281 West 11th Street

LPC credits the building to Charles Rentz for D. Rosenbaum in 1901: a five-story brick-and-stone apartment house on a standard 25-foot village lot, built to the tenement-house pattern of four apartments a floor. LPC's survey notes the ground floor has been considerably altered; the upper façade carries the original masonry, which the co-op repaired under a brick and brownstone repair program filed with DOB in 2016.

Apartments are lettered A through D on each floor, with lower-level apartments below the first floor (L-A, L-C). Most homes are studios and one-bedrooms. Over time, shareholders have combined apartments — DOB records a 1A–1B combination in 2000 and a 1AB–1LA combination in 2014 — and the upper floors include duplexes joining the fourth and fifth floors (4/5C and 4D/5D in ACRIS). That is why the count drifts from source to source: 19 apartments under the offering plan, 20 in DOF and PLUTO, 18 shareholder units in the 2020 audited statements, and between 16 and 20 in DOB job filings depending on the year. The combined and duplex units trade in a different price bracket from the studios.

A 2014 DOB filing covers a new laundry room and refuse room in the cellar; whether the laundry is operating should be confirmed on a visit.

Per the plan amendment and audited financial statements on file:

Mortgage. The corporation's 2012 mortgage from a cooperative lender, $900,000 at 4.04%, was set to mature on December 1, 2022 with a balance of about $545,000. ACRIS records a July 2021 refinancing — a new $1.0 million consolidated mortgage with a different bank. The terms of that loan are not on file; get the rate, maturity and amortization from the managing agent. The corporation also had a $200,000 credit line, of which $121,500 was drawn at the end of 2020.

Assessments. The 2021 amendment describes a special assessment begun March 1, 2018 "for an indefinite period" to cover façade and adjacent sidewalk work, repay draws on the credit line and rebuild reserves. A separate capital assessment raised about $115,000 in each of 2019 and 2020. The 2021 amendment flagged the 2020 budget as a special risk because the projected operating deficit exceeded 10% of income. Whether both assessments continue in 2026 is the first question for the managing agent.

Taxes. Real estate taxes were just over half of the corporation's 2020 expenses. Like many small co-ops, the board bills an assessment roughly equal to the co-op tax abatement credited to eligible shareholders.

Abatements. DOF records show a J-51 benefit from 1966 — a 12-year exemption and an abatement on about $40,700 of certified renovation cost, which points to a mid-1960s modernization of the building while it was still a rental. The abatement ended in the mid-1970s and the exemption by 1977. No J-51 benefit is active; the only exemption on the current roll is small and at the shareholder level.

Sponsor position. Per the February 2021 amendment, the sponsor held seven unsold apartments (575 shares, 30.6% of the total), five of them vacant and held for sale. ACRIS shows the sponsor selling five apartments between June 2021 and September 2022. The two that remain on that list were occupied by rent-stabilized tenants in 2021, and no transfer of either appears in ACRIS since. Sponsor representatives held two of seven board seats in 2021, while resident directors held the majority. Confirm the current sponsor holdings and board composition before contract.

The policy stack here comes from listing records, not from governing documents on file. Treat every line as something to confirm with the managing agent:

Board approval. Standard co-op board package and interview; shares transfer only with board consent.

Financing. 20% minimum down payment per listing records.

Subletting. Permitted after two years of residence per listing records. The 2020 audited statements show meaningful sublet-fee income, which confirms subletting happens in practice.

Pied-à-terre and co-purchasing. Permitted per listing records.

Flip tax, trust and LLC purchases. Not documented. Get the board's written position before an offer depends on either.

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. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2022): a median $1,271/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2025. Median listing discount 1.6% 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 1-00623-0055). 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.

Get the post-2021 mortgage terms. The 2021 refinancing replaced a loan that was due in 2022. Its maturity and rate set the next refinancing risk, and none of that is in the records on file.

Ask whether the 2018 assessment has ended. It was levied for an indefinite period. Your carrying cost is maintenance plus any assessment still running.

Know what the sponsor still holds. Two rent-stabilized apartments, if our reading of ACRIS is right. That is roughly a tenth of the building — small, but relevant to the sublet cap, lender questionnaires and the board's budget.

It is a walk-up. Price the stairs honestly, especially for a fifth-floor or duplex purchase.

Lead with the block and the landmark district. West 11th between West 4th and Bleecker does real work in a sale.

Have the capital story ready. Buyers' attorneys will read the 2021 amendment's special-risk language. Current statements showing the façade work done and the budget stable are the answer.

Combined apartments need paperwork. If you are selling a combination or duplex, have the DOB sign-offs and the board's alteration approvals in the file.

If you're considering 281 West 11th Street, also evaluate:

• 295 West 11th Street — larger 1926 cooperative at the Bleecker Street end of the same block
• 270 West 11th Street — prewar cooperative on the same stretch of West 11th
• 226 West 11th Street — landmarked walk-up cooperative on West 11th Street
• 256 West 10th Street — walk-up cooperative a block south
• 79 Perry Street — five-story walk-up cooperative of the same era
• 247 West 12th Street — 1910–11 cooperative a block north
• 11 Charlton Street — small elevator cooperative south of Houston Street, in the Charlton–King–VanDam Historic District