27 Great Jones Street

The two buildings read as a single mass from the sidewalk: masonry and cast-iron elevations, retail at grade behind a continuous storefront band, and a regular rhythm of large loft windows above. The scale is commercial-19th-century rather than residential — deep floor plates, high ceilings, and structural columns carried through the interiors.

Residences run as matched pairs. On the second through fifth floors, a west residence of roughly 1,858 square feet sits opposite an east residence of roughly 1,951. Above them, the two penthouses — approximately 2,726 square feet west and 3,006 square feet east — are the only units in the building that break the pattern, and the only ones with meaningful rooftop relationship. Residences carry keyed elevator access, which delivers the elevator directly into the apartment rather than into a public landing; wood-burning fireplaces, an increasingly rare and increasingly regulated amenity in Manhattan; central air conditioning; and in-unit laundry.

The commercial unit at the base is large by the standards of a ten-unit building — roughly 10,250 square feet against about 21,000 square feet of residential area, meaning the commercial space is close to a third of the building's floor area. That ratio is worth understanding before contract, because it shapes both the common-charge allocation and the building's exposure to a single commercial tenancy.

This is a small, self-contained condominium rather than a full-service building. There is an elevator and a managing agent; there is no doorman or amenity program of the kind found in newer NoHo condominiums, and the operating budget is correspondingly lean. Department of Buildings records show a recurring cadence of façade and sidewalk-shed work — sheds filed in 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2015, with masonry restoration filed in 2005 — which is the normal maintenance rhythm for a pair of 19th-century masonry buildings under Local Law 11 cycles, and which any buyer should trace forward to the current cycle status.

The residential unit lots carry no tax exemption of any kind. There is no 421-a, no J-51 and no 485-x on this building, and residences have been taxed at full assessment since the conversion.

Ownership form: Condominium. Purchases close through the board's right of first refusal rather than a cooperative-style approval, but the building does run a formal application through its managing agent, with an application fee and refundable move-in deposits from both buyer and seller.

Pets: Permitted per management-sourced records. Confirm weight and breed limits in the house rules.

Pied-à-terre and secondary residence: Both permitted.

Subletting: Permitted. Short-term rentals and Airbnb-style listings are prohibited.

Purchaser structures: Co-purchasing, parents purchasing for a child, guarantors and corporate purchases are permitted. Diplomatic purchases are not.

Financing: Maximum financing of 80 percent of the purchase price — a 20 percent minimum down payment.

Insurance: Both homeowner's and renter's insurance are required.

Flip tax: No transfer fee appears in management-sourced records. Because an unrecorded transfer fee is a common surprise at closing, confirm the point directly with the managing agent.

Real estate taxes: No abatement. Underwrite full unabated taxes on the specific unit and run True Monthly Carrying Cost analysis against the current bill.

The lot is inside the NoHo Historic District Extension, designated May 13, 2008. Every exterior alteration visible from the street requires a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and the building has been through that process recently: an application to replace the ground-floor storefront infill went to a public hearing on December 3, 2024 and was approved with modifications, with Commission staff directed to refine the storefront details and louvers. Community Board 2 had separately recommended conditions on the louvers and on replacement light fixtures.

For a purchaser the practical consequences are narrow but real. Interior work is generally outside the Commission's jurisdiction. Window replacement, storefront work, rooftop additions and anything visible from Great Jones Street are not, and they run on the Commission's calendar rather than yours. Penthouse buyers contemplating rooftop work should treat that timeline as a real constraint and price it.

Recent sales

Recent closings 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.

Market read. Most recent trades (2024) cleared a median $2,048/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 3.8% 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 1-00530-7502) 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.

Do not use the PLUTO year built. It reports 1900 for a lot holding an 1868–70 building and an 1891 building. Any valuation or insurance analysis keyed to that date is keyed to a fiction.

Understand that you are buying into two buildings. The condominium spans No. 27 and No. 29 on a single lot with a single core. Structural, façade and roof conditions can differ between the two halves. Ask for the most recent Local Law 11 filings and the engineer's report, and ask whether findings were building-specific.

The commercial unit is roughly a third of the floor area. A single large ground-floor tenancy at that scale is material to the building's finances and to street-level conditions. Understand the commercial unit's common-charge allocation and its arrears history.

Landmarks governs the exterior. Anything visible from Great Jones Street requires a Certificate of Appropriateness. Budget the calendar, not just the cost.

Wood-burning fireplaces need diligence. Confirm the flue's current legal and physical status with the managing agent; wood-burning rights in Manhattan buildings are frequently more constrained in practice than in the house rules.

Confirm the transfer fee in writing. None is documented publicly, which is not the same as none existing.

Lead with the plate, not the address. A full-floor loft of roughly 1,900 square feet with keyed elevator access, a wood-burning fireplace and central air is a specific product, and the buyer pool for it is narrow and motivated. That is the pitch.

Correct the record early. Public data reports 1900. The Landmarks designation report is more precise and more flattering, and it is a primary source. Put the real dates in front of buyers before their data pull does.

Price against converted lofts, not new development. The competing set is other NoHo and SoHo cast-iron and masonry conversions, not the amenitized new condominiums on Bond Street and the Bowery, whose economics and buyer pools differ.

Expect a thin same-building comparable set. With ten residences, a seller's own line history and the paired east/west line may be the most relevant evidence available. Prepare it.

If you're considering 27 Great Jones Street, also evaluate:

• 43 Great Jones Street — an 1892–93 loft building on the same block, run as a cooperative of full-floor residences; the closest match on plate logic and the clearest illustration of how much ownership form changes the deal
• 1 Bond Street (Robbins & Appleton Building) — landmark cast-iron conversion one block south, offered as joint living-work units over a ground-floor commercial unit; the marquee NoHo loft alternative
• 7 Bond Street — small Bond Street building converted to condominium in 1986; the earlier-generation NoHo conversion
• 22 Bond Street — BKSK Architects' boutique condominium of six full-floor duplexes at the corner of Bond and Great Jones, also addressed 25 Great Jones Street
• 25 Bond Street — BKSK Architects' 2008 Bond Street condominium; ten residences, the same small denominator
• 40 Bond Street — Herzog & de Meuron with Handel Architects, 2007; the design-led new-construction alternative with an entirely different cost structure
• 48 Bond Street — Deborah Berke & Partners, 2008, structured as a cooperative with condominium-style rules on a land lease; a materially different ownership form worth understanding before comparing prices
• 285 Lafayette Street — large loft conversion on the corridor's western edge; more units, more services
• 250 Bowery — new-construction boutique condominium on the Bowery; the modern-systems alternative nearby
• 199 Bowery (NoLiTa Place) — built as a rental in 2002 and converted to condominium in 2005; the postwar-vintage alternative