- Year built
- 1930
- Type
- Cooperative
- Landmark
- No
Southgate is a Bing & Bing building designed by Emery Roth, and for a prewar New York co-op there are few better pedigrees. Bing & Bing were among the city's premier builders of upper-middle-class housing in the 1920s and 1930s, and Roth was the era's defining apartment-house architect. Together they produced 433 East 51st Street in 1930 as one of five sister residences collectively known as Southgate — a coordinated development that brought serious prewar quality to the quiet blocks of Beekman.
Beekman itself is the draw. This pocket of the East 50s, sloping down toward the East River, is one of Manhattan's most tranquil residential enclaves — tree-lined, low-key, and removed from the commercial bustle a few blocks west, yet minutes from Midtown. A Roth-designed, Bing & Bing co-op here delivers exactly what buyers seek in the neighborhood: prewar architecture, real proportions, full-service staffing, and a genuinely peaceful setting.
For buyers, the proposition is a blue-chip prewar co-op with a recognized architectural lineage, a landscaped private garden, and a pet-friendly, pied-à-terre-friendly board — a combination that is increasingly hard to find in Midtown's prewar stock.
Architecture and unit composition
Emery Roth's hand shows in the building's proportion and restraint: a thirteen-story prewar masonry building with the well-handled massing, regular fenestration, and quiet dignity that define Roth's residential work. As part of the five-building Southgate group, 433 East 51st Street shares the development's coordinated design and its handsome landscaped garden, a shared green amenity that is a genuine rarity in the neighborhood.
The building holds 81 cooperative residences, a prewar mix running from one-bedrooms to larger classic layouts, several refined or combined over the building's cooperative life. Prewar construction here means the qualities buyers prize: solid masonry, hardwood floors, real room proportions, and the architectural detail of a Roth building. Individual homes vary in layout and condition, which rewards careful evaluation.
Building operations
Southgate operates as a full-service cooperative: a full-time doorman, a live-in resident manager, a laundry room, a bicycle room, and private storage, organized around the development's landscaped private garden. Electricity is included in the maintenance — a notable feature that simplifies monthly budgeting. On policy, the building is well-suited to a range of buyers: pets are permitted, pied-à-terre ownership is allowed, and a 2% flip tax applies, paid by the buyer. These are settled, buyer-friendly terms that broaden the building's appeal relative to stricter prewar co-ops.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- Per unit / month range
- —
Facade safety — Local Law 11
Safe to live in today — but the last inspection flagged repairs that are due on a deadline, so facade work and its cost are coming. Whether that’s a real concern depends on the scope, the timing, and how the building plans to pay for it — reserves or an assessment — which is exactly what we’d dig into for you.
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — the licensed engineer the city requires to sign the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent). Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library.
See the full facade history →Recent sales
With 81 cooperative units and a stable, long-tenured ownership base, turnover at Southgate is modest — a handful of resales in a typical year. Pricing tracks the Beekman prewar co-op market, with garden-facing exposures, higher floors, and renovated or combined homes at the top of the building's range. The BBL-linked sales record on this site reflects recorded transfers as they post; we benchmark any specific home against its floor, exposure, layout, and renovation level rather than building-wide averages.
What to know if you’re buying
This is a cooperative, so a purchase runs through a board package and interview. The building's terms are buyer-friendly: pets are permitted, pied-à-terre purchases are allowed, electricity is included in maintenance, and a 2% flip tax is paid by the buyer at closing — a cost to factor into your budget from the start. We help buyers understand the building's financing posture and prepare a board package that presents cleanly.
The variables that drive value here are exposure, floor, and condition. A garden- or open-facing upper-floor home is a materially different asset from an interior lower line, and in a 1930 building, thoughtfully renovated homes command the premium. We help buyers read the floor plans, weigh condition against price, and benchmark against the Beekman prewar co-op inventory.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the pedigree. The Emery Roth design, the Bing & Bing provenance, and the Southgate development's landscaped garden are durable, recognizable differentiators that distinguish a resale here from generic East 50s stock.
Buyer-friendly terms widen the pool. A pet-friendly, pied-à-terre-friendly board with electricity included in maintenance appeals to a broad set of buyers; these terms belong in the marketing.
Condition and exposure drive pricing. Renovated, well-exposed homes command the premium; a well-presented home should foreground its updates, proportions, and garden or open views.
Turnover is thin, which helps. With a long-tenured ownership base, available inventory is genuinely limited, and a well-presented listing benefits from that scarcity.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 433 East 51st Street, also evaluate the surrounding Beekman and East 50s co-op stock:
- 400 East 51st Street — full-service building on the same block
- 401 East 51st Street — Beekman cooperative nearby
- 425 East 51st Street — full-service co-op on the block
- 410 East 52nd Street — prewar Beekman cooperative
The Roebling Team at Southgate
The Roebling Team at Compass specializes in Beekman, Sutton Place, and the broader East Side prewar co-op market. We publish this profile because buyers and sellers evaluating a Roth-designed Bing & Bing co-op deserve building-specific intelligence — the architecture, the garden, the board's terms, and where pricing sits against the neighborhood's prewar inventory.
If you're considering a purchase or sale at Southgate, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.
Get the full picture on this building.
Current availability including off-market, the full comp set, and the board & financials read most listings don't show.