26 Beaver Street (Beaver Tower)

Nineteen floors of masonry over a two-story commercial base, with a mezzanine above the ground floor. The residential floors above are almost all single-apartment plates; only the sixth floor is documented in ACRIS as split into two residences (6A and 6B), and the top of the building carries a penthouse, with the 17th and 18th floors recorded in listing records as a duplex. Residential floor area is about 49,100 square feet across nineteen apartments — roughly 2,500 gross residential square feet per residence on average. That ratio includes space beyond apartment interiors; use unit plans and measurements for usable area. Ceiling heights, column spacing and window placement are those of a 1909 office building, and interiors vary widely: DOB filings show individual apartment gut renovations in most years since 2001, so condition, not layout, is the principal variable in pricing.

Two elevators on keyed access, a superintendent on site during the week, video intercom entry, and storage and bike facilities in the cellar, per listing records. There is no attended lobby. The ground floor and mezzanine are a separate commercial unit: DOB records a 2008 alteration converting it from a restaurant to a retail store with accessory offices, and a 2011 alteration converting it again to office use, with about 2,300 square feet of commercial area on the DOF roll. Sprinkler and fire-alarm work was filed for the commercial space and the building in 2011 and 2012; exterior masonry restoration was filed in 2013 and again in 2020.

The cooperative's underlying financing is a matter of public record. A mortgage was recorded in 2007 with a cooperative lender; in May 2017 the corporation refinanced, with a consolidation agreement recorded at $2.75 million; and in December 2021 it refinanced again, recording a new mortgage of $3.75 million together with a consolidation, extension and modification agreement at $6.5 million. Across nineteen apartments that is a meaningful per-unit debt load, and the current balance, rate, maturity and reserve position should be obtained from the managing agent before an offer. Listing records describe an operating reserve above $1 million; we have not been able to verify that against audited statements.

J-51 — expired. DOF's historical J-51 file records a benefit on Block 11, Lot 14 with an initial year of 1981, a twelve-year exemption term and a 90 percent abatement rate against $274,500 of certified alteration cost. The file runs from tax year 1981 through tax year 1992, with the abatement grant exhausted by 1991. The benefit has been fully expired for more than thirty years.

421-g — never applied. The Lower Manhattan conversion program was created in 1995 for commercial-to-residential conversions commenced in the years that followed. Beaver Tower's conversion predates it by roughly fifteen years, and no 421-g benefit appears on this lot in any city record we have examined.

Current position. DOF's assessment roll carries about $8,820 of exemption against roughly $6.2 million of total assessed value — a rounding error attributable to ordinary co-op and shareholder-level credits, not a program benefit. The building pays a conventional Manhattan tax bill, and that bill is already embedded in maintenance. There is no step-down and no expiry to model.

None of the following is published by the cooperative. All of it comes from listing records and should be confirmed with the managing agent and against the offering plan and by-laws before an offer.

• Financing: reported at 80 percent maximum, which is permissive for a Financial District co-op of this vintage.
• Pets: reported permitted.
• Pied-à-terre: reported permitted.
• Subletting: reported permitted; term limits, fee schedule and ownership seasoning are not documented.
• Flip tax: not documented. Its existence, base and rate are among the first questions to put to the managing agent.
• Post-closing liquidity, trusts and LLC purchases: not documented.

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 (2024) cleared a median $761/sf (recorded) across 2 sales. Median listing discount 4.4% 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 1-00011-0014). 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.

Ask for the offering plan and the last two audited financial statements immediately. Neither is on file in our library for this building, and a nineteen-unit cooperative with a recorded consolidation at $6.5 million deserves a careful read of the balance sheet, the reserve, the debt maturity and any assessment history before you write an offer.

Get the policy stack in writing. Financing at 80 percent, pets, pied-à-terre use and subletting are all reported permitted, but none is published. In a small self-managed-scale building, board practice matters more than precedent.

The tax bill is real and already in the maintenance. Unlike much of the surrounding conversion stock, there is no abatement here to lose. Compare the all-in monthly against a 421-g building only after you have modelled that building's expiry.

Underwrite the façade cycle. The building filed exterior restoration in 2013 and again in 2020. Ask for the current FISP status, the engineer's report, and whether any assessment is contemplated.

Lead with the full floor. Four exposures on a single plate in the Financial District is the scarcest thing you own. Floor plans and light photography do more here than finish photography.

Answer the tax question before it is asked. Buyers coming from 421-g buildings will assume the maintenance is high. Explain the current ordinary tax bill and distinguish it from a bill reduced by a temporary benefit; buyers should compare the full monthly costs.

Have the financials ready. Small-building buyers and their attorneys move fast when the reserve, the underlying debt and the capital plan are in the package on day one, and slowly when they are not.

• 55 Liberty Street — the other early Financial District cooperative loft conversion, in a landmark tower
• 3 Hanover Square — cooperative conversion of a prewar commercial building a few blocks east
• 65 Nassau Street — small Financial District cooperative in converted commercial stock
• 21 South William Street — boutique conversion in the Stone Street blocks, immediately adjacent
• 1 Wall Street Court — landmark Beaver Street tower converted to residences
• 42 Ann Street — a 421-g conversion, and the clearest illustration of an expired Lower Manhattan abatement
• 20 Pine Street — full-service conversion condominium, the opposite operating model
• 88 Greenwich Street — large Financial District conversion condominium
• 15 William Street — new-construction condominium in the same blocks
• Southbridge Towers — the district's largest cooperative, for scale contrast