- Year built
- 1870
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 4
- Floors
- 5
- Landmark status
- Not an individual landmark; in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District Extension
- NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission records, updated February 2026
Every recorded sale at this building, 2003–2025
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf, 2025
- $1,950
- 1 sale
- Listing discount
- 4.7%
- Recorded sales
- 12
- On record
- 2003–2025
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 388 West Broadway 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.
Four apartments. That is the whole building, and it is the whole argument. A five-story cast-iron loft of 1870–71 holding one residence per floor above a ground-floor store, on West Broadway between Broome and Spring, is about as concentrated as SoHo ownership gets. Reported building residential area averages close to three thousand square feet per residence, but that is not an interior measurement of any apartment. There is no doorman, no lobby to speak of, and no shared corridor — the elevator is keyed and opens directly into the apartment.
The façade is the reason the building is landmarked. Robert Mook designed it for Amos R. Eno, one of the era's principal Manhattan landowners, and it is a columnar Italianate cast-iron front: engaged columns framing deeply recessed windows, carried up to a crowning cornice. LPC records the original use as commercial lofts, which is what nearly everything on this stretch of West Broadway was built as.
What distinguishes this building from most of its neighbors is the sequencing of its two governing regimes. The residential conversion was filed in October 2001 and signed off in March 2003. The SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District Extension — as distinct from the original 1973 district a few blocks north and east — was not designated until 2010. The conversion therefore preceded this lot’s historic-district designation, while remaining subject to the zoning and building rules then in force, and the Department of Buildings record shows exactly that: the 2001 and 2002 filings carry no landmark flag, and filings from 2012 forward do. A buyer planning exterior alterations today must determine the applicable LPC permit: qualifying work can be approved at staff level, while other scopes require a Certificate of Appropriateness.
The second sequencing question is the one that actually matters at contract, and it is the JLWQA question.
Architecture and unit composition
Five stories over a cellar, roughly 16,400 square feet of building on a 50-by-69-foot irregular lot. The ground floor and part of the cellar are commercial — approximately 3,100 square feet of retail plus about 1,400 square feet of storage — and the four floors above are residential, at roughly 11,900 square feet total.
The reported residential building area averages close to 2,970 square feet per unit, which should not be marketed as measured interior space. The full-floor residences retain the structural signature of a cast-iron loft: exposed columns, wide column-free spans between them, ceiling heights around eleven feet, and deeply inset windows on the West Broadway elevation. The elevator is keyed and lands inside the apartment, so there is no public corridor on the residential floors. Each residence has an appurtenant storage or roof unit recorded as a separate tax lot, which is worth confirming unit by unit — the appurtenances do not map uniformly across the four apartments.
The commercial unit at lot 1101 is a genuinely separate asset. It has traded five times since 2003, independently of the residences and on its own price cycle, most recently in 2025. A residential buyer here is buying into a condominium whose largest single unit by value is a retail box under third-party ownership, and the identity of the retail tenant is a live variable on this stretch of West Broadway.
Recent building-level filings are modest: an exterior guard-rail repair in 2022, replacement of the existing ADA lift in 2024, and a new chimney filing in 2026. There is no open Local Law 11 façade program and no sidewalk shed on the record.
JLWQA, and what it means here
The conversion did not create ordinary apartments. The Alteration Type 1 filing states its purpose as converting a commercial and manufacturing building into joint living-work quarters for artists under Article 7-B, retaining commercial and accessory uses on the first floor and cellar, and obtaining a new certificate of occupancy on that basis. That was the standard route to legal residence in an M1-5A district in 2001, and it carried a condition: occupancy was restricted to households containing a person certified as an artist by the city.
The zoning has changed, but a zoning change is distinct from an approved change of occupancy.
The zoning change is documented. The Special SoHo–NoHo Mixed Use District was adopted on 15 December 2021 and rezoned this lot from M1-5A to M1-5/R7X. Current law provides protections for qualifying permanent occupants who resided in a JLWQA unit before December 15, 2021; those personal protections do not establish eligibility for a later buyer. A voluntary route also exists to convert eligible JLWQA space to ordinary residential use, subject to the required approvals.
The reviewed record does not establish that artist-certification requirements or enforcement ceased.
What has not changed is this building's certificate of occupancy. No filing converting these units from JLWQA to residential use appears in the Department of Buildings record for BIN 1007335. As a matter of the paper, these remain joint living-work quarters for artists. The four residences have recorded transfers since 2003, including to trusts and limited liability companies. Different grantee names do not establish unrelated parties or arm’s-length terms, and recorded transfers do not resolve a new occupant’s eligibility. But it is a certificate-of-occupancy fact, and certificate-of-occupancy facts surface in lender diligence, in title, and occasionally in an appraisal. Any buyer should have counsel pull the current certificate of occupancy, confirm whether the condominium has filed or intends to file for conversion to residential use, and understand what the answer means for their lender before going to contract.
Policy framework
Ownership form: Condominium. Purchases close through the board's right of first refusal rather than a cooperative approval.
Certificate of occupancy: Joint living-work quarters for artists. Confirm current status with counsel and with your lender before contract.
Pets, subletting, pied-à-terre, LLC and trust ownership, flip tax: Not documented. The offering plan is on file in The Roebling Research Library, but these terms have not been verified from it. The recorded chain of title shows residences held by corporations, limited liability companies and estates at various points, which is consistent with the ordinary condominium framework, but it is evidence rather than authority. Obtain the house rules and the by-laws from the managing agent.
Real estate taxes: The assessment roll shows no exemption on the base lot or any unit lot; check the specific unit's tax bill for any abatement. Run True Monthly Carrying Cost analysis against the current bill.
Exterior alterations: The lot is inside the SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District Extension. Window replacement, storefront work, rooftop equipment and anything else visible from a public thoroughfare requires Landmarks Preservation Commission approval. Budget the process, not just the work.
Application and transaction fees
Fees below are from building management's published schedule, as of August 2026. They are shown as published, item by item; no total is added because the total depends on the transaction. Deposits are listed apart from nonrefundable charges.
Purchase
5 items
Fees and charges
| Item | Paid by | When | Amount | Refundable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application Processing Fee | Paid by Buyer | When With the application | Amount $700 ($750 Without a Broker) | Refundable Not stated |
| Background Report FeeConditional · Per applicant | Paid by Buyer | When With the application | Amount $125 per applicant (additional $75 for criminal check if required by the Board) | Refundable Not stated |
Deposits
| Item | Paid by | When | Amount | Refundable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Move In Deposit | Paid by Buyer | When With the application | Amount $1,000 | Refundable Refundable |
| Post Closing Documents Deposit | Paid by Buyer | When With the application | Amount $500 | Refundable Refundable |
| Move Out Deposit | Paid by Seller | When With the application | Amount $1,000 | Refundable Refundable |
Rental or lease
5 items
Fees and charges
| Item | Paid by | When | Amount | Refundable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application Processing Fee | Paid by Tenant | When With the application | Amount $750 | Refundable Not stated |
| Background Report FeeConditional · Per applicant | Paid by Tenant | When With the application | Amount $125 per applicant (additional $75 for criminal check if required by the Board) | Refundable Not stated |
Deposits
| Item | Paid by | When | Amount | Refundable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Move Out Deposit | Paid by Landlord | When With the application | Amount $1,000 | Refundable Refundable |
| Move In Deposit | Paid by Tenant | When With the application | Amount $1,000 | Refundable Refundable |
Lease renewal
Fees and charges
| Item | Paid by | When | Amount | Refundable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application Processing Fee | Paid by Landlord | When With the application | Amount $300 | Refundable Not stated |
Management updates its schedule without a public filing. The date is when management last updated the page, not when a rule changed. Confirm the current schedule with management before you apply.
Considering an apartment here? Send Corey the listing to discuss the building's costs and purchase requirements.
Own an apartment here? Request an apartment-specific pricing review.
Building staffing and amenities
- Virtual or video entry
- YesSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Elevator
- YesSource: NYC Department of Buildings elevator records
Staffing and amenities as our building profile and recent listing records describe them. A feature not listed is not confirmed absent. Outdoor space, parking and some facilities can belong to particular apartments or to a separate owner; confirm access for the specific apartment.
Local Law 97
This building is below the 25,000 sq ft threshold at which LL97 limits apply to a building on its own. It is still covered if it shares a tax lot or condominium board with buildings totaling over 50,000 sq ft; confirm on DOB’s covered-buildings list.
See full Local Law 97 analysis →Recent sales
With four residences, this building has no meaningful internal comparable set in any given year. The four apartments sold out of sponsor in the spring of 2003, in four separate closings to differently named purchasers; the index alone does not establish relationships between them, and each has since traded independently — several of them multiple times, across estate sales, entity purchases and ordinary resales.
Pricing is driven by floor, by renovation condition and by exposure. The West Broadway frontage is the light and the view; the rear of the plate faces into the block. Because turnover is so thin, comparable analysis has to be built from SoHo's other small full-floor loft condominiums rather than from within the building, and the JLWQA certificate status and the absence of an abatement both need to be held constant across whatever set is chosen — many nearby loft condominiums differ on one or both.
Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2, 2025 | 3 | 2 BR · 2.5 BA · 2,948 sf | $5,750,000 | $1,950/sf | +0.0% |
| Dec 18, 2024 | B | 2,948 sf | $5,750,000 | $1,950/sf | — |
| Sep 5, 2024 | 2 | 3 BR · 2.5 BA · 2,948 sf | $5,800,000 | $1,967/sf | -2.5% |
| Nov 21, 2022 | 2 | 3 BR · 2.5 BA · 2,948 sf | $6,000,000 | $2,035/sf | -25.0% |
| Dec 23, 2020 | 2 | 3 BR · 2.5 BA · 2,948 sf | $5,500,000 | $1,866/sf | — |
| Mar 13, 2019 | 3 | 2 BR · 2,948 sf | $5,500,000 | $1,866/sf | -8.3% |
| Jun 30, 2010 | B | 2,948 sf | $3,950,000 | $1,340/sf | — |
| Jun 30, 2010 | 3 | 3 BR · 2,948 sf | $3,950,000 | $1,340/sf | +0.0% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2025) cleared a median $1,950/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. Median listing discount 4.7% 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 1-00488-7502; 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.
What would your apartment rent for?
Enter your apartment and I'll send you what it would rent for, from comparable closed leases at 388 West Broadway and nearby.
Buying here? Condo closing costs with a mortgage typically run 3 to 6% of the price. See NYC co-op and condo closing costs, line by line.
Keep up with 388 West Broadway and its market
The Roebling Report, monthly: Manhattan sales data and analysis, including buildings like 388 West Broadway. Unsubscribe anytime.
We’ll use your email for The Roebling Report and note your interest in this building. See our privacy policy.
What to know if you’re buying
Resolve the JLWQA question first. Pull the current certificate of occupancy. Ask the managing agent whether the condominium has filed, or intends to file, for conversion to residential use under the Special SoHo–NoHo Mixed Use District provisions. Ask your lender how it underwrites a JLWQA certificate before you are in contract, not after.
Check the cost allocation. Four residences and one separately owned commercial unit share this condominium. Fixed costs, capital projects and insurance follow the declaration’s common interests and any special allocations, not an assumed equal four-way split. Read the budget, reserves, insurance and applicable allocation before estimating a façade assessment.
The retail unit is a co-owner, not an amenity. It is separately owned, has traded five times since 2003, and its tenant sits directly below the residences. Understand the lease, the hours, and the commercial unit's obligations under the condominium documents.
Landmark rules now apply to work that predated them. The Extension was designated in 2010, seven years after the conversion. Anything you want to change on the exterior — windows included — goes through the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Underwrite full taxes. No J-51, no exemption, on the base lot or any unit lot.
Confirm what comes with the apartment. Each residence has appurtenant storage or roof units recorded as separate tax lots, and they are not distributed uniformly. Check the deed and the unit-lot schedule, not the floor plan.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 388 West Broadway, also evaluate:
- 426 West Broadway (Broadway House) — the loft condominium two blocks north on the same street
- 465 West Broadway — the cooperative alternative on West Broadway; different tenure, same corridor and typology
- 102 Wooster Street — small-format SoHo loft condominium one block east
- 105 Wooster Street — full-floor loft condominium; the closest peer on unit size and building scale
- 27 Wooster Street — nearby SoHo condominium; compare its construction and building services separately
- 107 Greene Street — cast-iron loft condominium in the original SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District
- 70 Greene Street — full-floor loft condominium; useful counterpoint on landmark district and price
- 22 Mercer Street — small SoHo loft condominium with comparable unit counts
- 93 Mercer Street — the cooperative loft alternative for buyers weighing tenure
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. Where this page compares one building or neighborhood to another, that is our analysis of the recorded record — it names the measure, the period and the sample it rests on, and it is an observation about medians rather than a prediction about any particular apartment.
Considering a move at 388 West Broadway?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
646.939.7375 · c.cohen@compass.com