The Royal Elizabeth
80 Elizabeth Street, at Hester Street, Chinatown, near the Lower East Side
Chinatown
BBL 1002397501 · BIN 1003115
- Year built
- 1929
- Type
- Condominium
- Floors
- 4
- Landmark
- No
- Amenities
- Full-time doorman, resident manager, elevators, common roof terrace, laundry, bicycle storage and common storage
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
- $1,583
- Listing discount
- 3.8%
- Recorded sales
- 50
- On record
- 2005–2026
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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.
Recent sales
Recent closings 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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | off-mkt |
| 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% |
| Jul 23, 2020 | 3G | 879 sf | $990,000 | $1,126/sf | off-mkt |
| Jan 6, 2020 | 6B | 1 BR · 1 BA · 633 sf | $965,000 | $1,524/sf | -3.3% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $1,583/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 3.8% 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) 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.
At the recent median sale of $885K (3 sales since 2024), a buyer putting 25% down would pay about $32,814 to close, or 3.7% of the price.
- Mansion tax: $0
- Mortgage recording tax: $12,777
- Title insurance: $3,982
- Attorneys, lender, building fees, reserves and filings: $16,055
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.
More Lower East Side buildings
- 71 Ludlow Street — 1900 condominium
- 75 Allen Street — 1900 condominium
- 78 Ridge Street (The River Ridge) — 1930 condominium
- 84 Forsyth Street — 1900 condominium
- 86 Canal Street — 2012 condominium
- 95 Madison Street — 1900 condominium
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.
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