- Year built
- 2000
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 5
- Floors
- 6
- Landmark
- No
- Pets
- Not documented in the records reviewed — confirm with the managing agent
Every recorded sale at this building, 2003–2026
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $2,370
- Listing discount
- 0.9%
- Recorded sales
- 11
- On record
- 2003–2026
Staple Street is a twenty-foot lane laid out when Trinity Church's farm was subdivided at the end of the eighteenth century, and it runs two blocks from Duane to Harrison. Almost nothing faces it. 5 Harrison Street holds the southeast corner where it meets Harrison, directly across the lane from the 1893–94 William Schickel & Company warehouse that later became the Harrison Street Cold Storage Company — and, before that, from a building on this very lot that served the same enterprise.
The building's founding fact is the one the public record gets wrong most often. Published descriptions call 5 Harrison a conversion. It is not. The Department of Buildings issued a new-building permit for this site in January 1999, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission's own designation record settles what was there beforehand: at the time the Tribeca West Historic District was designated in May 1991, block 180, lot 9 was a parking lot. The masonry building that had stood on it — put up in 1888 for Charles S. Welsh to M.V.B. Ferdon's design, altered in 1899 by John B. Snook & Sons for Joseph J. O'Donohue and the Harrison Street Cold Storage Company — burned and was demolished in 1967. For twenty-four years the corner was a hole in a nineteenth-century streetwall.
That makes 5 Harrison an unusual object: ground-up construction inside a designated Manhattan historic district, on a corner where LPC had every reason to insist that a new building repair the street rather than announce itself. What Richard R. Ferrara of DeLaCour & Ferrara Architects produced is a red-brick corner on a limestone base with retail at the ground floor and a stainless-steel entrance surround — warehouse proportions and warehouse materials, at warehouse scale, without pretending to be a warehouse. It reads as a competent piece of infill, which on this block is the entire point.
For a buyer, the practical consequence is a rare combination. The apartments are full-floor plates with the light and outlook of a corner loft, in a landmarked low-rise context where neither facing frontage can realistically be built out — but the building itself is modern construction, with modern systems, modern waterproofing and none of the structural archaeology that comes with an 1890s conversion. Five residences also means the building is genuinely small: no staff, no amenity program, and a very short list of shared costs.
The tax posture is settled and favorable. Every unit lot carried a ten-year, uncapped 421-a exemption that expired after the FY2012/13 roll year. The apartments have been fully taxed since FY2013/14. There is nothing left to unwind.
Architecture and unit composition
The lot is a corner of roughly thirty-nine by fifty-nine feet with two exposed elevations — Harrison Street and Staple Street. In a five-residence building that geometry produces the plan almost by itself: each residential floor is a single plate with windows on two sides, and the interior partitions are free to move because the exterior walls do all the work. Recorded alteration filings confirm the pattern — apartments here are identified by floor rather than by line, and renovations are described as whole-floor projects.
The base is commercial. Two of the seven condominium units are commercial units with their own common interests, occupying the ground floor and cellar; DOB filings over the years record those spaces as a medical office, then an antique store, then general retail. They are separate condominium property, and a residential buyer should understand how they participate in — or are carved out of — the building's common expenses before assuming a common-charge figure.
The roof terrace dates from a 2001 alteration filing that installed a trellis, garden and new pavers. Confirm at diligence whether it is common, limited-common to a specific residence, or deeded, because in a five-unit building the answer materially changes what is being bought.
Building operations
Five residences carry every fixed cost of the building. There is no doorman and no live-in staff. The elevator, the roof, the mechanical plant, the retail base and the façade obligation are all shared by a very small group of owners, which makes the operating budget and reserve balance the two most important documents in the file — more important, in a building this size, than the amenity list, which is short by design.
Two items are specific to this building. First, the façade is masonry inside a historic district, and it is now more than twenty-five years old and into its Local Law 11 cycles. Exterior work here requires LPC review, which makes it slower and more expensive than the same scope outside a district. Second, the commercial condominium units complicate the picture in ways that a five-unit residential budget cannot absorb quietly. Ask for the current LL11 filing status, the most recent engineer's report, the reserve position, any assessment history, and the by-law language governing the commercial units' contribution.
Policy framework
Ownership form: Condominium. Residences convey as deeded real property. The Board of Managers holds a right of first refusal on transfers; confirm from the by-laws whether that right also reaches leases, which is common in Tribeca condominiums of this scale and materially affects any rental thesis.
Pied-à-terre, LLC and trust ownership: Permitted under the standard condominium framework. The recorded chain of title on these unit lots includes ownership taken in trust, which is a documented instance rather than a policy statement.
Pets, financing minimums, fees: Not documented in the records reviewed. The house rules, the working capital contribution and any move-in fees should come from the managing agent before contract, not from assumption.
Real estate taxes: Underwrite full unabated taxes against the current bill for the specific unit. The 421-a benefit expired more than a decade ago.
Landmark obligations: Windows, storefronts, ironwork and any visible exterior element are subject to LPC jurisdiction even though the building post-dates designation. A buyer planning exterior changes should assume an LPC application.
Local Law 97
This building is below the 25,000 sq ft threshold at which LL97 emissions caps apply. No regulatory capital pressure from this law specifically, current or 2030.
See full Local Law 97 analysis →Recent sales
5 Harrison trades as a Tribeca boutique condominium with loft-scale plates, and the right comparison set is the small buildings west of Broadway with fewer than about twenty residences and floor plates above two thousand square feet — not the amenity-heavy conversions with concierge staff and gyms. The building's arguments are the corner, the cobbled lane, the whole-floor plan and the landmark protection on the surrounding low-rise fabric. Its counterargument is service level: there is none, and buyers coming from staffed buildings should price that honestly.
The recorded transfer history on the five residential unit lots is continuous — arm's-length deeds to unrelated third-party purchasers running from 2003 through 2026, spread across all five apartments, with no bulk transaction and no single entity holding the residential stack. Nothing in the chain suggests a rental wrapper. Pricing inside the building turns on floor, on whether the residence has the roof terrace or the penthouse level, and on condition, since a twenty-five-year-old interior at this price point is now a renovation conversation. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 23, 2026 | 3 | 3 BR · 2 BA · 1,793 sf | $4,250,000 | $2,370/sf | +0.0% |
| Aug 29, 2024 | 5 | 3 BR · 2 BA · 1,859 sf | $3,718,000 | $2,000/sf | -12.5% |
| Jun 30, 2022 | 3 | 3 BR · 2 BA · 1,793 sf | $4,100,000 | $2,287/sf | +6.5% |
| Dec 7, 2021 | PH | 3 BR · 2.5 BA · 2,363 sf | $5,150,000 | $2,179/sf | -6.4% |
| Feb 22, 2013 | 3 | 3 BR · 1,793 sf | $2,250,000 | $1,255/sf | off-mkt |
| Jul 19, 2010 | 4 | 3 BR · 1,793 sf | $2,350,000 | $1,311/sf | -1.9% |
| Jan 22, 2010 | 6 | 3,418 sf | $3,500,000 | $1,024/sf | off-mkt |
| Jun 5, 2008 | 5 | 3 BR · 1,798 sf | $2,525,000 | $1,404/sf | +0.0% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $2,370/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 0.9% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
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 1-00180-7510) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
It is a new building, not a conversion. Systems, waterproofing, elevator and structure all date from 1999–2000, not from the nineteenth century. That is a real advantage over a period conversion on the same block — and it means the relevant capital questions are about a twenty-five-year-old building, not a hundred-and-thirty-year-old one.
Understand the commercial units. Two of the seven condominium units are commercial. Read the by-laws on common-interest allocation and expense sharing before you accept a common-charge number at face value.
Five owners is a very small denominator. A single façade or elevator scope lands hard. Get the budget, the reserves, the LL11 status and any assessment history.
Landmark jurisdiction applies even though the building is modern. Anything visible from Harrison or Staple Street goes through LPC.
Confirm the roof terrace. Who owns it, who maintains it, and who may use it are three separate questions with three separate answers depending on the declaration.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the corner and the lane. Two exposed elevations on Staple Street inside the Tribeca West Historic District cannot be replicated, and the protections that constrain an owner also protect the light.
Lead with the plate. A full-floor, two-exposure residence in a five-unit building is the product. Square footage per dollar and the whole-floor plan are the arguments that carry.
Correct the record on the building's origin. Marketing copy in circulation calls this a conversion. It is a purpose-built residential building with LPC-approved new construction behind it, and that is a stronger story, better documented.
Be direct about taxes and service level. Full unabated taxes and no staff are both known quantities. Present them with a True Monthly Carrying Cost analysis rather than letting them surface in diligence.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 5 Harrison Street, also evaluate:
- 7 Harrison Street — the 1894 William Schickel & Company warehouse directly across Staple Street, converted to twelve residences; the same corner, the opposite building type, and a separate condominium
- 60 Collister Street — 1866 building converted in 2008; the closest peer for a small building on a cobbled Tribeca side street
- 155 Franklin Street — 1882 loft converted to ten residences; comparable unit count and plate
- 39 Vestry Street — 19th-century warehouse converted to sixteen residences around 2000; same vintage of conversion, larger denominator
- 44 Laight Street — 1896 warehouse in the same historic-district context, with the same LPC obligations
- 27 North Moore Street — 1905 industrial building converted in the early 2000s; the Romanesque Revival masonry alternative
- 166 Duane Street — 1911 loft converted in 1997; the earlier-generation conversion at similar scale
- 145 Hudson Street — 1928–29 Art Deco building converted in 2000; the larger, more serviced Tribeca alternative
- 24 Leonard Street — seven-residence Tribeca condominium; the closest peer on unit count and boutique operation
- 92 Laight Street — new construction built within a turn-of-the-century warehouse shell; the hybrid old-and-new counterpoint
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Tribeca — read The Roebling Team Guide to Tribeca.
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.
Considering a move at 5 Harrison Street?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 5 Harrison Street would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.