520 LaGuardia Place

The elevation is late-19th-century commercial masonry — running-bond brick with terra cotta and brownstone trim over a cast-iron base, wrapping the Bleecker Street corner. Interiors are what a 1968-era conversion of an 1890 loft produces: column-and-beam structure, high ceilings, deep floor plates, exposed brick and beams in many apartments, and window walls on two exposures for corner units. Two apartments per floor means each has a north or south orientation across the full building depth. A lot-line window was added under a 2012 alteration, which is worth noting for any buyer relying on secondary light: lot-line windows are permitted by grace of the neighboring lot's current condition and can be lost to a neighboring development.

Fourteen units means the corporation is small, the share allocation matters, and a single vacancy or a single assessment moves the building's economics more than it would in a large house. That is the trade for the space.

Operations are minimal by design: one elevator, a laundry room, basement storage, and no doorman. Fourteen shareholders cannot carry a staffed lobby, and the maintenance reflects it.

The capital record from Department of Buildings filings shows a building that has kept up with its obligations rather than deferred them:

• 2001 — gas boiler replaced.
• 2008 — lobby renovated: new tile, new railings, new finishes.
• 2012 — façade repairs behind a sidewalk shed; separately, a lot-line window installed with structural work.
• 2018 — two new gas risers installed inside new fire-rated enclosures, the standard response to Local Law 152 gas-piping inspection findings.
• 2019–2020 — a full Façade Inspection Safety Program cycle: brick replacement, new flashing, replacement feature stone and coping stones, with a material hoist permitted in March 2020. This is the most substantial exterior work in the building's modern record, and for an 1890 masonry corner building in a historic district it is expensive work.

A buyer's attorney should pull the current audited financials, the underlying mortgage and its maturity, the reserve position, and any assessment history tied to the 2019–2020 façade cycle. We do not currently hold financial statements for this building in The Roebling Research Library, and no offering plan for the conversion was located in either library.

Per management-sourced records, current as of the most recent published update:

• Financing up to 80 percent of purchase price on a sale. Twenty percent down. For a Greenwich Village loft cooperative this is at the permissive end of the range and materially widens the buyer pool relative to houses that cap at 50 or 65 percent. Refinances are handled case-by-case.
• Subletting is permitted, with a monthly sublet fee equal to 7 percent of the rent charged to the subtenant. The corporation runs a full subtenant application with its own processing and credit-check fees and move-in and move-out deposits.
• Pets are permitted upon board approval.
• In-unit washers and dryers are permitted — not a given in a building of this age, and a real point of difference against prewar co-ops nearby.
• No percentage flip tax is documented. The published schedule shows a flat $1,250 transfer fee paid by the shareholder at closing, alongside a buyer application fee, per-adult credit check, refundable move-in and move-out deposits, a power-of-attorney review fee where applicable, and a recognition agreement fee if the purchaser is financing.
• Board minutes are made available for review through the management portal on request by counsel.

Pied-à-terre purchase does not appear in the corporation's published policy set; listing records describe it as considered case-by-case. That is exactly the kind of term that is decided by the sitting board rather than by a document, and it should be confirmed with the managing agent before an offer is structured.

New York City's Local Law 58 of 2026 now governs the timing of cooperative board applications citywide: the corporation must acknowledge a completed application in writing within 15 days and must render a decision within 45 days of that acknowledgment, with one permitted 14-day extension. Build those dates into the contract.

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 (2026) cleared a median $2,143/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 1.6% 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 1-00537-0033) 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.

Diligence the façade and the reserves together. A fourteen-unit corporation completed a full FISP cycle in 2019–2020 on a landmarked 1890 corner building. Ask what it cost, how it was funded, whether an assessment ran, and what the next cycle's engineering report says. In a building this small, that answer is the answer.

Confirm the unit count and your share allocation. City records say 14; three DOB filings from 2019–2020 say 12. Get the corporation's current share schedule.

The policy stack is the value. Eighty percent financing, permitted subletting, permitted in-unit laundry, and a flat transfer fee rather than a percentage flip tax is a rare combination downtown. Verify every one of those with the managing agent in writing — they are board positions, not statutes, and boards change them.

You are in a historic district. Anything visible from the street — windows, storefront, façade — runs through LPC. Price the calendar as well as the cost into any renovation plan.

Ask about the Washington Square Village garden. Listing records describe shareholders receiving a key to the private garden ("Key Park") across LaGuardia Place. We have not been able to verify that in a primary source; treat it as a question for the managing agent rather than as a documented amenity.

Lead with the policy stack, not the square footage. Every downtown loft claims the square footage. Very few can offer 80 percent financing, permitted sublets, in-unit laundry and no percentage flip tax in the same building. Put that on the first page.

Get ahead of the operating profile. No doorman, one elevator, fourteen shareholders. Buyers coming from full-service buildings need to understand that maintenance is low because the building does little — and that this is a choice, not a deficiency.

Document the capital work. The 2019–2020 façade program, the 2018 gas risers, the 2012 façade cycle and the 2008 lobby all survive attorney diligence and answer the question every buyer's counsel asks about a 136-year-old masonry building.

Price to the loft comparables, not the neighborhood average. Half-floor lofts with two exposures are a narrow, well-defined product. Run the Renovation Cost Calculator against condition before setting the number.

If you're considering 520 LaGuardia Place, also evaluate:

• 552 LaGuardia Place — the 1982 cooperative four doors north; the newer alternative on the same block
• 200 Mercer Street — 1870s loft conversion cooperative; the closest like-for-like in era, structure and half-floor format
• 140 Thompson Street (The West Broadway Arches) — 1885 loft building converted under a 1978 plan; the South Village loft alternative
• 10 Bleecker Street — 1893 cooperative by John R. Williams; the same vintage a few blocks east
• 105 Wooster Street — SoHo cast-iron loft condominium; the no-board-approval alternative in the same product type
• 177 Thompson Street — 1903 Bernstein & Bernstein building in the South Village Historic District
• 131 Thompson Street — turn-of-the-century South Village building; the smaller-scale alternative
• 181 MacDougal Street — Morris Adjmi new construction, 2023–2025; the new-development alternative in the same few blocks
• 209 Sullivan Street — 1892 Calvert Vaux schoolhouse converted to condominium in 2014; the boutique conversion alternative