500 Grand Street

Hillman's buildings are the honest product of the post-war union-housing era: twelve-story red-brick blocks arranged to create interior gardens and play space rather than to maximize street frontage. The architecture is not ornamental — it is plain and laid out for livability, with the cross-ventilation and generous room sizes that pre-curtain-wall construction tends to deliver; current condition needs recent engineering reports and board materials.

The apartments are the draw. Units at 500 Grand and across Hillman run notably larger than their market price would suggest, with high ceilings, real foyers, and layouts — one-, two-, and three-bedroom homes — that reflect a mid-century planning sensibility focused on families rather than investor turnover. The 258 homes at this address sit within the larger Hillman complex, which shares the gardens, recreation space, and management that make the community function.

The complex is built around its shared resources: private gated gardens with seating and playgrounds, a fitness center, on-site laundry, a bike room, gated parking, attended security, and on-site cooperative management. The community runs itself with the seriousness of a long-established institution, which is part of what keeps carrying costs reasonable.

The cooperative's rules are buyer-relevant and concrete. A transfer fee (flip tax) applies on resale — retained to keep maintenance low for original shareholders. Subletting is permitted under the co-op's policy. Financing is permitted with a minimum 20% down payment. Dogs are allowed, subject to registration and a weight limit (in the range of 35 pounds). Guarantors and co-purchasers are permitted under the board's policies. Request the cooperative's tax-allocation statement for the relevant year and have a tax adviser assess eligible deductions for the purchaser's circumstances; no fixed deductible share is established here.

Recent sales

Recent transfers 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 (2026 to date) cleared a median $988/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. Median listing discount 0.7% 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 1-00331-0065). 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 on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

This is a space-and-community buy, not a trophy buy. You are getting larger-than-market apartments in a gated, garden-set, owner-occupied community with real amenities, at a price per square foot that remains among the friendlier in lower Manhattan. The Cooperative Village setting — quiet, green, family-oriented, walkable to the East River esplanade and the J/M/Z and F trains — is a genuine lifestyle, not a compromise.

Underwrite two things specifically. First, the transfer fee: it is high by design and changes the math on a future sale, so factor it into your hold horizon. Second, the maintenance and the building's reserve and capital posture — post-war complexes of this scale carry ongoing facade, mechanical, and Local Law compliance obligations, and you want to understand assessments before you commit. We help buyers read the co-op's financials, weigh the transfer-fee structure, and benchmark the price against the rest of the Grand Street co-ops.

The selling story is space, stability, and value. Buyers come to Grand Street precisely for the room and the community they can't get for the money elsewhere downtown, and a well-presented apartment with a strong layout sells on that promise. Lead with the square footage, the light, the gardens, and the price-to-space advantage.

Two mechanics shape the sale. The transfer fee reduces net proceeds and should be modeled into your expectations from the outset. And the co-op's board process — a package and interview — sets the buyer pool, so positioning to qualified, owner-occupier buyers prepared for board review is essential to a clean closing. We price to the privatized Grand Street co-op set and manage the sale toward a buyer prepared for that review; approval remains the board's decision.

If you're considering 500 Grand Street, these nearby Lower East Side cooperatives round out the comparison set:

• 572 Grand Street — Cooperative Village co-op a few blocks east
• 38 Delancey Street — the 55-unit park-front condominium
• 20 Clinton Street — an Art Deco walk-up-scale condominium