399 Washington Street

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. A full floor and two exposures do not establish that every bedroom has a window or a lawful bedroom configuration. Confirm the specific plan, windows and approved use rather than inferring them from the corner location. 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.

There is no staff and no lobby program — local management with superintendent service, and a shareholder body of four. A full elevator replacement was filed in 2014: shaft, bulkhead and cab, filed as a full alteration rather than a modernization patch; completion and current condition should be confirmed. Façade filings date to 2000 and 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 reported superintendent service, elevator, envelope and mechanical systems all carry costs. Neither low maintenance nor an equal four-way capital split follows from four residential units; costs depend on the share schedule, governing documents and commercial participation. Ask directly for the reserve balance, the assessment history, and whether the corporation carries an underlying mortgage.

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. Confirm the current figure with the managing agent.

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. Confirm each in the proprietary lease, house rules and the board's current written policy. 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: The assessment roll shows no exemption, and no J-51 appears in the record for this block; check the apartment's maintenance and the building's tax bill for any abatement credit. Taxes flow through maintenance.

Landmark compliance: Anything visible from the street requires LPC review. Window replacement is the common and expensive surprise.

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 (2025) cleared a median $1,625/sf (recorded) 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). 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.

Review how this small cooperative allocates costs and votes. Four apartments do not necessarily mean four people or equal obligations. Read three years of financials, assessments, share allocations and commercial arrangements before estimating your exposure to deferred capital work. 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 early disclosure helps buyers assess the restriction but does not prevent 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 financing is documented here, and most buyers will not know it unless you tell them. Run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator, then confirm the board's current liquidity requirements from its application instructions.

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, whose dimensions and condition should be documented in the unit’s floor plan; no inventory-wide scarcity ranking is established. Assemble the financials, proprietary lease, house rules, elevator and façade records and the certificate of occupancy before listing — having these records ready can help answer diligence requests, but building size does not establish their availability or a fixed time saving.

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