 2018. Storefront work at street level followed in 2019 and 2020. Debris netting was filed over the adjacent plaza in 2020 for neighboring construction.

On the financing side, ACRIS shows the corporation's mortgage history: a National Consumer Cooperative Bank loan in 1992, an HSBC facility in 2001, a $1.1 million mortgage in 2011, and then in January 2019 a $1.5 million first mortgage together with a $200,000 facility, with the prior loan discharged at the same closing. The maturity date is not in the public record. Ask for it. In an eight-apartment cooperative, the underlying mortgage's maturity and terms are the single most consequential number in the financial statements, and it is not published anywhere a buyer can reach.

The two ground-floor commercial units are cooperative units held outside the residential shareholder group; the recorded transfers show the storefront shares moving to an outside commercial owner in 2017. Because they are shares rather than a lease, the corporation collects maintenance on them rather than market rent. How many shares are allocated to the commercial units — and therefore how much of the operating budget they carry — is a question the audited financials answer and nothing else does.

This is the single most important thing a buyer needs to understand about this building, and it is not obvious from a listing.

The apartments are joint living-work quarters for artists. DOB filings describe them that way as recently as 2013. Under the M1-5B zoning that governed the lot until December 2021, JLWQA occupancy was restricted to certified artists and other lawful occupants; eligibility and applicable statutory protections require unit-specific legal review.

The rezoning effective December 15, 2021 replaced M1-5B with M1-5/R7D inside a new Special SoHo-NoHo Mixed Use District, and the 2022 state amendment protects qualifying permanent occupants whose residence began on or before that date. Their protection should not be assumed to pass to a new buyer or tenant. Conversion to ordinary residential use requires City Planning Chair certification, recorded instruments, an Arts Fund contribution, necessary code work and a new or amended certificate of occupancy. The contribution began at $100 per square foot on December 15, 2021 and is adjusted annually; confirm the rate effective when paid.

A proposed occupant who is not eligible for JLWQA occupancy needs the applicable conversion before occupancy; an eligible occupant may be able to continue the existing use. The old $100 rate and an inferred 1,500-square-foot average cannot establish today’s conversion cost. Counsel and a design professional should confirm eligibility, measured conversion area, the current contribution and required work, then review legal obligations and cooperative documents to allocate the costs. Whether any unit in this building has been converted is not documented in DOB's online filings. Establish the current certificate-of-occupancy status of the specific apartment, and the board's position on conversion, before contract. The asking price does not establish those legal requirements or costs.

On the Loft Law: no Interim Multiple Dwelling registration appears in the records reviewed, and every DOB filing on the building carries the Loft Board flag as "N." The ordinary explanation fits — the cooperative took title in 1977, five years before Article 7-C, and its occupants have held shares rather than tenancies throughout. Confirm it with the managing agent rather than relying on inference, because former-IMD status carries an exemption from the SoHo/NoHo conversion and Arts Fund requirements and is therefore worth establishing definitively.

Management-sourced records document a flip tax of 1 percent of gross sale price, subletting permitted with board approval subject to a surcharge documented at 5 percent, pets permitted, and pied-à-terre use permitted. Those four are the extent of what is published.

The Research Library does not hold an offering plan for this building. The maximum financing percentage, the minimum down payment, any post-closing liquidity requirement, the board's posture on purchases by trusts, LLCs or other entities, on co-purchasing, guarantors and gifting, and any seasoning period before a sublet is permitted have not been verified in the materials reviewed; establish them from the governing documents and current application requirements. Obtain them from the managing agent in writing before making an offer. A financing ceiling or liquidity requirement discovered after acceptance can change affordability, but no transaction sample establishes it as the most common cause of failed deals here.

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. Most recent trades (2025) cleared a median $1,567/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount -2.5% over ask.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00496-0030). 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.

You are buying shares, not real property. Title is in the corporation. You will receive a stock certificate and a proprietary lease. Your lender will be making a share loan against that collateral, recognized by a recognition agreement the corporation must sign — and in an eight-shareholder building, confirm at the outset that the board will execute one for your lender.

The board package and interview are the transaction. With eight apartments the board is effectively the whole building, and the review is personal rather than procedural. Assemble a complete package — two to three years of returns, verified assets, employment and reference letters, and a clean financial statement — and expect the interview to matter. Run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator before you offer.

Get the financing ceiling and the liquidity standard in writing first. They are not published. If the building permits only 50 or 60 percent financing, or expects two years of post-closing liquidity, that changes what you can bid — and finding out after acceptance may require financing changes or affect whether the purchase can proceed.

Price the JLWQA question. Establish the apartment's occupancy classification of record and whether conversion to Residential Use Group 2 has been done, is planned, or is being left alone. If conversion is required or chosen, obtain the current contribution rate, qualifying floor area, professional and construction costs, and counsel’s analysis of payment responsibility; the historical $100 base is annually adjusted.

Read the underlying mortgage. A $1.5 million first plus a $200,000 facility were recorded in January 2019, spread across eight apartments, but the maturity is not public, and a refinancing into a different rate environment could change maintenance. Review the current budget, audited statements, debt and any assessments.

Landmark status constrains the exterior. The storefronts, windows and façade are regulated. Window replacement and any street-facing change require a Landmarks permit. Budget time, not just money.

No staff, no doorman, no package room. The building is self-directed. Confirm how deliveries, contractors and building access are handled, and read the house rules on renovation hours and elevator use — with one elevator and eight apartments, a neighbor's gut renovation is felt.

Lead with the building's history and its landmark façade. An 1881 John Sexton factory, twice-designed, inside the SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District Extension, held by the same cooperative since 1977, is a genuinely distinctive provenance and it survives buyer diligence intact.

Correct the year built before a buyer finds it. The Department of Finance roll and most listing records carry 1910. The building dates to 1881–82 with an 1897–98 addition, per LPC's designation report and the original DOB dockets. Supply the correct record up front; it reads as authority rather than as a correction.

Have the policy stack ready in writing. The profile reports management-sourced pet, pied-à-terre, sublet and 1 percent transfer-fee terms, subject to current confirmation. Financing and liquidity requirements remain unverified. Obtain a dated current policy schedule and governing documents before marketing.

Address JLWQA proactively. Provide the current certificate of occupancy and the board’s written position, then have counsel establish the proposed occupant’s legal eligibility or required conversion path. The 2021 rezoning alone did not resolve every buyer’s occupancy rights.

Present the capital record. Filings show boiler work in 2010, façade work in 2011 and roof work in 2018; present them with the filings, and confirm completion and current condition with the managing agent.

If you're considering 242 Lafayette Street, also evaluate:

• 237 Lafayette Street — the 21-apartment loft cooperative on block 495, directly opposite; the nearest like-for-like in tenure and street
• 292 Lafayette Street — an 1883–84 loft cooperative of thirteen apartments and a store; the closest match in vintage, scale and structure
• 284 Lafayette Street — an 1891–92 loft cooperative of twenty residences; the larger Lafayette Street co-op alternative
• 33 Greene Street — an 1873 loft cooperative with eight residences; the closest peer by shareholder count
• 16 Crosby Street — an 1877 twelve-unit loft cooperative on Crosby Street; comparable governance at comparable scale
• 106 Spring Street — a ten-loft cooperative, two per floor, in an 1890s store-and-loft building; the same plate logic
• 169 Spring Street — a c. 1882 loft cooperative converted in 1979; the same pioneer-conversion generation
• 101 Wooster Street — an 1893–94 nine-residence loft cooperative with a commercial unit; near-identical unit count and commercial structure
• 102 Wooster Street — an 1891 store building converted to eight condominium residences plus a commercial unit; the condominium alternative at the same scale
• 115 Mercer Street — an 1872 loft converted to eight residential and two commercial condominium units; the deeded-ownership comparison
• 225 Lafayette Street — a c. 1926 loft converted to condominium in the mid-2000s; newer conversion, same corridor