47 Greene Street

The elevation is the plain, early Greene Street type: a cast-iron storefront at the sidewalk carrying a masonry front above, ordered by regular window openings rather than by applied ornament. It is a mixed iron-and-masonry structure of the post-Civil War period rather than a full cast-iron front, which is the more common condition on this block than the celebrated all-iron examples suggest.

Behind it the building is 48 feet wide and 100 feet deep on a 4,833-square-foot lot, six stories over cellar, with roughly 25,600 square feet of built area of which PLUTO attributes about 18,200 to residential use. Four residences across that area means full-floor plates of substantial width — the frontage is unusually generous for Greene Street — with light from the street elevation and from a rear yard and skylight, the latter replaced under a 2016 filing.

Unit designations run 2 through 5, one per floor, with the ground floor held as a separate commercial unit. The top residence extends into the roof addition and is configured as a triplex; the Department of Finance carries it at roughly three times the market value of each full-floor unit below. That ratio is a modeled tax allocation, not a measure of floor area; compare interior and outdoor square footage from the offering-plan floor plans. Buyers should expect the specification and layout to differ materially between the full-floor residences and the penthouse, and should not treat a price per foot derived from one as applicable to the other.

The building has four residences and one commercial unit, with no documented doorman or amenity program. Confirm actual staffing and service contracts rather than inferring them from size. The declaration governs how façade, roof, elevator and storefront costs are allocated between the residential and commercial interests; review it with the current budget, audited statements and assessments.

Two items deserve specific attention at diligence. The first is the reserve position and the assessment history; no audited financial statement for this condominium was on file in The Roebling Research Library at the time of writing, so it must be requested. The second is the Local Law 11 façade cycle. LPC requirements, the engineer's scope and actual bids determine the work and cost; designation alone does not establish a comparative expense. Confirm the commercial unit's obligations and the residential shares under the declaration rather than assigning the entire cost to four residences.

Recent sales

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.

Market read. Most recent trades (2022) cleared a median $4,292/sf (recorded) across 1 sale.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00475-7513; 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.

Get the Loft Board and artist-occupancy history in writing. The building's filings carry the Department of Buildings Loft Board indicator, and its residential floors were Joint Living-Work Quarters for Artists before the conversion. Have counsel confirm the current status of the specific unit with the Loft Board and establish whether JLWQA restrictions remain or a general residential conversion was completed. If conversion is required, verify City Planning certification, the current Arts Fund contribution, necessary code work and the resulting certificate of occupancy.

Ask for the current certificate of occupancy. The building has run on a renewing temporary certificate since October 2021. Get the current one and the outstanding-requirements list.

The roll shows no J-51 or other exemption. Underwrite taxes on the specific unit from its actual bill, which is where any abatement would appear, from day one.

Verify residential and commercial cost allocations. Ask for the audited financials, the reserve balance, the assessment history and the Local Law 11 status before contract. Read the declaration to establish each unit's obligations, including the commercial unit.

Reconcile the year built yourself. LPC says 1866, PLUTO says 1900, the architect's materials say 1886. Use LPC.

No offering plan was located in The Roebling Research Library. The current pet, subletting, pied-à-terre and resale-contribution terms were not established in the sources reviewed. Request the plan, the by-laws and the house rules from the managing agent early rather than at contract.

If you're considering 47 Greene Street, also evaluate:

• 43 Wooster Street — a small SoHo loft condominium on the same tax block; the closest structural peer by scale and district
• 477 Broome Street — also on Block 475; a boutique SoHo conversion with a comparable owner count
• 57 Greene Street — the same street a few doors north; full-floor loft residences in the same cast-iron fabric
• 93 Greene Street (Greene House) — Greene Street conversion at slightly larger scale; useful for reading how unit count changes common charges
• 107 Greene Street — north Greene Street loft condominium; a step up in unit count and services
• 40 Mercer Street — the full-service, architect-signed SoHo alternative; the opposite operating model at a similar price tier
• 354 Broome Street (The Ice House) — SoHo conversion of an industrial building; comparable buyer pool, different building type
• 565 Broome Soho — new-construction SoHo condominium; the amenity-and-services counterweight to a four-unit loft
• 475 Broadway — cast-iron Broadway loft conversion one block east; similar landmark constraints
• 476 Broadway — the adjacent Broadway loft alternative; another low-density cast-iron conversion