42 Wooster Street (The Wooster Street Condominium)
42 Wooster Street, New York, NY 10013
SoHo
BBL 1004757505 · BIN 1079905
- Year built
- 1880
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 2
- Landmark
- Designated
Every recorded sale at this building, 2004–2024
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $2,212
- Listing discount
- 0.0%
- Recorded sales
- 24
- On record
- 2004–2024
In 1994 the northern half of this address was close to being demolished. 46 Wooster Street, an 1895 Romanesque store-and-loft building, had stood vacant for more than fifteen years when its top two floors collapsed after a construction crew replaced beams. The Department of Buildings issued an unsafe-building notice; the owner, whose renovation had been stalled by the real-estate recession, applied to tear the building down. Its neighbor at 42 Wooster, an 1883 building by Jarvis Morgan Slade, had been vacant for more than twelve years.
What happened instead is the reason this condominium exists in its present form. The Landmarks Preservation Commission negotiated a compromise permitting removal of only the top three floors, and a development group — Tony Leichter, Axel Stawski and Charles Blaichman — approached the Commission informally about saving them. Engineers concluded the foundation could be stabilized. The Commission approved a façade restoration design in September 1994 and then, as The New York Times reported that December, itself applied to the City Planning Commission under Section 74-711 of the Zoning Resolution for a modification of use — for joint living-work quarters and for retail space. Section 74-711 is the landmarks special permit: it lets the Commission tell another agency that a use or bulk modification serves a preservation purpose. Here it converted a preservation problem into a financeable residential project.
That history explains the building's three defining characteristics. First, it is two buildings, not one, and the architect kept them that way — separate identities, separate access and egress, different heights, set-back penthouses on each. Second, its residential use rests on a special permit granted under manufacturing zoning, in the form of joint living-work quarters, and every DOB filing through 2017 still carried the old M1-5B district. Third, the plates are enormous. Nearly 70,000 square feet across two lots produced fourteen residences at an average approaching 4,500 square feet — full-floor in the southern building, front-and-rear pairs in the northern one — with wood-burning fireplaces, terraces and keyed elevator landings.
The conversion itself was deliberately unfinished. Bogdanow gave the units a structural, mechanical and infrastructure overhaul and the sponsor sold them in 1998 as raw space. That is why the interiors here vary more than in almost any comparable SoHo condominium: every residence is the product of a separate architect and a separate decade, and two apartments on the same floor line can be entirely different buildings inside.
Architecture and unit composition
42–44 Wooster Street is the 1882–1883 building, designed by Jarvis Morgan Slade with A. G. Bogert & Son as builder for Edward Tailer, and built as stores. 46–50 Wooster Street is the 1894–1895 building by F. S. Baldwin, built for William Purdy as store and lofts and classified by Landmarks as Romanesque. Both are recorded by LPC with brick as the primary material, though the block reads as cast iron and the buildings are commonly described that way; the storefront-level ironwork is the source of the impression. The southern building presents a red-brick elevation over a two-story base with heavy columns, and stone window heads that carry across the façade.
The height question is genuinely unsettled in the public record. PLUTO carries six floors for the lot; DOB filings carry eight stories; the recorded unit schedule reaches a seventh floor. All three can be partly right, because the two buildings differ in height and both received set-back penthouse additions in the 1990s restoration. Treat any single floor count in a data feed as unreliable here and read the certificate of occupancy for the specific unit.
Residences run large. Published descriptions record full-floor apartments in the 4,500-to-5,000-square-foot range with eleven- to thirteen-foot ceilings, arched windows, exposed brick, and private terraces; the duplex penthouse carries roughly 5,000 square feet of interior space and about 2,500 square feet of outdoor space. Front-and-rear units in the northern building are smaller but still loft-scale. The atrium cut down through the northern building in the conversion, with a fifth-floor terrace and a sixth-floor walkway around it, is the design gesture that distinguishes that half of the condominium.
Building operations
Operations are deliberately light for a building of this value: private key-locked elevator landings rather than a staffed lobby, a full-time superintendent, a mail room, central air conditioning and in-unit laundry. There is no doorman and no amenity program, and none is claimed.
For fifteen unit lots carrying nearly 70,000 square feet across two nineteenth-century structures inside a historic district, the operating profile that matters is capital, not service. Landmarks jurisdiction means façade, window and rooftop work proceeds on the Commission's timetable and to its standards, which raises both the cost and the lead time of any exterior project. Two buildings mean two roofs, two façade cycles and, historically, two sets of structural questions. The building has carried repeated façade restoration, masonry reconstruction and scaffolding filings over the past two decades, which is normal for the type but should be read as a capital-intensity signal rather than ignored.
Before contract, ask for the current operating budget, the reserve position, the Local Law 11 façade cycle status and any open Landmarks items, the elevator modernization history, and the assessment record. Ask also for the current certificate of occupancy, given the building's long run on temporary certificates through 2016.
Policy framework
Ownership form: Condominium. Transfers clear through a board right of first refusal rather than a cooperative approval, which produces the faster and more predictable closing timeline typical of the form.
Pied-à-terre, subletting, LLC, trust and foreign purchasers: Permitted under the standard condominium framework. Any minimum lease term or rental cap should be confirmed with the managing agent.
Pets and house rules: Not documented in public records.
Occupancy classification — joint living-work quarters. The residential use here was authorized as joint living-work quarters through the Landmarks Commission's 74-711 application, under manufacturing zoning that permitted residential occupancy in SoHo only in that form. The December 2021 SoHo/NoHo rezoning replaced M1-5B with M1-5/R7X inside the Special SoHo-NoHo Mixed Use District and made conventional residential use available going forward — but a rezoning does not amend an existing certificate of occupancy, and DOB filings for this building continued to carry M1-5B as late as 2017. Read the current certificate of occupancy for the specific unit before contract, and have counsel confirm whether any artist-certification condition attaches. This is the single most commonly misunderstood point in SoHo loft transactions of this vintage.
Real estate taxes: No building-wide exemption of any kind, and no J-51 history for this lot. Underwrite full unabated taxes on the specific unit against the current bill, then apply the co-op/condo abatement only if the buyer will occupy the unit as a primary residence.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- Per unit / month range
- —
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
See full Local Law 97 analysis — emissions history, scenarios, methodology →Recent sales
The sponsor conveyed the fourteen residences to fourteen separate, unrelated buyers between March 1998 and May 1999. There was no bulk transfer, and no single owner has held the residential inventory at any point since.
Turnover has been steady but slow — roughly two dozen recorded resales across twenty-seven years, against fourteen residences. Holding periods of ten to twenty years are common, and at least two residences remained in original-purchaser hands for more than two decades. Recent trades have run substantially above the mid-2000s levels, and the largest units at the top of the northern building have set the building's high-water marks.
The pricing logic is loft pricing: per square foot, against SoHo full-floor and half-floor loft condominiums with private outdoor space, not against new-development inventory or against smaller Greene Street and Wooster Street conversions whose plates are half the size. Because units were sold raw in 1998, the spread between a fully renovated residence and an unimproved one in this building is wider than in almost any comparable address, and a per-foot average across the building is close to meaningless. Market statements should be indexed to the last complete year. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 19, 2024 | 6 | 4,633 sf | $10,250,000 | $2,212/sf | off-mkt |
| Dec 13, 2022 | 3NORE | 2,614 sf | $4,750,000 | $1,817/sf | off-mkt |
| Aug 26, 2021 | 4NOFR | 2,696 sf | $6,150,000 | $2,281/sf | off-mkt |
| Sep 26, 2019 | 2NORE | 2,614 sf | $4,300,000 | $1,645/sf | off-mkt |
| Dec 29, 2017 | 7 | 3,209 sf | $15,700,000 | $4,892/sf | off-mkt |
| Dec 29, 2017 | PH | 4 BR · 5,000 sf | $17,750,000 | $3,550/sf | +0.0% |
| Apr 15, 2015 | 4NOFR | 2,696 sf | $4,350,000 | $1,614/sf | off-mkt |
| Feb 26, 2014 | 4NORE | 2,614 sf | $4,295,000 | $1,643/sf | off-mkt |
Market read. Most recent trades (2024) cleared a median $2,212/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 0.0% from the last ask.
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 1-00475-7505) 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.
Notable residents
The actress Claire Danes bought a fourth-floor residence from the sponsor in March 1998 and sold it in November 2012 for $5.85 million, as reported by The Real Deal and the Hollywood Reporter. No current resident is named here.
What to know if you’re buying
This is two buildings. 42–44 Wooster (1883) and 46–50 Wooster (1895) are separate structures under one condominium, with separate access, different heights and separate building envelopes. Understand which one your unit is in, because the roof, façade and elevator questions differ.
Do not trust the city's year built or floor count. PLUTO's 1880 matches neither building. Its six-floor figure conflicts with the DOB's eight and with a unit schedule that reaches the seventh floor. Use the Landmarks record and the certificate of occupancy.
Read the certificate of occupancy on joint living-work quarters. The conversion was approved under manufacturing zoning through a landmarks special permit for joint living-work quarters. The 2021 rezoning changed the forward rules; it did not rewrite the existing document.
Underwrite full taxes. There is no J-51, no 421-a, and no building exemption of any kind. The co-op/condo abatement is available only to primary-residence owners.
Price the interior separately from the building. Units were delivered raw in 1998. Two apartments on the same line can be a decade and several million dollars apart in condition. Budget the difference explicitly rather than trusting a building average.
Landmarks jurisdiction is real. Any exterior alteration — windows, terrace work, rooftop equipment — requires a Landmarks permit. Price the schedule, not just the work.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the plate and the outdoor space. Full-floor and near-full-floor SoHo lofts with private terraces and wood-burning fireplaces are a small and shrinking set. That is the argument.
Tell the 1994 story. The rescue of 46 Wooster and the Landmarks Commission's own 74-711 application are documented in The New York Times and give the building a provenance most SoHo conversions cannot claim.
Get ahead of the paperwork. Buyers' counsel will ask about the joint living-work classification and the temporary-certificate history. Having the current certificate of occupancy and a clear answer assembled before offers prevents a mid-diligence stall.
Comparables have to be chosen carefully. Because units were sold raw, the building's own transaction history spans an enormous condition range. Line-specific, building-specific and condition-adjusted analysis beats any per-foot average.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 42 Wooster Street, also evaluate:
- 43 Wooster Street — the ten-residence loft condominium directly across the street on the same block; the closest peer by location, at half the plate
- 47 Greene Street — loft condominium on the same tax block; smaller and differently configured
- 477 Broome Street — twenty-residence loft condominium on the same block; the larger-denominator alternative
- 33 Greene Street — cooperative loft conversion on the same block; the co-op comparison point in SoHo
- 102 Wooster Street — SoHo loft condominium a few blocks north; comparable scale and vintage of conversion
- 105 Wooster Street — boutique SoHo loft building on the same street
- 139 Wooster Street — SoHo loft conversion with full-floor residences
- 160 Wooster Street — the larger, more serviced SoHo condominium alternative
- 70 Greene Street — cast-iron Greene Street loft conversion; the classic iron-front comparison
- 25 Bond Street — the contemporary NoHo alternative at similar unit size and price tier
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Greenwich Village — read The Roebling Team Guide to Greenwich Village.
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.
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