- Type
- Cooperative — walk-up
- Units
- 25
- Floors
- 4
- Landmark
- No
- Amenities
- Central laundry, bicycle room, and common storage per brokerage records
- Pets
- Permitted per brokerage records
- Financing
- 20 percent minimum down per listing records — verify current requirements
St. Marks Place is the East Village's signature street, and its final block — First Avenue to Avenue A, ending at Tompkins Square Park — is its most residential stretch: quieter than the bar-lined blocks to the west, anchored by the park at its foot, and thick with literary history. W. H. Auden lived for nearly two decades two doors west at 77 St. Marks Place, an address The New York Times has revisited repeatedly in its coverage of the street. 87 St. Marks Place sits in the middle of this block as a 25-unit walk-up cooperative assembled from three 19th-century row houses — a physical record of how the street itself evolved from row-house parlors to apartment living.
The building's ownership story is the classic East Village arc. The cooperative conversion was a non-eviction plan under New York's tenant-protection framework, first offered in February 1985 by sponsor 87-91 Saint Mark's Place Associates — the documentation, including ten amendments running into the early 1990s, is on file in The Roebling Research Library. The plan allocated 327 shares across 25 apartments; by the tenth amendment the sponsor's holdover position had dwindled to four unsold apartments and the shareholders, not the sponsor, controlled the board. That is the healthy version of an 1980s conversion: a building that completed its transition to resident control decades ago.
What the building offers today is increasingly scarce: genuinely attainable ownership on a prime East Village block, with pre-war character — including working wood-burning fireplaces in some units per listing records — at walk-up co-op pricing. As the East Village's condo pipeline pushes the neighborhood's price ceiling upward, small co-ops like this one are the entry tier that keeps the neighborhood's ownership market accessible.
Architecture and unit composition
The building reads from the street as what it is: three joined brick row houses presenting a unified four-story front (some records count five levels), with the irregular floor plates and unit-to-unit variety that combination buildings produce. The 25 apartments run from compact studios through one-bedrooms — several configured with the original row-house depth, and some retaining working wood-burning fireplaces and exposed-brick pre-war finishes per listing records. Front exposures face the St. Marks streetscape; rear exposures face the quiet mid-block. As in most converted row-house stock, light, layout logic, and renovation quality vary meaningfully by line — the unit, not the building average, is what you are pricing.
Building operations
This is a lean, self-service cooperative: no doorman, no elevator, a central laundry, bicycle room, and common storage below, and a shareholder board running the building through a managing agent. Carrying costs run low relative to staffed buildings, which is structural to the value proposition. The offering plan and its amendments are on file in The Roebling Research Library; current financial statements, sublet terms, and any transfer fees should be obtained from the managing agent during diligence — the building's public policy documentation is thin, which is typical of co-ops this size.
Local Law 97
This building is below the 25,000 sq ft threshold at which LL97 emissions caps apply. No regulatory capital pressure from this law specifically, current or 2030.
See full Local Law 97 analysis →Recent sales
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Recent transfers at this building, sourced from NYC Department of Finance records. Apartment-level detail (line, condition, asking-price context) verified upon consultation request.
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2, 2026 | 1C | $550,000 |
| Jun 11, 2025 | E | $580,000 |
| Sep 24, 2024 | 4A | $840,000 |
| Feb 4, 2022 | A | $599,000 |
| Oct 5, 2021 | 2C | $595,000 |
| Dec 5, 2019 | 2A | $550,000 |
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 1-00436-0057) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
Buy the block, not the myth. St. Marks Place west of First Avenue is nightlife; this block is residential, and Tompkins Square Park functions as its front yard. Spend an evening and a Saturday morning on the block — the difference from the Third Avenue end is the entire point.
Combination buildings reward line-level diligence. Three row houses joined means three stair-and-layout logics behind one facade. Floor plans, light, and ceiling conditions vary more here than in purpose-built stock; judge the specific unit, and ask about the building's systems — plumbing and electric in combined row houses depend on renovation history.
The fireplace lines are the trophy inventory. Working wood-burning fireplaces are nearly extinct in entry-tier Manhattan co-ops and carry real resale value. Confirm the fireplace's status (working, decorative, board policy on use) in writing during diligence.
Expect small-co-op underwriting. A 25-unit corporation with no commercial income rises and falls on its maintenance roll, reserves, and assessment history. Your attorney should review recent financials and board minutes; we provide the conversion documentation from the Research Library as the baseline. Run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator before offering.
Verify the policy stack directly. Sublet terms, pied-à-terre posture, guarantor and co-purchase rules, and any flip tax are not reliably documented in public records for this building. We confirm all of it with the managing agent at offer stage — assumptions here are how deals fall apart at board package.
What to know if you’re selling
Position against the neighborhood's rental math. Your most common buyer is a first-time purchaser comparing maintenance-plus-mortgage against East Village rents. Lead with the monthly carry — it is the building's structural advantage.
Character sells; document it. Exposed brick, fireplaces, and row-house proportions are the differentiators against the area's flat-finish renovations. Have the fireplace status and any renovation approvals in the data room before listing, not after the first attorney call.
Price to the line, not the building. The spread between renovated fireplace units and unrenovated walk-up stock is wide. Same-building comps are the anchor where they exist; where they don't, the adjacent blocks' walk-up co-op trades matter more than neighborhood averages.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 87 St. Marks Place, also evaluate:
- 77 St. Marks Place — the neighboring co-op two doors west, press-documented as W. H. Auden's longtime address
- 253 East 7th Street — like-for-like Tompkins Square-area walk-up co-op
- 1 Avenue B — Avenue B co-op a few blocks south; same entry tier
- 143 Avenue B — the Christodora House; Tompkins Square's high-rise pre-war condo alternative
- 115 East 9th Street — elevator co-op toward Astor Place; the convenience step-up
- 70 East 10th Street — full-service post-war co-op on the Village seam; the service step-up
- 111 Fourth Avenue — elevator co-op near Union Square at moderate price points
- 40 Bleecker Street — NoHo new-development condo; the top-tier contrast for the same downtown buyer
The Roebling Team at 87 St. Marks Place
The Roebling Team at Compass works the East Village and NoHo and the broader downtown co-op market as a core practice area. We publish this building profile because East Village buyers and sellers deserve building-specific intelligence — conversion documentation, policy framework, and walk-up co-op comparables — not generic neighborhood commentary.
If you're considering a transaction at 87 St. Marks Place, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.