333 Rector Place (One Rector Park)

Fifteen stories of red brick over a white stone base, with protruding masonry balconies and a curved decorative corner element — postmodern in the Cooper, Eckstut idiom that governed Battery Park City's residential build-out, designed to read as continuous with older New York apartment fabric rather than as a modernist slab. About 230,000 square feet of gross building area, of which roughly 206,000 is residential and about 24,000 commercial, including some 6,900 square feet of retail. The 174 residences run from studios through three-bedrooms; because the conversion combined rental apartments, the larger lines are conversion-era combinations rather than original plans, and layouts vary more than in a purpose-built condominium. Many units carry balconies. Interiors were reworked at conversion, and DOB filings show a steady stream of individual apartment renovations since.

Full-service and union-staffed: a 24-hour attended lobby, a live-in resident manager occupying a unit the condominium owns, a fitness center, a residents' lounge, a children's playroom, a business center, cold storage and an on-site garage, per listing records. Governance is conventional condominium governance — a board of managers, which also serves as tenant of record under the Authority ground lease on behalf of all unit owners.

The capital record is documented in the audited financial statements on file. Recent major repairs and replacements include a lobby renovation, Local Law 11 exterior work and elevator door lock replacement in the most recent year on file, and a children's playroom build-out, a lighting upgrade and landscaping in the prior year. Reserves are real for a building of this size: cash and certificates of deposit together ran to roughly $3.0 million at the most recent year-end on file, with members' equity of about $1.7 million and roughly $161,000 of common charges designated to the reserve fund annually. The condominium's governing documents do not require reserve accumulation.

Three items belong in any diligence file. First, special assessments previously imposed for roof and boiler work — roughly $161,000 — were still carried as deferred income at the most recent year-end on file because the improvements had not yet commenced. Second, in 2018 the condominium entered a settlement with the sponsor under which the sponsor paid $700,000 to cure construction defects in individual units; most of that sum remained unspent and deferred at the most recent year-end on file. Third, the building's water meter has been non-operational since 2015, with water and sewer expense accrued at the pre-failure rate; roughly $180,000 of accrued water and sewer liability was carried pending resolution with the Department of Environmental Protection. Ask the managing agent where each of these three stands today.

This is the section to read first. All of it comes from the audited financial statements and offering plan documents on file.

The lease. The sponsor was tenant under an agreement of lease dated March 23, 1984 with the Battery Park City Authority covering the land beneath the building. Effective with the first unit closing on April 21, 2011, the condominium, acting on behalf of all unit owners, became the tenant. The lease is also subject to the Authority's master lease covering all Battery Park City land. It is a net lease: the condominium pays all costs and expenses of the property.

The term. The lease expires June 17, 2069. At that date an extension or a new lease must be negotiated with the Authority, or the condominium can negotiate to acquire the land. The Authority can refuse to extend, to grant a new lease, or to sell, in which case unit owners would be required to surrender ownership and vacate.

On the 2119 headline. Under a 2022 state law, the Battery Park City Authority's master lease was amended in June 2023 to extend its term by fifty years, from 2069 to June 18, 2119. That extension operates at the master-lease level. This building's own ground lease, as reported in its audited financial statements, still expires June 17, 2069. The master lease and an individual building's ground lease are distinct instruments, and the longer master runway is what makes a future extension negotiable — it does not extend this lease by itself. Confirm the current position against the lease and any amendment before you commit.

Base rent. $979,140 for 2019 and $1,003,618 for 2020, with 2.5 percent annual increases each January 1 through December 31, 2025. Effective January 1, 2026 the annual base rent stepped to $1,376,796, with 3.25 percent annual increases each January 1 through December 31, 2040. On January 1, 2041 and again on January 1, 2056 — the two reappraisal dates — base rent resets to the greater of six percent of the fair market value of the land or 109 percent of the base rent then payable, with fair market value fixed by appraisal absent agreement twelve months in advance.

PILOT — the answer is yes, and it is the largest single line in the budget. The building carries no conventional New York City real property tax bill. Instead, for each city tax year the condominium pays the Authority an amount equal to the assessed value of the parcel multiplied by the tax rate applicable to comparable Manhattan property. PILOT ran $3,611,619 in 2019 and $3,771,350 in 2020 before abatements, against roughly $390,000 and $430,000 of PILOT abatements distributed to eligible unit owners in those years. In the most recent full expense analysis on file, PILOT was 51.8 percent of the condominium's total expenses and Authority rents another 17.8 percent — roughly seventy cents of every dollar the building spends goes to the Battery Park City Authority.

Civic facilities payments. The lease requires an allocable share of the cost of operating and maintaining Battery Park City's civic facilities: $141,774 in 2020. The payment increases each November 1, capped at 25 percent of the prior lease year's amount.

Security fund. At the first closing of title on each residential unit, the purchaser's proportionate share of $928,998 was collected and remitted to the Authority as security for unit owners' obligations under the lease. Interest is disbursed to the condominium annually; the principal is returned to unit owners in proportion to their common interests at the lease expiration date in 2069.

What this means practically. Purchase prices in Battery Park City run at a visible discount to comparable Lower Manhattan fee-simple product, and monthly carrying costs run higher. That is the trade, and it is quantifiable. Model common charges plus the PILOT share plus the ground-rent share, with the January 2026 step-up and the 3.25 percent escalators through 2040 built in — not the number on a listing sheet.

Recent sales

Recent closings 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 (2026 to date) cleared a median $1,266/sf (recorded) across 5 sales. Median listing discount 0.0% from the last ask.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00016-7518; each condominium apartment is its own tax lot). 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.

Read the ground lease before anything else. Term to June 17, 2069, the base-rent schedule with its January 2026 step to $1,376,796 and 3.25 percent escalators through 2040, and the 2041 and 2056 reappraisal mechanics. Your attorney should have the lease and any amendment in hand before contract. We provide the documents.

Understand that PILOT is not a tax bill. There is no conventional New York City property tax on this parcel and no 421-a or J-51 benefit to expire. There is a PILOT obligation that tracks assessed value and the Manhattan tax rate, with abatements distributed to eligible unit owners. It behaves like a tax bill economically and it is not one legally, and lenders and attorneys treat it differently.

Price the monthly, not the sticker. Common charges plus the PILOT and ground-rent pass-throughs are the number. Run the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator against a fee-simple alternative before deciding which economics you prefer.

Confirm lender treatment early. Most major lenders are comfortable with Battery Park City leasehold condominiums, but underwriting on remaining lease term and rent-reset exposure varies, and the 2069 expiration is now inside a forty-five-year horizon. Get the building approved with your lender at the pre-offer stage.

Ask about the three open items. The deferred roof-and-boiler assessment, the unspent sponsor construction-defect settlement, and the long-running water meter accrual. Each is documented; each has a current status.

Lead with the documented lease, not a summary of it. Serious buyers and their counsel will ask about term, rent schedule and resets on day one. A clear, sourced answer — including the January 2026 step, which has already happened — widens the buyer pool rather than narrowing it.

Separate PILOT from taxes in your marketing. Buyers cross-shopping fee-simple downtown condominiums will otherwise read the monthly as unexplained. It is explainable.

Have current financials ready. The statements on file report reserves near $3 million and a capital program; confirm the reporting period and current balances and commitments. Those dated figures and union staffing alone do not establish financial strength. The conversion is more recent than the 1980s-vintage conversions nearby; confirm the current condition of systems and common areas from recent engineering reports and board materials.

• 300 Rector Place — Battery Pointe, the low-rise leasehold condominium across the street, with a published fixed rent schedule to 2041
• 200 Rector Place — Liberty Court, the corridor's largest condominium
• 225 Rector Place — Rector Square, full-service leasehold condominium on the same block
• 380 Rector Place — Liberty Terrace, waterfront leasehold condominium
• 377 Rector Place — Liberty House, harbor-facing leasehold condominium with a garage
• The Soundings — 280 Rector Place, the low-rise sibling in the Rector Place composition
• 250 South End Avenue — Hudson View East, mid-1980s Battery Park City condominium
• 320 Albany Street — Hudson Tower, contemporaneous Battery Park City condominium
• The Regatta — 21 South End Avenue, late-1980s condominium on the same ground-lease framework
• 99 Battery Place — Liberty View, larger Battery Park City condominium to the south