The Virginia Apartments (226 East 12th Street)

Sugarman & Berger gave The Virginia a confident Art Deco presence: a masonry facade rising to a crenellated parapet and a slim tower, a canopied two-story entrance surround, and balconies at the tenth floor. The lobby is the building's best-preserved room, with terrazzo flooring, period glass sconces, hand-painted reliefs, and a decorative former fireplace. The building stands on the footprint of three earlier townhouses once used by the New York Training School for Deaconesses — a small piece of the block's pre-1928 history.

The 83 apartments are arranged across ten residential floors served by two passenger elevators, with a unit mix of studios, one-bedrooms, and two-bedrooms — prewar layouts of the kind that reward buyers who value proportion, light, and room count over raw square footage. As a cooperative, the building and the market price these homes by their rooms and configuration rather than by a published per-square-foot figure; the tenth-floor balcony units and the homes with the best light and exposure sit at the top of the building's range. Recent capital work — plumbing, the laundry room and its machines, the elevators, and hallway renovations — reflects an actively maintained building.

The Virginia runs as a well-kept prewar co-op rather than a full-service one: there is no doorman, but a live-in resident superintendent is on staff, which many buyers prefer for hands-on building care. Shared facilities include a renovated basement laundry room, basement storage lockers for select apartments, and a bike room; tenth-floor apartments carry balconies, and one upper unit has private roof-deck access. The board has invested in the building's systems in recent years — plumbing, elevators, laundry, and corridors — and the co-op is described as financially sound.

The policy stack is conventional market-rate and buyer-friendly for a co-op. Financing is permitted up to eighty percent of purchase price; the flip tax is two percent of the gross sale price, paid by the seller; subletting is allowed with customary limitations and a sublet fee of fifteen percent of monthly rent; pied-à-terre purchases, co-purchasing, and gifting are permitted; and the building is pet-friendly. An alteration deposit applies to renovation work. As with any cooperative, board approval involves a full application, financial review, and an interview; we prepare clients thoroughly for that process and verify the current policy figures against the managing agent during diligence.

Recent sales

Recent transfers at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. Apartment-level facts are independently verified before publishing; sale prices reflect the recorded transfer amount at the NYC Department of Finance.

Market read. Most recent trades (2022) cleared a median $1,300/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 3.3% 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 1-00467-0022) 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 on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

This is a clean, market-rate co-op. Unlike many older East Village buildings, The Virginia carries no HDFC, Mitchell-Lama, or income restriction. It trades at full market value on conventional co-op terms — a meaningful simplification for buyers and lenders alike.

The policy stack is unusually friendly for a co-op. Up to eighty percent financing, permitted subletting, pied-à-terre and co-purchase allowances, and a pet-friendly stance give buyers more flexibility than a typical prewar co-op. We confirm the current figures with the managing agent before you commit.

Value the prewar bones and the block. Sugarman & Berger architecture, an intact Art Deco lobby, balconied upper floors, and one of the quieter tree-lined blocks in the neighborhood are the building's durable assets. Prewar layouts reward buyers who think in rooms and light rather than square feet.

Budget for the board process and a renovation. Expect a full co-op application, financial review, and interview; we prepare you for all three. Many prewar apartments here benefit from updating — factor renovation scope, the alteration deposit, and the building's alteration rules into your plan.

Run the co-op math. Maintenance, financing limits, and board qualification drive what you can buy and how the board will read your application. Use the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator and the Co-op Affordability Calculator.

Lead with architecture and structure. The 1928 Sugarman & Berger pedigree, the intact Art Deco lobby, the elevator, and — critically — the clean, market-rate, financially sound co-op profile are the headline. In a neighborhood thick with restricted buildings, an unrestricted, well-run prewar co-op is a genuine differentiator.

Price to rooms, light, and condition. Co-op pricing here turns on layout, exposure, balcony access, and renovation level, not on a square-foot figure. We position each apartment against the right same-building and block-level comparables.

Prepare the buyer for an approvable board package. A clean, well-documented application clears the board faster. We coach buyers and structure the deal to match the building's underwriting before submission.

If you're considering The Virginia, also evaluate:

• 170 Second Avenue — prewar East Village co-op a few blocks east; a close like-for-like comp
• 24 Second Avenue — East Village co-op in the same submarket
• 84 Third Avenue — nearby co-op on the Third Avenue corridor
• 115 East 9th Street — prewar co-op a short walk south
• 28 East 10th Street and 70 East 10th Street — prewar co-ops on a comparable Village/East Village block
• 87 St. Marks Place — East Village residential peer

The Roebling Team at Compass works the East Village, NoHo, and the broader downtown co-op market as a core practice area, with particular depth in prewar buildings and co-op board strategy. We publish this building profile because buyers and sellers of prewar East Village co-ops deserve building-specific intelligence — the architecture, the ownership structure, the board mechanics, and room-level pricing — not generic neighborhood commentary.

If you're considering a purchase or sale at The Virginia, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.