473 Broadway

Twenty-six feet wide on Broadway, two hundred feet deep, eight stories, limestone front. The plan gives each floor a long, narrow proportion running the full block depth, which the conversion resolved by dividing most floors into an east residence and a west residence — 2E and 2W, 3E and 3W, and so on — each with its own street frontage and its own entrance address. The result is a building with no dark units and no corridor apartments.

Floors two through six are paired east and west. The seventh floor was originally a single full-floor residence and was divided in August 2017 into 7E and 7W under a recorded tax-lot subdivision, so the seventh floor now matches the paired pattern of the floors below. The eighth floor is the pair of set-back penthouses added in the conversion, PH-8E and PH-8W, with private terrace. The ground floor and cellar are the Broadway retail unit and are not part of the residential community.

Two physical details that matter at diligence. First, lot-line windows. The building's filing history records two lot-line windows installed at the eighth floor in 2013, a penthouse bathroom window, and two further lot-line windows sprinklered in 2016. Lot-line windows are permitted only so long as the adjoining lot remains unbuilt to that height; they can be lost, and they must be fire-rated or sprinklered. Ask which openings in a specific residence are lot-line windows before you value the light. Second, party-wall openings. Fire doors protecting party-wall openings were installed in 2017 — the ordinary consequence of two adjoining converted lofts with a shared wall, and another reason to read the 2001 agreement between the two condominium sponsors.

The lot is inside the original 1973 SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District, confirmed by tax lot against the Landmarks Preservation Commission's own database rather than PLUTO's district field, which is unreliable in both directions. Any work visible from Broadway or Mercer requires a Certificate of Appropriateness before the Department of Buildings will issue a permit: windows, storefront, ironwork, cornice, rooftop mechanicals, terrace railings and anything on the penthouse setbacks.

This building's own history shows the practical shape of that. The 2019 replacement of the seventh-floor windows on both the Broadway and Mercer façades, including the construction of two new openings, is exactly the kind of project that consumes a review cycle. So is any change to the penthouse terraces, where a 2017 filing for pavers, decking and planters was made against a landmarked property. Buyers who intend to alter the window line should assume Landmarks review and budget the calendar, not only the cost.

Temporary certificates of occupancy were issued against the conversion job from December 20, 2012 through November 30, 2020, each reciting fourteen dwelling units, and no final certificate is on file. A building operating on an expired temporary can complicate financing with some lenders and can complicate a resale if a buyer's counsel takes a hard line. It is also, in SoHo loft conversions of this era, a common and generally curable administrative condition rather than evidence of distress — the neighbor at 475 Broadway is in the same posture, which is what one would expect of two buildings converted together under one architect.

Ask the managing agent three things: whether a final certificate has been obtained since the last published data release, what remains outstanding on job 101752569, and whether any cost has been assessed to unit owners. Confirm the occupancy classification recited on the current certificate at the same time.

There is no doorman and no amenity program. The elevator opens into the residences per listing records, which is the SoHo loft convention and part of what buyers are paying for.

The capital record is that of a landmarked masonry building with two street frontages and a full Local Law 11 obligation on each. Exterior repairs to the south and east façades were filed in 2012; roof framing reinforcement in 2014; limited exterior repairs in 2017; sidewalk vault reinforcement and a new sump pump in 2018; a fire protection plan in 2019; and the seventh-floor window and façade work in 2019. Sprinkler and standpipe modernization was refiled in 2017 after an earlier application expired. Sidewalk sheds, pipe scaffold and a hoist appear across 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017 — a long, expensive façade cycle in the middle of the last decade. Ask what it cost, how it was funded, and whether reserves were rebuilt afterward.

The condominium framework is the standard one: pied-à-terre use, entity and trust ownership and subletting are permitted, subject to the board's right of first refusal. What is not documented in public records and must come from the managing agent: the pet policy, any flip tax or resale capital contribution, in-unit laundry rights, terrace maintenance obligations for the penthouse and eighth-floor residences, and the by-law treatment of the shared conditions with the adjoining building under the March 2001 agreement.

In a fourteen-residence condominium with a large retail unit at the base, two additional questions belong on the same list: the commercial floor-area percentage the condominium reports on lender questionnaires, and any concentration of ownership. Both are thresholds that conventional and agency lenders test, and both are two-day questions at the start of a deal and two-week problems at the end.

Recent sales

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.

Market read. Most recent trades (2010) cleared a median $1,200/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 12.6% 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 1-00474-7504) 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.

Confirm you are buying into 473's condominium, not 475's. The two share a name, an architect and a façade history and nothing else. The declaration, the by-laws, the financial statements, the board and the reserve position you need are 473's. Check the unit lot number: this condominium's units are lots 1401 through 1416.

Read the March 2001 agreement between the two sponsors. It governs the party wall and the shared conditions between the adjoining condominiums. It is a recorded document, it is short, and it is the first thing a careful attorney should pull.

Establish which windows are lot-line windows. They are documented in this building's filing history, they are worth real money in light and value, and they are contingent on the neighboring lot staying as it is. Ask before you price the light.

Do not assume the certificate is resolved. Temporary certificates through November 2020, no final on file. Raise it with your lender early; it is usually manageable and occasionally not.

Underwrite full taxes. No J-51, no 421-a, no building exemption. The co-op/condo abatement is a primary-residence benefit and does not transfer as a building benefit. Run the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator on the actual bill for the specific unit lot.

Distinguish the building in the listing. Buyers and their attorneys will find data products that merge 473 and 475. State the condominium, the unit lot, the declaration date and the second address — 46 Mercer Street — plainly, and the confusion never starts.

Lead with through-block light. Two hundred feet deep, Broadway front and Mercer front, no interior exposure. That is a scarce condition in a 26-foot-wide SoHo building and it is what the residence is actually selling.

Have the certificate-of-occupancy answer ready. Whether a final has since issued or not, a seller who can state the current status and what is outstanding controls the conversation. A seller who cannot loses two weeks.

Document the façade cycle. The 2012–2019 exterior program is substantial and it is finished. Buyers' engineers ask about landmarked masonry on two frontages; the answer here is a good one, and the underlying filings support it.

If you're considering 473 Broadway, also evaluate:

• 475 Broadway — the adjoining building and the closest possible comparison; a separate condominium converted in the same project
• 47 Mercer Street — five-loft condominium around the corner on the same tax block, with an explicit artist live-work offering
• 476 Broadway — cast-iron loft conversion directly across Broadway
• 458 Broadway — large Broadway loft building at the district's southern edge
• 40 Mercer Street — the Jean Nouvel condominium on the parallel street; the new-construction alternative
• 77 Mercer Street — boutique Mercer Street loft condominium
• 93 Mercer Street — small SoHo loft building north of Spring
• 491 Broadway — the twelve-story loft cooperative at Broome Street; the co-op comparison
• 515 Broadway — block-through loft cooperative two blocks north
• 470 Broome Street — loft building at the corner of the same cross street