The Potter Building

Starkweather's design is the building's signature. The Park Row, Beekman Street, and Nassau Street elevations are sheathed in some 540 tons of brownstone-colored terra cotta produced by the Boston Terra Cotta Company — segmental arches, corbels, foliate panels, and window hoods layered across eleven stories. It is among the most complete surviving examples of architectural terra cotta in New York, and the reason the building carries individual landmark protection.

Inside, the conversion produced 41 cooperative residences, many of them loft-scaled with high ceilings, large windows on multiple exposures, and the structural columns and beams of the original commercial floors left expressed. Layouts vary widely floor to floor — a feature of conversions of this vintage — and the boutique unit count keeps the building intimate. The combination of historic envelope and open interior volume is exactly what draws buyers to converted Printing House Row stock rather than to standard postwar or new-construction inventory.

This is a boutique, owner-occupied cooperative run with a live-in superintendent rather than a large doorman staff — the operating profile of a well-kept downtown loft building. Shared amenities include a common roof deck with open views over Lower Manhattan, individual and floor storage, a bike room, and video security at entry. Pets are not permitted under building policy; disability-related accommodation requests, including for service or emotional-support animals, require individualized consideration under applicable law. As with most cooperatives of this scale, residency and any subletting are governed by the board and proprietary lease; we walk buyers through the building's current posture before an offer.

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. Most recent trades (2026 to date) cleared a median $1,167/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 4.7% 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 1-00101-0001). 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.

The appeal here is specific: a landmark address with genuine loft architecture in a cooperative building, a block from City Hall Park and the courts and steps from the Fulton transit hub. Buyers should expect a co-op purchase — a board package and interview, owner-occupancy as the norm, and unit-specific differences in layout, with availability to be checked against current listings. Underlying that, the building offers what downtown buyers prize: the high ceilings and large windows inherited from its commercial construction, in a designated structure where exterior changes may require LPC permits; qualifying work can be approved by staff and other work may require a Commission hearing. We help buyers evaluate which floors and exposures actually deliver the light and volume the building is known for.

Two things sell here: the landmark and the lofts. A resale should lead with Starkweather's terra-cotta architecture and individual-landmark status, then with the specific apartment's scale — ceiling height, exposures, column rhythm, and renovation quality. Benchmark to converted loft buildings in the Financial District and lower Tribeca rather than to glass-tower condos; the buyer for this building is choosing character and provenance. Because turnover is low, a well-prepared listing in the right season can command attention disproportionate to the building's size. We position Potter Building resales against the right downtown loft comparison set and to the design-literate buyer who seeks out this kind of architecture.

If you're considering the Potter Building, also evaluate these downtown loft and landmark conversions:

• 185 Park Row — Park Row residential neighbor
• 25 Park Row — Park Row tower facing City Hall Park
• 196 Park Row — Park Row apartments nearby
• 55 Hudson Street — Romanesque Revival Tribeca loft co-op
• 108 Leonard Street — landmark conversion in Tribeca