9 White Street

The building is masonry with cast-iron elements — a marble front over a cast-iron first story, brick behind. Five floors, four bays, one hundred feet deep. Apartments are full-floor lofts; recorded alteration applications describe whole-floor projects rather than line-by-line work, and one 2010 filing describes the scope simply as the renovation of an existing loft dwelling.

The unit count is the one thing a buyer must resolve independently, and it deserves stating plainly rather than smoothing over. PLUTO carries three residential units and five units in total. Department of Buildings alteration applications from 2010 forward carry four dwelling units. Earlier filings from 2002 and 2004 carry five, and shed filings from 2008 and 2009 carry three. Those are not reconcilable from public data. Combinations over four decades are the likely explanation, but the corporation's share schedule and offering plan are the only authority. Ask for both.

The building also holds commercial cooperative space. ACRIS records a commercial cooperative unit transfer on this lot in 2023 alongside the residential share transfers, and PLUTO's total-versus-residential unit split implies non-residential space in the building. A commercial cooperative transfer does not establish that the corporation owns or receives rent from the space. Confirm the shareholder interest, proprietary lease and financials before treating any commercial income as an offset to residential maintenance.

This is share ownership; current governing terms were not established in the reviewed material. No offering plan, proprietary lease, house rules or financial statement for 9 White Street was located in either document library at the time of writing. Everything below is a question to put to the managing agent, not an answer we can supply.

What must be obtained before an offer: the offering plan and any amendments; the current proprietary lease and by-laws; the last two years of financial statements; the current year's budget; the underlying mortgage terms — balance, rate and maturity — and the reserve balance; the house rules; the board application package; and current facade condition, the applicable DOB requirements and the most recent engineer’s report.

The terms that will decide whether a deal is possible: the maximum permitted financing and minimum down payment; the board's post-closing liquidity expectation, which in small Tribeca co-ops is frequently expressed as a multiple of annual maintenance rather than as a fixed number; the debt-to-income ceiling; the flip tax and how it is calculated; the sublet policy, including any seasoning requirement, term cap and sublet fee; whether pied-à-terre purchase is contemplated at all; and whether the board will approve a purchase in the name of a trust or an LLC.

On entity and non-primary ownership, the recorded chain is informative but is not a policy statement. Two of the recent share transfers here were taken in the names of limited liability companies. That establishes that the board has approved entity purchases in specific cases; it does not establish a standing policy, and a buyer should not assume one. Every co-op board of this size decides transfer by transfer.

The board package and the interview are the transaction. In a building with three or four apartments, approval turns on a small number of people reading a complete, well-organized file; board seats and votes come from the proprietary lease and bylaws. Financials, references and a clean explanation of the source of funds matter, and the interview is not a formality.

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. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2022): a median $1,350/sf (recorded) across 2 sales. The building has traded as recently as 2023.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00178-0024). 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.

Underwrite the underlying mortgage first. It has been consolidated and extended twice, most recently to $1.5 million in 2016, with no satisfaction recorded since. Over three or four apartments, the debt service per shareholder is a large number. Get the balance, the rate and the maturity date before you get attached.

Resolve the unit count and your own share allocation. The public record disagrees with itself. The share schedule in the offering plan is the only document that settles what you are buying and what proportion of the building you are paying to run.

Understand the commercial space. Confirm who owns the commercial cooperative interest, who receives any rent and what the financials show before assuming vacancy affects residential maintenance.

Expect a real board process. Financing ceiling, post-closing liquidity, sublet policy, flip tax and any position on trusts, LLCs and pied-à-terre use are not established in the reviewed material. Request the package early and run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator before making an offer.

Price the landmark obligation. A marble front with cast-iron storefront elements inside a historic district is a beautiful thing to own and an expensive thing to maintain, and the cost divides across very few shareholders.

Lead with the plate and the block. A full-floor loft behind an 1861–62 marble front on a protected Tribeca East blockfront is the product. Say what the ceiling height and the floor dimensions actually are.

Get ahead of the diligence. Assemble the financials, the underlying mortgage terms, the reserve position and current facade condition and applicable DOB requirements before listing. In a building this small, a buyer's attorney will find every one of those questions, and having the answers ready is the difference between a smooth deal and a renegotiation.

Be candid about the board. A buyer who understands the financing ceiling and liquidity expectation up front is better prepared for the interview. One who learns them late is a buyer who walks.

Condition drives the number. Loft buyers in Tribeca East pay for finished, well-lit, well-proportioned space. Run the Renovation Cost Calculator against your asking strategy before setting a price.

If you're considering 9 White Street, also evaluate:

• 53 White Street — 1857–58 store-and-loft converted to seven lofts with a rooftop addition; the closest peer on vintage and block
• 55 White Street — 1861 loft conversion; the same construction year, a larger denominator and condominium tenure
• 81 White Street — two nineteenth-century store-and-loft buildings converted to eleven residences; the same historic district, condominium form
• 10 Leonard Street — 1884–85 Edward Hale Kendall warehouse run as a sixteen-unit loft cooperative; the closest peer on tenure and operation
• 14 Leonard Street — turn-of-the-century warehouses converted in 2000; the conversion-era alternative nearby
• 24 Leonard Street — seven-residence Tribeca condominium; the boutique condominium counterpoint
• 155 Franklin Street — 1882 Neo-Grec loft converted to ten residences; comparable scale, west of Broadway
• 166 Duane Street — 1911 Renaissance Revival loft converted in 1997; the earlier-generation conversion
• 60 Collister Street — 1866 building converted in 2008; small-building operation on a cobbled side street
• 27 North Moore Street — 1905 industrial building converted in the early 2000s; the masonry-loft alternative on North Moore Street