Manhattan’s Oldest Apartment Building Hits Market for $15 Million

A modest five-story walk-up in Gramercy Park carries an extraordinary distinction: it’s Manhattan’s oldest surviving intact apartment building. Now, after more than two decades, it’s for sale.

The unassuming red-brick building at 129 East 17th Street doesn’t announce its historic significance from the sidewalk. Nestled between Irving Place and Third Avenue, this five-story walk-up looks like countless other pre-war buildings dotting Manhattan’s landscape. But appearances deceive – this French Gothic gem, completed in 1879, represents a pivotal moment in New York City’s housing evolution.

The $15 million listing marks the first time the property has changed hands in more than two decades, according to city records. When it was built 147 years ago, the building cost $20,000 – roughly $650,000 in today’s dollars – making it twice as expensive as typical tenements of its era. That premium reflected its revolutionary concept: respectable apartment living for the middle class.

Architect Napoleon LeBrun designed the building during a transformative period in Manhattan housing. Before 1870, New Yorkers of means lived exclusively in single-family townhouses or mansions, while only the poor shared quarters in crowded tenements. The concept of ‘genteel’ apartment living was virtually unknown until Richard Morris Hunt‘s Stuyvesant Apartments opened nearby on 18th Street in 1870.

LeBrun, who would later become famous for designing 42 firehouses for the Fire Department of New York and early skyscrapers like the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, created something unprecedented at 129 East 17th Street. The building originally housed five families, one per floor, each in a two-bedroom apartment. Early residents included doctors, engineers, and the president of the police board – a far cry from the working-class tenants of traditional walk-ups.

The building earned its ‘oldest intact’ designation in 1957 when the Stuyvesant Apartments were demolished. Unlike many of its contemporaries, number 129 has maintained its original facade and much of its Victorian character through careful preservation efforts, including a comprehensive restoration in 1990.

Today, the property contains five units total, including a ground-floor office space and a roof deck. The four residential apartments are notably spacious by Manhattan standards – three are three-bedroom units, including two duplexes, while a one-bedroom penthouse tops the building. Current rents reflect the building’s desirable Gramercy Park location, with a three-bedroom duplex recently commanding $18,500 per month.

Listing agent Haley Hasho of Exodus Capital is marketing the property as a conversion opportunity. The building could be transformed into condominiums or even a single-family residence – a rare commodity in dense Manhattan. With its protected Tax Class 2A status and five apartments, the building offers potential buyers a hedge against rising expenses while providing significant value-add opportunities.

The current owners, two business partners going their separate ways, purchased the property in 2005 for $1.79 million. Their decision to sell opens a new chapter for a building that has quietly witnessed nearly 150 years of Manhattan’s evolution from a city of private houses and tenements to today’s diverse housing landscape. For developers and investors, it represents both a piece of architectural history and a prime opportunity in one of Manhattan’s most coveted neighborhoods.