87 St. Marks Place

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.

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. Compare actual maintenance, taxes, financing and assessments with staffed alternatives; a lean service model alone does not establish lower total costs. 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.

Recent sales

Recent transfers 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 $761/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. Median listing discount 1.3% 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 1-00436-0057). 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 on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

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. The joined row houses may retain different stairs and layouts; verify plans, light and ceiling conditions without assuming greater variation than every purpose-built alternative; 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. A working wood-burning fireplace is a feature to assess against specific alternatives and matched sales; the reviewed material does not establish near-extinction or a resale premium. 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.

Compare ownership costs with rental alternatives. Present actual maintenance, mortgage payments, taxes and other costs alongside relevant East Village rents; the building’s scale and price do not establish its most common buyer or a guaranteed monthly 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.

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 — Tompkins Square-area building; verify tenure and compare actual apartment features
• 1 Avenue B — Avenue B building a few blocks south; compare tenure, prices and costs
• 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