32 Morton Street

The building presents as early-twentieth-century commercial brick rather than as a residence: red brick laid plain, steel casement windows, and a massing that follows the wedge of the lot rather than a rectangle. The corner geometry is the design's most useful accident. Because Morton and Bedford meet at an angle here and the lot is irregular by city record, the building carries more perimeter than its footprint would suggest, and the apartments carry more exposures than a comparable mid-block loft.

Interior plates are what the conversion produced: full and half-floor loft apartments in A, B and C lines, with the top-floor A residence carried as a penthouse. Published records describe apartments ranging from roughly 1,100 square feet to well over 2,000, but those apartment-specific figures need their own measurement basis; aggregate building area does not verify them. Ceiling heights, column spacing and window walls are original loft construction. The Department of Buildings alteration record shows a steady stream of individual apartment renovations across the last two decades — kitchens, baths, non-bearing partitions, HVAC modifications, roof-structure work on the top floor, a new lot-line window in 2016 — which is the normal signature of a building whose apartments turn over into gut renovation rather than cosmetic refresh.

Documented capital work is substantial and continuous. Department of Buildings filings record exterior masonry and facade repairs with waterproofing in 2002; remediation of a site wall in response to a Landmarks violation, also in 2002; a powder room added to the cellar recreation room in 2004; replacement of the exterior wood deck in 2006; a low-pressure boiler and gas burner replacement in 2007; sidewalk shed and masonry reconstruction in 2010–2011; pipe scaffolding in 2012; an eighth-cycle facade repair in 2019 covering defective brickwork and mortar, brick windowsills, railing assemblies and a fire-escape handrail section; and a lobby renovation permitted in 2020.

The Landmarks file continues into the present: a Certificate of No Effect for brick and stucco replacement was issued in October 2024, and a Certificate of Appropriateness for rooftop and terrace mechanical equipment was issued in February 2025. Read together, these approvals show envelope work planned on an eight-story landmarked masonry facade; whether it was completed, and the facade's current condition, needs confirming in recent reports and board materials. It also means a buyer should expect Landmarks jurisdiction over any exterior element of a renovation, including windows, terrace equipment and roof work.

No audited financial statement for the cooperative was located in either document library. The underlying mortgage, reserve position, assessment history and current maintenance schedule are therefore unknown to us and should be obtained from the managing agent and reviewed by counsel.

Ownership form: Cooperative. A purchase at 32 Morton is a purchase of shares in MOR Seventh Avenue Owners Corp. together with a proprietary lease, not a purchase of real property. Approval rests with the board, and the board is not obliged to give a reason.

The policy stack is not published, and we will not guess at it. Financing ceiling, minimum down payment, post-closing liquidity requirement, sublet policy and sublet fee, flip tax structure, pied-à-terre posture, and the treatment of trusts, LLCs, co-purchasers, guarantors and gift funds are all board-set at this building and none of them appear in any public record or in any document on file with us. Ask the managing agent for the current terms in writing before you make an offer, and have your attorney confirm them against the proprietary lease and house rules during diligence.

Real estate taxes: The J-51 benefits granted at conversion ran their 12-year course and disappear from the Department of Finance rolls after tax year 1993. Check the building's current tax bill for any other benefit before underwriting maintenance.

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 (2024): a median $1,825/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2025. Median listing discount 0.0% from the last ask.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00583-0029). 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, and the board is the gate. Expect a full board package — two to three years of tax returns, a complete financial statement, verified liquid assets, employment and personal references — followed by an in-person interview. Build the timeline into your contract: package preparation, board review and interview scheduling at a small self-managed-scale building routinely take longer than the 30-to-45-day condominium clock. Run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator before you offer.

Get the financing ceiling in writing first. Nothing about this building's maximum permitted financing is published. A West Village loft co-op of this vintage may permit 75 percent, may cap at 50 percent, or may set the number case by case. Do not sign a contract on an assumption; ask the managing agent and get the answer in writing, then size your loan to it.

Ask specifically about post-closing liquidity. Boards at buildings like this commonly require liquid reserves after closing measured in years of maintenance and mortgage payments. The actual requirement must be established for this cooperative alongside the financing cap; neither a typical multiple nor a claimed rejection frequency should be assumed.

Sublet policy determines whether this is an asset or a residence. Ask for the seasoning period, the maximum sublet term, the renewal posture, and the sublet fee. Many prewar Village co-ops permit subletting only after several years of occupancy and only for limited terms; some effectively do not permit it at all. If flexibility matters to you, resolve this before contract.

Flip tax, pied-à-terre, trusts and LLCs. All four are board-set and unpublished here. A flip tax may be a percentage of price, a percentage of gain, a per-share amount, or a flat fee, and it changes seller net materially. Pied-à-terre and non-occupant ownership are frequently restricted in small Village co-ops, and purchases in a trust or LLC often require personal guarantees or are refused outright. Confirm each one.

Landmarks governs your renovation envelope. Covered exterior work — windows, terrace or roof mechanical equipment, facade elements — needs LPC approval; ordinary maintenance may be exempt and qualifying work may receive staff approval. Interior work requiring a DOB permit also needs LPC review. Price that into a renovation budget and timeline. Run the Renovation Cost Calculator.

Read the financials, which we do not have. Ask for the two most recent audited statements, the underlying mortgage balance and maturity date, the reserve balance, and any assessment history or planned capital work. The building's facade cycle is active: the records show a 2019 eighth-cycle filing and 2024–25 Landmarks approvals. Confirm completion, current condition and how the work is being funded.

Sell the plate. Loft square footage in the West Village, in a landmarked building with an elevator, is the scarce thing. Lead with dimensions, ceiling height and exposures rather than with finishes.

Pre-qualify buyers against the board's actual standards. Lender approval does not establish compliance with the board’s liquidity or financing rules. Obtain the current requirements from the managing agent at listing and screen against them before accepting an offer.

Have the building's capital story ready. The documented facade, boiler, masonry and lobby work is a genuine selling point in a 1919 masonry building. Assemble it — with the current financial statements — before the first offer rather than during attorney review.

Know your flip tax before you price. An undocumented fee should not be assumed zero when estimating net proceeds. Confirm it with the managing agent and run the Seller Closing Cost Calculator against the real number.

If you're considering 32 Morton Street, also evaluate:

• 55 Morton Street — 1900 cooperative on the same street; the prewar small-building alternative
• 90 Morton Street — 1912 printing factory converted to condominium in 2018; the loft plate in condominium form
• 130 Barrow Street — 1931 truck garage converted to a condominium; the closest like-for-like industrial conversion nearby
• 160 Seventh Avenue — Kensington House, a 1938 building converted to a cooperative in 1987; the neighboring co-op with published-scale operations
• 140 Seventh Avenue — Chadwin House, a 1962 building converted to condominium; the postwar alternative on the same avenue
• 100 Seventh Avenue — prewar cooperative circa 1930; the traditional co-op comparison
• 22 Perry Street — a 1987 boutique condominium at Seventh Avenue South; condominium economics in a smaller building
• 10 Bleecker Street — 1893 cooperative; the older loft-scale co-op alternative
• 1 Morton Square — 2004 condominium a few blocks west; the new-construction alternative in the same submarket
• 111 Leroy Street — full-floor new-construction condominium; the top-tier alternative at a different price point