70 Washington Street

The building is a full-block Industrial Neoclassical daylight factory: a reinforced-concrete structural grid expressed on the façade, oversized window bays, and restrained classicizing detail at the base and parapet. As renovated it contains thirteen stories, with the residential lobby at grade, residences on floors 2 through 13, and the lowest partially-below-grade level given over to service and the lower levels of certain second-floor duplexes.

The 259 residences run from studios through three-bedroom lofts. Characteristic attributes across the inventory: concrete ceilings and columns, oversized multi-pane windows, and the deep floor plates of factory construction. Distinct sub-markets within the building include:

• The penthouse level (13th floor): 18 units, PHA through PHR, each with direct access to a dedicated roof terrace — the building's trophy tier, with Manhattan-skyline and bridge exposures.
• Roof terrace spaces: 22 separately-purchasable terrace spaces on the roof, transferable only among unit owners and lessees, each sub-metered for electricity — a rare add-on asset class that periodically trades separately from apartments.
• Second-floor duplexes: units with lower-level space designated for storage (not bedroom use) and, on nine lines, private rear gardens under the recorded easement.
• Mid-building lofts: the volume inventory, with pricing driven by exposure (Manhattan/bridge north and west versus courtyard and BQE-side south) and light.

The 2005 offering priced the inventory from the mid-$300,000s for the smallest lofts to just under $2 million at the top — an average around $1 million per unit — figures that document both the scale of the offering and the trajectory of the neighborhood since.

70 Washington operates as a full-service condominium: 24-hour concierge with package room, non-resident superintendent, residents-only health club, and common roof deck (open dawn to dusk, passive use). Two Trees Management Co. LLC was the managing agent from conversion under an initial five-year agreement; current management should be confirmed during diligence — The Roebling Team remains the contact of record for clients.

The house rules, amended in 2020, are specific and actively enforced: smoking is prohibited throughout indoor and outdoor common areas including the public roof deck; at least 50 percent of unit floor area must be carpeted or equivalently sound-treated; construction work is limited to weekday hours with a four-month completion window per approved alteration; grilling on terraces and rear gardens is limited to electric or small-propane equipment; and a graduated fine schedule ($250 / $500 / $1,000) backs enforcement. Rear-garden and roof-terrace owners maintain their own decking and demising surfaces, and terrace loads are capped at 30 pounds per square foot.

Resale and leasing: Sales and leases of units — and of roof terrace spaces — are subject to the condominium board's right of first refusal on matching terms. No co-op-style approval; condominium closing timelines apply.

Transfer fee: The sale of a unit or roof terrace space carries a 1 percent transfer fee under the offering plan — modest by co-op flip-tax standards, but a real line item that sellers should model.

Pets: Permitted under the house rules, subject to the board's reserved right to revoke the privilege; animals must be carried or leashed in elevators and public areas.

Roof terrace spaces: May be owned only by unit owners and leased only to building lessees; transfers are board-right-of-first-refusal events. An owner may formally annex a terrace space to a unit by declaration amendment.

Ownership structures: Not documented; confirm LLC, trust, foreign-purchaser and pied-à-terre rules in the declaration, bylaws and house rules. Leasing by owners is permitted with conditions.

House-rule specifics (2020 amendment): smoke-free common areas; 50 percent carpet coverage; quiet hours; four-month alteration window; graduated fines. Current house rules and financials are maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.

Recent sales

Recent closings 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 $1,246/sf (floor-adjusted) across 15 sales. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 3.0% 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 3-00045-7501; each condominium apartment is its own tax lot). 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.

Evaluate the available DUMBO comp set. Check current listings and dated sales by line, floor and condition; building scale alone does not establish more inventory or better price discovery than other conversions.

The Gair/Higginson/Turner pedigree is the real thing. The same architect-builder-owner lineage as the Clock Tower, inside the DUMBO Historic District; the reinforced-concrete daylight-factory attributes — window walls, concrete ceilings, column grids — are original, and they are why the lofts feel the way they do.

Exposure drives value line by line. Northern and western exposures carry the bridge-and-skyline imagery; southern lines face the BQE side. Walk the specific unit; price the specific exposure.

Understand the roof terrace space market. If a terrace space is included in — or available alongside — a purchase, it is a separately-documented asset with its own transfer mechanics and right of first refusal. Have counsel confirm what is actually appurtenant to the unit.

Model the 1 percent transfer fee and the house rules. The fee is a seller-side convention but a negotiable economic term; the carpet, alteration, and smoking rules are actively enforced and matter to daily life and renovation planning.

Benchmark against the building itself. With this much internal comparable evidence, buyers will anchor on same-line history; pricing against thinner conversions or new development invites re-trading.

Terrace rights are marketing gold — document them. Dedicated terraces, purchased terrace spaces, and rear gardens each carry different legal footing; a clean paper trail is worth real money at negotiation.

Budget the 1 percent transfer fee into net-proceeds modeling from the first pricing conversation.

Lead with the loft attributes new development cannot match. Concrete volume, window scale, historic-district context, and the Gair provenance are the differentiators against the amenity-rich new buildings two blocks east.

If you're considering 70 Washington Street, also evaluate:

• The Clock Tower (1 Main Street) — the sibling Gair/Higginson/Turner conversion; smaller, older plan, iconic crown
• The Sweeney Building (30 Main Street) — the boutique-scale Two Trees conversion nearer the park
• 168 Plymouth Street — the newest and most finish-forward of the authentic conversions
• Kirkman Lofts (37 Bridge Street) — smaller conversion on the quieter Vinegar Hill seam
• 85 Jay Street (Front & York) — the full-amenity new-development alternative at comparable scale
• 100 Jay Street (J Condominium) — the 2007-era tower alternative one block east
• 51 Jay Street — warehouse-to-condo conversion on the east side of the neighborhood