- Year built
- 1915
- Type
- Condominium
- Landmark
- No
261 Broadway occupies one of the most historically resonant sites in Lower Manhattan — directly opposite City Hall and City Hall Park, at the threshold between Tribeca and the Civic Center. Built around 1915 to a design by James B. Baker as the City Hall Office Building, the building has a deep commercial past: Thomas Cook opened his first American travel office on this site in 1872, and Scientific American was once among the building's tenants. That loft heritage gave the building the scale and bones that make its residential conversion appealing today.
The setting is the building's permanent advantage. Facing the open green of City Hall Park, the building enjoys protected light and a genuine park outlook — a rarity downtown — and it sits at the convergence of Tribeca's restaurant blocks, the Financial District, and the downtown transit hub. At 65 residences across 12 floors, it is an intimate, characterful building with a strong sense of place.
For buyers, the appeal is a pre-war loft-era home with park frontage and condominium flexibility, at the heart of one of New York's most storied districts.
Architecture and unit composition
The building presents as a dignified early-20th-century loft structure on a prominent Broadway corner, its proportions and detailing rooted in the commercial architecture of the period. The residential conversion preserved the scale and light that a 1915 loft building offers, with two elevator banks serving the floors and a planted roof garden crowning the building.
The 65 residences carry loft-era character — good ceiling heights, large windows, and flexible, open layouts — with the homes facing City Hall Park enjoying the building's signature protected outlook over the green. Light and view vary by line and floor, and the park-facing homes command the strongest appeal. Throughout, the building pairs its pre-war bones with modern conveniences, including video intercom and updated systems.
Building operations
261 Broadway operates with a live-in superintendent and a full-time porter, supported by video intercom security — a model suited to an intimate building. Its standout amenity is the lushly planted roof garden, which offers residents sweeping city and park views, along with a second-floor laundry room and bicycle storage.
As a condominium, ownership is flexible — financing is straightforward, purchases clear through a right-of-first-refusal rather than a co-op board package, and pied-à-terre, LLC, trust, and investor purchases are customary. Common charges and real estate taxes are billed separately. The location is exceptional for walking: City Hall Park at the door, Tribeca's restaurants and shops a block or two north, the Financial District to the south, and the full downtown subway network at hand.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- Per unit / month range
- —
Facade safety — Local Law 11
Safe to live in today — but the last inspection flagged repairs that are due on a deadline, so facade work and its cost are coming. Whether that’s a real concern depends on the scope, the timing, and how the building plans to pay for it — reserves or an assessment — which is exactly what we’d dig into for you.
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — the licensed engineer the city requires to sign the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent). Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library.
See the full facade history →Recent sales
261 Broadway's 65 residences turn over at the steady pace of a mid-sized condominium — a modest, consistent number of resales in a given year. Pricing reflects the Tribeca / Civic Center condominium market and is driven by floor, exposure, ceiling height, layout, and renovation, with the park-facing homes and their protected light and outlook commanding the building's strongest figures. Renovated loft-character units perform best. For current availability and a unit-level read on value, the live sales record for this address is the best starting point.
What to know if you’re buying
This is a condominium, so the buying path is the lighter one — a right-of-first-refusal rather than a board interview, flexible financing, and no bar to pied-à-terre or investor ownership. The single biggest value lever here is exposure: the homes facing City Hall Park enjoy protected light and a park view that the rear-facing lines do not, so prioritize accordingly. Beyond exposure, weigh ceiling height, layout, and the scope of any renovation, and review the building's financials and reserve position. The location — park frontage at the seam of Tribeca and the Financial District — is a durable asset that few downtown buildings can match.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the setting and the provenance: a 1915 loft-era condominium opposite City Hall Park, with protected park views from the front-facing homes and a planted roof garden above. That park frontage is the building's rarest asset and the centerpiece of any park-facing listing. Benchmark to comparable Tribeca and Civic Center condominiums, stage to the home's light and loft character, and present renovation history clearly. A resale clears through a right-of-first-refusal on a faster, more predictable timeline than a co-op — itself a point worth making to buyers.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 261 Broadway, also evaluate these Lower Manhattan and Tribeca condominium peers:
- 270 Broadway — pre-war lower-Manhattan condominium nearby
- 176 Broadway — downtown loft-era building
- 233 Broadway — the Woolworth Tower Residences
- 25 North Moore Street — The Atalanta, a Tribeca warehouse loft conversion
- 240 Centre Street — The Police Building, a Beaux-Arts landmark conversion
The Roebling Team at 261 Broadway
The Roebling Team at Compass specializes in Tribeca, the Financial District, and the broader Lower Manhattan condominium market. We publish this profile because buyers and sellers evaluating a park-facing building like 261 Broadway deserve building-specific intelligence — the history, the protected park frontage, the amenity profile, and where the pricing sits within downtown's condominium inventory.
If you're considering a purchase or sale at 261 Broadway, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.
Get the full picture on this building.
Current availability including off-market, the full comp set, and the board & financials read most listings don't show.