36 East 22nd Street (The Story House)
36 East 22nd Street, New York, NY 10010
Flatiron
BBL 1008507507 · BIN 1016254
- Year built
- 1901
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 8
- Floors
- 9
- Landmark
- No
- Pets
- Pets permitted per brokerage records; confirm weight and breed rules in the house rules
Every recorded sale at this building, 2012–2026
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $1,801
- Listing discount
- 3.5%
- Recorded sales
- 18
- On record
- 2012–2026
There are eight apartments in this building, one to a floor, and the elevator opens into each of them. That is the whole proposition. On a block where the alternatives are a 60-story tower two doors west and a run of prewar cooperatives with six and eight units per landing, 36 East 22nd Street offers the loft-district trade in its purest form: the full plate, the private landing, and no neighbor on your floor.
The building takes its name from its former tenant. The New York office of Frederick Warne and Company, the British publishing house that brought Beatrix Potter's books to print, occupied the building — hence The Story House. The 1901 structure itself is a modest, narrow masonry loft, about twenty-six feet wide on a lot of roughly 2,600 square feet, and the original architect is not identified in any record located for this page. It is not a landmark and not a designated building. It is a working loft that was given a second life.
That second life required a zoning fight. The lot sits in an M1-5M manufacturing district, and PLUTO records its residential floor-area ratio as zero. In September 2006 the then-owner filed a no-work application at DOB for the explicit purpose of drawing a denial in support of a Board of Standards and Appeals application — the way a variance proceeding begins — with eight dwelling units proposed in a nine-story building. The Alteration Type 1 conversion job was filed in April 2008 by Manhattan Skyline Management Corporation, with the Stephen B. Jacobs Group as architect of record. The condominium subdivision was filed in October 2011 for nine tax lots, the first deeds were recorded in April 2012, and the final certificate of occupancy issued October 28, 2016. The certificate is final and the unit count is settled.
There is no tax abatement anywhere in the building — not a 421-a, not a J-51, nothing. Residences have been taxed at full assessment since 2012, so the monthly number a buyer sees today is the number, with no phase-out ahead and no step-up waiting. Where much of the 2010s condominium inventory in this corridor is still working through abatement schedules, that makes cross-building comparison misleading in both directions unless the abatement is modelled out.
The building is also one of the few residential addresses on this block that answers to nobody at the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The Ladies' Mile Historic District wraps the block — nineteen designated lots on tax block 850, all of them on Broadway, Fifth Avenue or East 21st Street. The East 22nd Street frontage falls outside. Exterior work here requires a DOB permit and nothing more.
Architecture and unit composition
The building occupies a narrow interior lot: roughly twenty-six feet of frontage on a lot about ninety-nine feet deep, producing floor plates a little under 1,800 gross square feet. With no corner and no protected exposures on either flank, light comes from the East 22nd Street elevation and from the rear, and the side walls are solid. On a lot this shape that is not a design choice; it is the site.
The conversion left the loft geometry intact and treated the base as the place to make an architectural statement — the angled glass and stainless-steel entrance marquee, the sidewalk landscaping, and a lobby finished in mosaic and Pietra Cardosa stone. Above the second floor, the elevation reads as what it is: a turn-of-the-century masonry loft with terra-cotta trim.
Residences are full-floor, one per level, from the second floor up. Ceiling heights run from 9 feet 6 inches to 13 feet depending on the floor, the characteristic loft profile — the lower floors were built for heavier commercial loads and taller bays. Each residence has a gas fireplace and a keyed elevator landing. The ground floor is a separate commercial condominium unit, in restaurant use for most of the building's modern history; DOB records a restaurant fit-out in 2002 and an alteration re-establishing eating-and-drinking use in 2017.
Building operations
The building runs with doorman coverage, a third-party concierge service, a package room and a laundry room. There is no gym, no roof deck and no garage; attended parking is available on the block but is not part of the building.
Eight residential units is a very small denominator for a staffed lobby, and a building of this size has limited ability to absorb a capital event through operations — so read the operating budget rather than the amenity list. Two substantial projects appear in DOB filings, both filed by the condominium itself rather than by a sponsor: eighth-cycle Local Law 11 façade work in 2018 covering brick and mortar removal and replacement and replacement of defective terra cotta, and a heating plant upgrade the same year replacing the boiler and associated piping. Ask the managing agent for the current reserve position, the status of the ninth-cycle façade filing, and whether any assessment is live.
Policy framework
Ownership form: Condominium. Transfers close through the board's right of first refusal rather than a cooperative approval, which produces the shorter and more predictable closing timeline typical of condominium purchases.
Pets: Permitted per brokerage records. Confirm weight and breed limits in the house rules.
Pied-à-terre, subletting, LLC, trust and foreign ownership: All permitted under the standard condominium framework. Minimum lease terms for subletting should be confirmed with the managing agent.
In-unit washer/dryer: Permitted; residences are equipped.
Flip tax: Not documented in public records. Confirm any resale capital contribution with the managing agent before pricing a sale.
Real estate taxes: No exemption of any kind appears on the residential unit lots in the FY2027 assessment roll. Underwrite full unabated taxes on the specific unit and run True Monthly Carrying Cost analysis against the current bill.
Local Law 97
This building is below the 25,000 sq ft threshold at which LL97 emissions caps apply. No regulatory capital pressure from this law specifically, current or 2030.
See full Local Law 97 analysis →Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available FISP filing classified the facade as Safe — no repairs were required at that inspection. Facade inspections run on a fixed five-year cycle; future inspection, repair, and any assessment decisions remain building-specific.
How to read this, and where it comes from
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. City record last verified September 2026.
Recent sales
The Story House trades as a full-floor loft condominium, which puts it in a narrow comparable set. Within the Flatiron corridor the honest comparison is to other converted loft buildings offering whole-floor or near-whole-floor plates — not to the new-construction towers on the same block, whose per-foot pricing reflects amenity programs, view corridors and abatement structures this building does not have, and not to the prewar cooperatives nearby, whose policy stacks and financing rules are structurally different.
Per-square-foot is the right unit of analysis, run against a specific floor rather than a building average. Ceiling heights range across a three-and-a-half-foot band from the lower floors to the upper ones, light improves materially as the stack rises above the neighboring rooflines, and with only eight residences a single line can carry the building's whole recent history. Sellout closings ran from 2012 into 2013 and resale activity since has been intermittent, so a same-building comparable is often several years old and needs indexing to the last complete year rather than being read straight. The absence of an abatement is the largest single variable separating headline price from true monthly cost when this building is set against 2010s inventory elsewhere in the corridor. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 13, 2026 | 3 | 3 BR · 3 BA · 2,166 sf | $3,900,000 | $1,801/sf | -7.0% |
| Nov 29, 2023 | 4A | 2 BR · 3 BA · 2,168 sf | $3,350,000 | $1,545/sf | -10.7% |
| Jan 5, 2023 | 6A | 3 BR · 3 BA · 1,825 sf | $3,750,000 | $2,055/sf | off-mkt |
| Apr 15, 2022 | 7 | 3 BR · 3 BA · 2,156 sf | $3,800,000 | $1,763/sf | -4.9% |
| Jan 12, 2022 | 8 | 3 BR · 3 BA · 2,166 sf | $3,800,000 | $1,754/sf | -4.9% |
| Jun 14, 2021 | 5 | 3 BR · 3 BA · 2,160 sf | $3,750,000 | $1,736/sf | +0.0% |
| Jun 14, 2021 | 5A | 3 BR · 3 BA · 2,156 sf | $3,750,000 | $1,739/sf | -3.2% |
| Jun 18, 2018 | 2 | 3 BR · 3 BA · 2,155 sf | $3,850,000 | $1,787/sf | -9.4% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $1,801/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 3.5% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Full closing history with price-per-square-foot over time, the complete retrade record, and every line that has traded.
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00850-7507) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
Eight units is the risk and the appeal. A private-landing full-floor apartment in the Flatiron District is scarce. So is a building small enough that one capital project moves everyone's number. Read the budget and the reserve position before you read the finishes.
Underwrite full taxes. There is no abatement here and never was. If you have been shopping abated inventory, the carrying cost here will read higher than the price suggests, and it does not improve later.
Understand the exposures. A narrow interior lot with solid side walls means light is front-and-back only, and it improves with height. Walk the specific floor at the hour you would actually live in it.
Ask about the ground floor. The base is a separate commercial condominium unit with a long history of restaurant use. Current tenant, hours and venting are a fair question, particularly for the second floor.
The zoning history is unusual but resolved. Residential use came through a Board of Standards and Appeals proceeding rather than as of right. Your attorney should confirm the October 2016 final certificate of occupancy and any conditions attached to the variance.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the plate. One apartment per floor, keyed-elevator entry and ceilings up to thirteen feet is the argument, and very few buildings in this corridor can make it.
Present the tax posture up front. Full unabated taxes are simple to explain and impossible to hide. Pairing the true monthly carrying cost with the price beats letting a buyer find the number in diligence.
Choose the comparable set deliberately. Neither the new-construction towers on this block nor the prewar co-ops are your comparables. Converted full-floor loft product is, and line-and-floor analysis indexed to the last complete year will price a unit better than any building average.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering The Story House, also evaluate:
- 33 East 22nd Street — the immediate neighbor on the block's south side; the closest same-street alternative
- 29 East 22nd Street — small prewar building on the same block, with the different economics of a low-unit-count building
- 27 East 22nd Street (L'Elysee) — converted loft on the same block; a direct comparison for loft plate and ceiling height
- 21 East 22nd Street — Flatiron building on the block's western end, cooperative economics rather than condominium
- 23 East 22nd Street (One Madison) — the tower two doors west; the same address book, an entirely different product and price tier
- 45 East 22nd Street (Madison Square Park Tower) — new-construction condominium on the park; the amenity-and-view alternative
- 141 Fifth Avenue (Merchants Bank Building) — boutique conversion of a landmark commercial building; the closest peer by unit count and character
- Fifteen Madison Square North (15 East 26th Street) — prewar conversion facing Madison Square Park; larger, full-service alternative
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Flatiron — read The Roebling Team Guide to Flatiron.
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent.
Considering a move at The Story House?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at The Story House would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.