- Year built
- 1888
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 4
- Floors
- 5
- Landmark
- Designated
- Pets
- Permitted with board approval per management-sourced records
- Financing
- 80 percent maximum (20 percent minimum down) per management-sourced records — notably permissive for a four-unit co-op
Four apartments. That is the whole building, and it is the whole thesis.
399 Washington is an 1888 stable built for Max Ams at the corner of Washington and Hubert Streets, designed by William Graul in a neo-Grec idiom of cast iron, red brick and granite. The original use is what makes it unusual: this stretch of northern Tribeca is a warehouse district, and the buildings on either side of it were built to store and move goods. A stable is a different building type with a different structure — wider bays, a working ground floor, a simpler upper elevation — and the loft plans that came out of it are correspondingly clean.
The building sits inside the Tribeca North Historic District, designated 8 December 1992 after a 1989 public hearing. We verified that by tax lot against LPC's own building database rather than the PLUTO field, which is unreliable in both directions. The consequence is practical: windows, storefront, cornice and any visible exterior change require a Certificate of Appropriateness.
What a buyer acquires is a share in a four-shareholder corporation with a ground-floor commercial condition beneath it. The board and the shareholder body are effectively the same four households. Decisions are fast when everyone agrees and stall entirely when they do not; there is no staff, no doorman, and no depth in the reserve, and a single major expense divides four ways rather than forty. Against that: low carrying costs by Tribeca standards, full-floor plans, and an 80 percent financing ceiling — materially more permissive than most Tribeca loft co-ops allow.
The residential occupancy is classified as joint living-work quarters for artists, written into the Department of Buildings record explicitly in filings from 2003 and 2013. JLWQA is a legal residential occupancy held by thousands of Tribeca and SoHo lofts, but it carries certification requirements a conventional Class A apartment does not. Every buyer's attorney should read the certificate of occupancy on this point before contract. It is not an obstacle; it is a thing to know.
Architecture and unit composition
Five stories of red brick over a cast-iron and granite base, on a 25-by-80-foot lot with 25 feet of Washington Street frontage and the long elevation running down Hubert. The neo-Grec detailing is restrained — incised lintels, a simple cornice, the flat proportions the style produced in commercial work. The corner position gives light on two elevations, which is the most valuable thing about the building and the reason the full-floor plans work.
The four residential floors are single-apartment plates of roughly 1,700 square feet with ceilings near ten feet, typically configured as two generous bedrooms plus a den or home office with the living space at the corner. Because each apartment is a full floor with two exposures, the plans avoid the interior-bedroom compromise that defines most Tribeca loft conversions at this scale. The topmost apartment carries a rooftop private garden, permitted in 2019 as accessory to the dwelling unit below it. The ground floor is a separate commercial condition; loading-dock and vault work recorded in 2001 filings reflects the building's working origins at street level.
Building operations
There is no staff and no lobby program — local management with superintendent service, and a shareholder body of four. The elevator was fully replaced in 2014: shaft, bulkhead and cab, filed as a full alteration rather than a modernization patch, which is the more expensive and more durable route. The façade has been through at least two documented cycles, in 2000 and again in 2014, the latter with a sidewalk shed and a sixty-foot tubular scaffold. Central HVAC runs off a newer boiler and condenser per management-sourced records, and each apartment has private basement storage.
The operating math cuts both ways. Fixed costs are low because there is nothing to staff, so maintenance is modest against comparable Tribeca square footage — but every capital event divides four ways. Ask directly for the reserve balance, the assessment history, and whether the corporation carries an underlying mortgage.
Policy framework
Ownership form: Cooperative. Shares are transferred by share assignment and stock power, not by deed; ACRIS records these as property type SP.
Board package and interview: Required. With four shareholders the interview is not a formality — it is a conversation with the people you will share a boiler with. Expect a personal rather than institutional process.
Financing: 80 percent maximum per management-sourced records, with 20 percent minimum down — unusually permissive for a small prewar co-op, and a real widening of the buyer pool against Tribeca loft co-ops that cap at 65 or 70 percent. Confirm the current figure; small boards change financing policy more readily than large ones.
Post-closing liquidity: Not published. In a four-shareholder building the board's real question is whether a buyer can absorb an unexpected assessment. Present liquidity proactively.
Subletting, pied-à-terre, trusts and LLCs: None of these is documented in the records available to us. Small co-ops are typically restrictive in practice even where the proprietary lease permits, and a four-person board can decline without a written policy to point to. Do not underwrite rental income or a non-primary-use structure without a written answer from the managing agent.
Pets: Permitted with board approval per management-sourced records.
Transfer fee: A capital contribution equal to two months' maintenance, payable by the purchaser. Budget it as a buyer closing cost — the reverse of most Manhattan co-op flip taxes.
Real estate taxes: No abatement, and no J-51 has ever been taken on this block. Taxes flow through maintenance at full assessment.
Landmark compliance: Anything visible from the street requires LPC review. Window replacement is the common and expensive surprise.
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 →Recent sales
Four apartments produce a thin, episodic market. Recorded share transfers cluster into a handful of events across two decades, with two closings in a single month in early 2025 — which is what turnover looks like in a building where a full year can pass without a sale.
The building competes with Tribeca's boutique loft co-ops rather than the doorman condominium stock along Greenwich and Hudson. Against them it offers full-floor space, corner light and low carrying costs; it gives up staff, amenities and liquidity. Per square foot it prices below the full-service Tribeca condominium tier and in line with the neighborhood's small self-managed loft buildings. The 80 percent financing ceiling is a genuine pricing input and should be marketed as one.
Both the JLWQA classification and the historic-district status belong in the underwriting of the exit as well as the entry. Neither is a problem and both are ordinary in northern Tribeca, but each narrows the buyer pool slightly and each should be disclosed early rather than discovered in diligence. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
Recent transfers 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 19, 2025 | 4 | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,800 sf | $2,925,000 | $1,625/sf | -7.1% |
| Feb 10, 2025 | 3 | 1 BR · 2 BA | $2,750,000 | -8.2% | |
| Jun 23, 2022 | PH | 3 BR · 2 BA | $4,150,000 | +3.8% | |
| Jun 26, 2019 | 2 | 2 BR · 2 BA | $2,800,000 | -1.8% | |
| Sep 20, 2017 | 4 | 1 BR · 2 BA · 1,700 sf | $2,267,500 | $1,334/sf | -3.3% |
| Sep 14, 2004 | 5 | 2 BR | $1,200,000 | -11.1% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2025) cleared a median $1,625/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 5.2% 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 1-00217-0011) 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 on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.
What to know if you’re buying
You are buying into a four-person partnership. Read three years of financials and every assessment. One deferred capital item here is your problem in a way it would never be in a hundred-unit co-op. Ask whether the corporation carries an underlying mortgage and when it matures.
Confirm the JLWQA occupancy in writing. Have counsel pull the current certificate of occupancy and confirm what the classification requires of an owner. Sellers should present it up front; buyers' counsel will find it either way, and disclosure early prevents a mid-diligence renegotiation.
Landmark status is a cost line. Tribeca North designation means LPC review on anything visible from the street. If your plan involves windows, get a preliminary read before you sign.
The financing ceiling is the building's competitive advantage. 80 percent is high for a small Tribeca co-op and most buyers will not know it unless you tell them. Run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator — the board will still want liquidity behind the loan.
Budget the transfer fee as a buyer cost. Two months' maintenance is payable by the purchaser here, not the seller.
Sell the plan, not the amenities. There are no amenities. There is a full-floor 1,700-square-foot loft with corner light and ten-foot ceilings, which most Tribeca inventory at this price cannot offer. Assemble the financials, proprietary lease, house rules, elevator and façade records and the certificate of occupancy before listing — four-shareholder co-ops rarely have a ready diligence package, and gathering it in advance saves weeks.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 399 Washington Street, also evaluate:
- 408 Greenwich Street — a 1929 garage on the same tax block converted to residences; the immediate neighbor and a direct comparison in Tribeca North
- 250 West Street — the large William H. Birkmire warehouse on the same block, converted to a full-service condominium; the scale-and-service opposite of 399 Washington
- 415 Washington Street — loft building a block north on the same street
- 450 Washington Street — the Washington Street alternative with different tenure and amenity
- 92 Laight Street — Tribeca North loft conversion two blocks north
- 28 Laight Street — small Tribeca North loft building; comparable boutique scale
- 60 Collister Street — boutique Tribeca loft building on a quiet side street
- 155 Franklin Street — small Tribeca loft co-op; the closest peer by shareholder count and management posture
- 27 North Moore Street — Tribeca loft conversion with a similarly small unit count
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Tribeca — read The Roebling Team Guide to Tribeca.
The full playbook — what goes in the package, how boards read your financials, the interview, and the timeline — plus sample cover, reference, and personal letters you can adapt.
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 399 Washington Street?
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