514 Broadway (Soho Plaza)

Six stories, 37.5 feet of frontage, 200 feet deep — a through-block loft with light at both ends and none in the middle, which is the classic SoHo plan and the reason these apartments run long and narrow with a bright front room and a bright back room. LPC treats the two faces as separate designation records: brick with terra cotta on Broadway, brick with stone and iron on Crosby, the rear elevation classed as Utilitarian and built as a store and warehouse. The building's sidewalk vaults are original cast iron; the cooperative repaired the plates and the supporting steel in 2010–12.

Above the retail, the residential floors run two through six, lettered A through H on the DOB record — consistent with the roughly forty apartments the tax roll now carries and with a subdivision history that took the building well past the thirty-two studios first offered. Ceiling heights, columns, and the deep floorplate are the product; several filings on record cover mezzanine construction, roof access and private roof decks off top-floor apartments, so the upper line carries features the lower floors do not. Because units have been combined and divided repeatedly, square footage and layout here vary far more between apartments than the building's uniform exterior suggests, and the offering plan's Schedule A is not a reliable guide to what exists today.

The 2019 audited statements describe a solidly capitalized, conservatively run corporation. Cash and equivalents of $1,112,810 sat alongside separately held cash reserves of $2,603,033 — roughly $3.7 million of liquidity against total revenue of $3.5 million. Real estate taxes ran $1,324,854, the single largest line. Repairs and maintenance of $775,824 were spread across general repairs, exterior work, elevator maintenance, water treatment, air conditioning, intercom and sprinklers. An operating assessment of $224,000 was levied that year. Administrative expenses were modest, and payroll of $82,013 indicates a small staff.

The underlying mortgage at that date was $6,701,255 against an original $7,500,000 at 4.38 percent, amortizing over thirty years with a maturity of 2023 and a balloon of roughly $6.2 million in the final year. The cooperative refinanced ahead of that maturity in February 2022. A $1,500,000 line of credit taken alongside the 2013 loan carried a zero balance at year-end 2019; the 2022 recording shows a $500,000 facility.

Two items belong in any buyer's diligence file. First, the auditors note that the corporation has not commissioned a reserve study and has not estimated the remaining useful lives or replacement costs of building components — a standard qualification in co-op reporting, but one that matters more in a 145-year-old landmarked loft with a cast-iron sidewalk vault and an aging elevator. Second, the 2019 statements disclose a lawsuit pending in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, with the board unable to estimate potential damages and no accrual taken. We do not know its subject or its outcome; a buyer's attorney should ask for the current status and any subsequent disclosure.

Documented capital work over the past fifteen years includes boiler replacement around 2011, sidewalk vault and cast-iron plate repair in 2010–12, exterior restoration in 2014, mezzanine reconstruction at the second floor in 2015–16, replacement of elevator shaftway windows in 2018, a new sub-cellar slab and an elevator-pit sump pump in 2018, and LPC-approved storefront door replacement in 2018.

The published record establishes three things and leaves the rest to the managing agent, and we would rather say that plainly than guess.

A flip tax exists. The 2019 income statement records $81,000 of flip tax revenue. Neither the rate nor the basis — per share, percentage of price, or percentage of profit — is published.

Subletting is permitted and carries a fee. The same statement records $77,057 of sublet fee income, which is a meaningful number for a building of this size and implies an active and permitted sublet population rather than an occasional exception. Seasoning, term limits and the current fee are not published.

Purchase is by board package and interview. The application is submitted through an online board-package portal and includes the standard REBNY purchase application, a personal financial statement with two months of bank statements, credit authorization, the contract of sale, employment verification, personal and business references, the New York City cooperative tax abatement form, window guard and lead paint acknowledgments, and — where the purchase is financed — the loan application and commitment letter. The management fee is $750 plus a per-applicant credit-check charge. The board reviews the package and then schedules an interview.

Two questions on the application are worth flagging because they signal board posture rather than mere administration. The form asks whether occupancy will be full-time or part-time and, if part-time, approximately how many days per month the apartment will be used — a pied-à-terre screen. It also asks whether the purchaser plans to sublease, referring the applicant to the building rules. The maximum financing percentage, the post-closing liquidity requirement, the pied-à-terre policy, the pet policy, and the treatment of trusts, LLCs, guarantors, co-purchasers and gifted down payments are not published anywhere in the record we reviewed. Get all of them from the managing agent in writing before you offer.

Recent sales

Recent transfers 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 (2025) cleared a median $1,843/sf 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 1-00483-0013) 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 on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

Underwrite the retail, not just the apartment. This is the unusual instruction on this page and it is the important one. Three commercial tenancies produce roughly three-quarters of building revenue and support a maintenance level that would otherwise be much higher. Ask for the rent roll, the lease expirations, the escalation structure, and any tenant credit information the board will share. A single Broadway vacancy has more effect on your monthly carry here than anything happening inside your apartment.

Ask what the certificate of occupancy actually says today. The building was converted as thirty-two studios with accessory living use, the 2021 rezoning changed the underlying district, and we found no filing amending the certificate. Whether that matters to you depends on your lender, your use, and your risk tolerance. It is a five-minute question for the managing agent and a real one for your attorney.

Confirm the whole policy stack in writing. Financing ceiling, post-closing liquidity, pied-à-terre, pets, trusts and LLCs, flip tax rate and basis, sublet terms. None of it is published. Run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator once you have the financing number, not before.

Read the current financials, not ours. The statements we hold are for 2019. The mortgage has been refinanced since, the assessment history has moved, the pending litigation disclosed in 2019 has presumably resolved one way or another, and the retail market has been through a full cycle. Your attorney should review the two most recent audited years and the current budget.

Expect variation between apartments. Forty years of combinations and subdivisions in a through-block loft means the apartment two floors up may share nothing but an address with the one you are seeing. Measure, and price condition and layout rather than the building average.

Lead with the carrying cost and explain why it is what it is. The retail income is the story, and buyers who understand it will pay for it. Buyers who do not understand it will assume the maintenance figure is a mistake. Have the explanation ready, sourced to the financial statements, and hand the underlying documents to serious buyers' counsel.

Be first with the occupancy question. JLWQA history, the 2021 rezoning, and the current certificate of occupancy will come up in every attorney review. A seller who has already obtained the managing agent's written answer controls the timeline; a seller who has not loses two weeks to it.

Price the apartment, not the block. SoHo loft pricing spreads widely on ceiling height, window line, floor, and renovation quality, and this building's unit sizes are genuinely heterogeneous. Run the Renovation Cost Calculator against a realistic buyer scope before setting an asking price on an estate-condition unit.

If you're considering 514 Broadway, also evaluate:

• 515 Broadway (84 Mercer Street) — directly across Broadway on Block 484; the closest structural peer, another block-through cooperative running to Mercer
• 491 Broadway — the south end of the same east-side block; SoHo loft ownership at smaller scale
• 473 Broadway (The Hohner Building) — one block south on Block 474; the condominium alternative in the same cast-iron stock
• 475 Broadway — its immediate neighbor on Block 474
• 476 Broadway — west-side Broadway loft conversion, comparable vintage
• 543 Broadway — north of Prince; the SoHo loft comparison at the top of the district
• 583 Broadway (The Astor Building) — the marquee Broadway conversion at the district's northern edge
• 458 Broadway — below Canal on Block 232; the lower-priced loft alternative
• 101 Wooster Street — cast-iron cooperative one block west; the quieter side-street comparison
• 115 Mercer Street — Mercer Street loft ownership at comparable scale
• 10 Greene Street — the cobblestone-block SoHo alternative