81 White Street

The combined lot runs approximately fifty feet along White Street and roughly a hundred feet deep — two twenty-five-foot commercial lots joined. The two elevations are inventoried separately in the Landmarks Preservation Commission's designation report and are described there in detail.

No. 79 carries painted stone above the first story, three bays of openings per floor framed by paneled pilasters with prominent stringcourses, a central third-story pediment that gives the façade a Second Empire frontispiece, and round-arched double-hung wood sash. Its cast-iron storefront columns and piers survive from the 1860s. No. 81 is brick, now painted, with two bays above the base: the wider western bay groups tripartite iron-framed windows vertically inside a corbelled brick arch, cast-iron lintels above the second and third stories carry rosette ornament, and a continuous archivolt with carved bosses runs across the fourth-story arches. Haight's arch composition on a twenty-five-foot plot is singled out in the designation report's essay as one of the district's more inventive narrow-lot façades.

Above that, the conversion added penthouse levels of masonry bearing sidewalls with steel beams and metal joists, set back from the street. The designation report recorded both buildings at five stories in 1992; city records now carry six, plus the penthouse additions. Buyers should treat the floor count as six plus penthouse and read the specific unit's level from the recorded floor plans rather than from a listing description.

Unit designations run E and W by floor — 1E and 1W at the street, through 5E and 5W, with 6W as PH2 at the top. There is no 6E. The two first-floor units are the ones with cellar rights and, in 1E's case, the garage.

The building runs lean. Access is by audio/video intercom rather than staff; the elevator is a 2000s traction installation with its machine room on the roof above the 81 White penthouse; the roof terrace is a general common element; storage sits in the cellar; and the superintendent's facility is a cellar provision rather than a resident apartment. Heat is gas-fired, with fin-tube radiation at the front and rear of each floor. A gas-fired emergency generator was added on the roof in 2012.

With eleven units carrying the entire fixed cost of an elevator, a sprinkler system, a boiler, a roof and two landmarked façades, the cost to each owner depends on actual scope, reserves, insurance and expense allocation. Review those inputs without ranking the risk from unit count alone. Ask for the current budget, the reserve balance, the assessment history, and the status of the current Local Law 11 cycle before contract, and ask specifically what the board's plan is for the two façades — landmarked masonry restoration on a small denominator is where boutique loft condominiums get expensive.

Ownership form: Condominium. Transfers close through the board's right of first refusal rather than a cooperative approval.

Pied-à-terre, subletting, LLC, trust and foreign ownership: Not documented; confirm in the declaration, bylaws and house rules. Minimum lease terms for subletting should be confirmed with the managing agent.

Home occupational use: Permitted under the recorded declaration, subject to applicable law.

Pets: Not documented in public records. Confirm with the managing agent.

Financing: Not documented; confirm in the declaration, bylaws and house rules. Note that a lender may treat an eleven-unit condominium differently from a large one on project-eligibility grounds — establish this early.

In-unit washer/dryer: Permitted; hook-ups were provided in every unit at conversion, appliances were not.

Flip tax: None appears in the offering plan on file. Confirm whether the by-laws have been amended since 2005.

Real estate taxes: The roll shows no exemption; check the specific unit's current bill for any abatement, underwrite from that bill and run True Monthly Carrying Cost analysis against it.

Landmark compliance: Any exterior alteration requires LPC review. Window replacement, storefront changes and rooftop work on this lot should be budgeted with an LPC filing and its calendar built in.

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 (2025) cleared a median $1,581/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. 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 3.2% 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 1-00172-7502; 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.

The year built in city data is wrong, and it matters. Public land-use data reports 1915. The buildings date to 1861–62 and 1881 per the Landmarks Preservation Commission's designation report and the architect's report on file. Any automated valuation or insurance quote built on the 1915 figure is working from a false vintage.

You are buying into two landmarked façades on eleven units. Quantify their condition and funding needs alongside other building obligations rather than assuming they are the principal financial risk. Read the reserve position and the assessment history, and ask the board directly about the Local Law 11 cycle and any planned masonry restoration.

Confirm what the apartment actually contains. The sponsor delivered units with washer/dryer hook-ups, plumbing, venting and outlets, but supplied no washers, dryers or refrigerators. Original-condition units may still need appliances and, in some cases, kitchen build-out.

Ask about the garage. Unit 1E carries a one-car garage inside the building. If you are buying 1E, confirm its current legal status and use; if you are buying anything else, do not assume parking rights.

Establish the service level in advance. No doorman, no attended lobby, no laundry room. Package delivery, contractor access and building services all work differently here than in a staffed building.

Verify LPC obligations for your renovation plan, and lender eligibility for your loan. Interior work requiring a DOB permit also needs LPC approval. Window, storefront and rooftop alterations generally require LPC approval, but visibility alone does not mandate a Certificate of Appropriateness; confirm staff-review eligibility and any maintenance exemption. Separately, small condominiums with commercial-scale histories can trip lender project-approval rules — have that confirmed before you go to contract.

Correct the vintage in the marketing. "1915" appears in third-party data and understates the building by twenty to fifty years. The LPC designation report entries for 79 and 81 White Street are the citable record: Thomas & Son, 1861–62, and Charles C. Haight, 1881. That is a better story and a true one.

Lead with the plate, the ceiling and the count. Roughly 1,900 to 2,150 square feet on a full floor-per-side, twelve to fifteen foot ceilings, and only eleven units in the building. Scarcity is the argument.

Present the 2002–2005 rebuild as an asset. New elevator, new stairs, new sash, new plumbing, new boiler, new electrical, new roof, full sprinklering. Buyers who assume a nineteenth-century loft carries nineteenth-century systems need to be told otherwise, with the architect's report as the source.

Be direct about the service level and the tax posture. No doorman and no abatement are both findable in five minutes. Presenting them up front, alongside a True Monthly Carrying Cost analysis, produces better outcomes than letting them surface in diligence.

Same-building comparables are thin. With eleven residences and roughly forty recorded deeds since 2005, pricing has to be built from line, floor, terrace and condition rather than from a building average.

If you're considering 81 White Street, also evaluate:

• 55 White Street — 16-residence 1861 loft conversion condominium, two blocks west on the same street; the nearest peer on vintage, scale and district
• 155 Franklin Street — 10-residence conversion of an 1882 provisions warehouse; the closest match on unit count and boutique service posture
• 137 Duane Street — 19-loft condominium in a circa-1864 building converted in 2004; the same conversion generation
• 166 Duane Street — Duane Park Lofts, a 1911 building converted to condominium in 1997; the earlier-conversion loft alternative
• 195 Hudson Street — 27-residence conversion of the former U.S. Rubber Company Building, 1929; larger plates, larger denominator
• 145 Hudson Street — 21-residence 1928–29 building converted in 2000 with added top floors; the Art Deco loft alternative
• 169 Hudson Street — small Tribeca loft condominium; another low-unit-count building where capital exposure per owner is the key diligence item
• 374 Broadway — the much larger condominium on the same tax block; a contrast in scale and service level, and a reminder that block 172 holds several unrelated condominiums
• 108 Leonard Street — 152-residence conversion of the New York Life Insurance Company Building; the full-service Tribeca condominium at the opposite end of the operating-scale spectrum