450 Washington Street: Tribeca Waterfront Cond-op

450 Washington Street is the former Truffles Tribeca rental, built in 2009 and rebuilt by Related Companies as 176 for-sale homes behind a new limestone-plaster facade on a full Tribeca waterfront block.

It is also an unusual ownership structure: a cooperative inside a condominium, on land held under a ground lease. That shapes how you buy here as much as the finishes do.

1. What the Building Is

450 Washington Street occupies a full block bounded by West Street, Desbrosses Street, Washington Street and Watts Street, across West Street from Hudson River Park. It opened in 2009 as a rental building called Truffles Tribeca, designed by Handel Architects, with the address 34 Desbrosses Street.

Related Companies bought the building in 2019 and hired Roger Ferris + Partners to remake it. The work gave it a new French limestone plaster facade, oversized bronze-framed picture and casement windows and rebuilt interiors, and cut the apartment count to 176 homes, from studios to four-bedrooms.

The building is two wings around a landscaped courtyard: a 16-storey wing on the river side and an 11-storey wing to the east, with a roof deck on the 12th floor of the lower wing. The city's tax roll records the residential portion as a single co-op unit inside a condominium, alongside retail and parking units.

The location is on Google Maps.

2. A Rental Rebuilt for Sale

The redesign kept the 2009 structure but changed almost everything a buyer sees. The facade was refinished in French limestone plaster, echoing Related's neighbouring 70 Vestry, and the original windows were replaced with much larger bronze-framed openings.

Inside, apartments were delivered with seven-inch white oak floors, Miele appliances, quartz kitchen counters and Calacatta Lincoln marble in primary baths. Select homes have private balconies or terraces. Ask whether a given apartment has outdoor space and who maintains it.

Because the building began life as a rental, ask for the sponsor's description of what was replaced and what was kept, including mechanical systems and the roof. A conversion of a recent building is a different diligence task from a ground-up new development.

Ask which wing and exposure a given apartment has, because river-facing and inland lines are different propositions.

3. Amenities and the Waterfront Setting

The amenity program includes a fitness centre curated by The Wright Fit, a golf simulator with multi-sport settings, a business centre with two meeting rooms, a residents' lounge with a fireplace and a private dining room for 14 with a catering pantry. A landscaped roof deck with grills looks toward the river, and there is a children's play space and parking.

The neighbours are Related's 70 Vestry condominium to the south and its 456 Washington rental to the north. Hudson River Park lies across West Street, and the 1 train stops at Canal Street at Varick Street.

City planning data show that part of the tax lot falls within FEMA's 1% annual chance floodplain on both the 2007 flood map and the 2015 preliminary map, so ask about the building's flood insurance and protection measures.

Read the operating budget alongside the amenity list, because every staffed room is a shared cost.

4. Buying Here as an Overseas Purchaser

Here the structure matters most. Buyers acquire shares in 450 Washington Street Owners Corp. with a proprietary lease, not a deeded condominium unit, and local reporting says the land beneath the building is owned separately under a ground lease running to 2105. Have your attorney read the ground lease, including how and when the ground rent resets.

Local reporting also says the sponsor described condominium-style rules: no board approval to buy or sell, purchases through an LLC and the ability to rent. Confirm each point in the offering plan and proprietary lease, and ask lenders early whether they finance shares in a leasehold co-op. New York's mansion tax applies to residential purchases of $1 million or more, from 1% up to 3.9% at $25 million and above.

On a later sale by a foreign owner, FIRPTA withholding of 15% of the gross price applies unless an IRS withholding certificate reduces it. A non-resident who is not a US citizen has only a $60,000 US estate tax exemption on US-situs assets, so settle the ownership structure with tax counsel before contract.

Settle structure, financing and the ground lease review first, then make the offer.

Recorded Sales: What the Public Record Shows

NYC's Department of Finance records every sale with its address and price. Between January 2023 and September 2026 it recorded 185 sales of co-op apartments at 450 Washington, at a median price of $2.02 million. Half of them closed between $1.37 million and $4.11 million; the highest was $250 million.

A median across a whole building mixes small and large apartments, low floors and high ones, so it describes the building rather than any one residence. Use it to see how often apartments here change hands and where the building's prices sit. Price a specific apartment from recorded sales on the same line and floor range, which can be pulled from the deed records before you make an offer.

These are recorded deed prices, not asking prices, and none of them is a Reinvent NY transaction. A sale appears in the record weeks after closing, and a deed price can include a parking space or storage unit bought at the same time.

Final Thoughts: A New Facade on an Unusual Structure

450 Washington Street offers a full-block waterfront location, a courtyard plan and a thorough redesign by Roger Ferris + Partners, in the same stretch of north Tribeca as 70 Vestry. For buyers who want a newly finished home near the river, it fills a gap between older lofts and ground-up condominiums.

The trade-off is the structure. A cooperative within a condominium on leased land is priced, financed and resold differently from a fee-simple condominium, and the ground lease terms belong in the analysis from the first conversation.

Price a specific apartment from recorded sales in the same building and the same wing rather than from nearby condominiums, because the leasehold structure changes the comparison. Then read the offering plan, the ground lease and the latest financial statements before committing.

Request the offering plan, the ground lease and recent financials before you schedule a viewing.

Figures here describe the building, not any one apartment. Asking prices, monthly carrying costs, tax abatement status and sublet rules are established unit by unit from the offering plan, the most recent financial statement and the managing agent.

Reinvent NY Inc. provides real estate and business expansion consulting in New York. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax or investment advice.

More buildings worth knowing: 100 Eleventh Avenue, 111 West 57th Street, 130 William. The full set is indexed under New York building profiles.