- Year built
- 1929
- Type
- Condominium
- Floors
- 4
- Amenities
- Full-time doorman, resident manager, elevators, common roof terrace, laundry, bicycle storage and common storage
- Landmark status
- Not an individual landmark; not in a historic district
- NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission and City Planning records, updated February 2026
- Doorman
- Full-time doorman
Every recorded sale at this building, 2005–2026
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf, 2026 to date
- $1,343
- floor-adjusted, 3 sales
- Listing discount
- 3.5%
- Recorded sales
- 52
- On record
- 2005–2026
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at The Royal Elizabeth 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.
The Royal Elizabeth combines a redbrick prewar building with condominium ownership at the corner of Elizabeth and Hester Streets. Its attended entrance and shared roof terrace are substantial features for a building whose apartments include compact studios and one-bedroom homes. The property also contains a large commercial component extending along both street frontages.
The condominium's declaration was dated September 12, 1990, and recorded that November. It was established by 159 Hester Street Realty Associates, L.P. The original construction date is 1929 in city records, with 1931 appearing in other building histories.
The corner sits where Chinatown meets Little Italy. Elizabeth Street runs north toward Nolita, while Hester Street connects the building to Bowery and the streets west toward Centre Street. Several subway corridors serve this part of downtown, including Canal Street and Grand Street. The building's appeal is tied to that downtown position and to its established condominium structure.
Architecture and unit composition
The redbrick exterior uses Georgian-style detailing, regularly spaced windows and a defined roofline. Its masonry frontage gives the building a continuous presence along Elizabeth Street. The commercial frontage occupies the base, with residences above and a common outdoor terrace at roof level.
The residential inventory includes studios, one-bedroom apartments and two-bedroom configurations. The recorded transactions show considerable variation in floor area, from compact homes below 400 square feet to apartments exceeding 1,000 square feet. Two-bedroom layouts can have separated sleeping rooms and two bathrooms, while smaller homes concentrate their usable space around a single living area.
Some apartments have high ceilings and oversized windows. These features are not uniform throughout the property: ceiling heights, window proportions and the relationship between kitchen and living room vary among the layouts. Renovations have also changed interiors over the condominium's long resale history.
The condominium floor plans were certified by Schuman, Lichtenstein, Claman & Efron in October 1990 and filed that November. That documents the firm's role in the condominium filing, not the original prewar building's architect.
Building operations
The service package includes a full-time doorman and resident manager. Laundry facilities serve the residential floors, and bicycle and common storage are available within the building. The roof terrace is shared outdoor space, separate from any private rights attached to a particular residence.
The commercial condominium extends across the ground floor and lower level. Its roughly 28,000 square feet form a material part of the property, with frontage on both Elizabeth and Hester Streets. The residential tax lots are Class 2, while the commercial lot is Class 4. The building has no current building-wide tax abatement identified by DOF beyond personal exemptions.
The Special Little Italy District is part of the property's zoning designation. The recorded built floor area is below the district's stated residential allowance, but the building's established condominium and mixed-use arrangement govern the property as it exists today.
Policy framework
Pets: Permitted — confirm with the managing agent.
Monthly carrying charges in recent sales
- Common charges + taxes, per room
- $484 per room a monthMedian of 4 recorded sales since October 2023Source: recorded sales, refreshed October 2026
- Common charges + taxes, per square foot
- $1.92 per square foot a monthMedian of 4 recorded sales since October 2023Source: recorded sales, refreshed October 2026
Common charges plus real estate taxes, combined into one monthly figure the way New York condominium listings show them. Add a mortgage payment for the monthly outlay. A summary of recorded sales, not a current bill; charges change.
Building staffing and amenities
- Doorman
- Full-time doormanSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Concierge
- YesSource: recent listing records
- Live-in superintendent
- YesSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Elevator
- YesSource: NYC Department of Buildings elevator records
- Amenities noted
- Roof deck, bike storage, laundry roomSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
Staffing and amenities as our building profile and recent listing records describe them. A feature not listed is not confirmed absent. Outdoor space, parking and some facilities can belong to particular apartments or to a separate owner; confirm access for the specific apartment.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $107,850/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $112
- Modeled exposure split equally across 80 units (the residential count on the city's lot record). Not an assessed amount; condominium owners are typically charged by each unit's common-interest percentage.
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City data last refreshed October 2026.
See full Local Law 97 analysis — emissions history, scenarios, methodology →Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available FISP filing classified the facade as Safe — no repairs were required at that inspection. A filed Safe grade is not a guarantee of current condition: owners still maintain the facade and, where required, observe parapets each year. Future inspection timing (Local Law 49 of 2025 changed the cycle framework from October 1, 2026), repair and any assessment decisions remain building-specific.
How to read this, and where it comes from
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — a licensed professional engineer or registered architect who meets DOB’s FISP qualifications and signs the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent).
Penalties shown are amounts DOB assessed against filings on record across 2005–10 to 2025–30. The FISP dataset does not record whether they were paid, contested or remain open, so treat the figure as history rather than a current balance and confirm the building’s standing with the managing agent.
Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library. City data last refreshed October 2026.
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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 24, 2026 | 2K | 1 BR · 1 BA · 700 sf | $850,000 | $1,214/sf | +0.0% |
| Sep 22, 2026 | 6J | 685 sf | $725,069 | $1,058/sf | — |
| Jul 27, 2026 | 2Q | 2 BR · 1 BA · 636 sf | $900,000 | $1,415/sf | -29.7% |
| Apr 3, 2025 | 3A | 713 sf | $885,000 | $1,241/sf | — |
| Dec 23, 2024 | 2P | 1 BR · 1 BA · 671 sf | $760,000 | $1,133/sf | -7.9% |
| Mar 18, 2024 | 3C | 1 BA · 556 sf | $678,000 | $1,219/sf | -0.1% |
| Dec 7, 2023 | 2L | 1 BR · 1 BA · 700 sf | $850,000 | $1,214/sf | +2.7% |
| May 6, 2022 | 2A | 2 BR · 1 BA · 713 sf | $1,180,000 | $1,655/sf | -1.6% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026 to date) cleared a median $1,343/sf (floor-adjusted) across 3 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 3.5% 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 1-00239-7501; 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.
Closed rents at The Royal Elizabeth, last 36 months
| Size | Leases | Median / month |
|---|---|---|
| 1 bedroom | 3 | $3,750 |
4 closed leases, October 2023 to September 2026. Most recent lease July 2026. Based on few leases. Sizes with fewer than 2 leases are not shown. Compiled by The Roebling Team at Compass from closed leases.
What would your apartment rent for?
The figures above are the building's closed leases. Enter your apartment and I'll send you what yours would rent for, from comparable leases at The Royal Elizabeth and nearby.
At the recent median sale of $850K (5 sales in the past 24 months, since November 12, 2024), a buyer putting 25% down would pay about $31,894 to close, or 3.8% of the price.
- Mansion tax: $0
- Mortgage recording tax: $12,272
- Title insurance: $3,825
- Attorneys, lender, building fees, reserves and filings: $15,798
Assumes a resale (the seller pays transfer taxes), a $4,500 attorney fee and a mortgage on the rest.
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Comparable buildings
- 87 Elizabeth Street: A smaller prewar condominium on the same street, useful for comparing the value of the Royal Elizabeth's service package.
- The Ice House: A downtown prewar condominium with a smaller residential inventory.
- 133 Mulberry Street: A nearby prewar condominium offering ownership at a more intimate building scale.
- 129 Lafayette Street: A taller prewar condominium with fewer apartments, close to the same downtown transit network.
- 395 Broadway: A prewar condominium of comparable overall residential scale with a different Broadway exposure.
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. Where this page compares one building or neighborhood to another, that is our analysis of the recorded record — it names the measure, the period and the sample it rests on, and it is an observation about medians rather than a prediction about any particular apartment.
Considering a move at The Royal Elizabeth?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
646.939.7375 · c.cohen@compass.com