Financial District.

Some are excellent and others carry layered issues. The conversion process requires meeting residential building code on a structure built to commercial specs — older conversions sometimes have undersized plumbing risers, inadequate light/air for legal residential units, and CO mismatches. The audit shows DOB permit history including the original conversion-related filings; multiple open work permits is worth investigating.

Most of lower FiDi south of Liberty Street sits in FEMA Zone AE (high risk) and Sandy damaged thousands of ground-floor and lower-floor residential units across the neighborhood. The audit pulls FEMA designation and any post-Sandy DOB filings. For any unit on floors 1-3 in FiDi, flood-zone history is essential context before signing.

ZIPs 10005 (Wall Street core) and 10038 (eastern FiDi, around the Brooklyn Bridge) carry the highest per-building open-violation counts in FiDi, partly because they have the most converted residential stock. 10004 (Battery Park / South Ferry) and 10006 (TriBeCa edge) trend lower thanks to newer ground-up construction and a smaller residential supply.

Most FiDi residential supply is post-conversion (1990s onward), which means relatively little falls under standard 6+ unit pre-1974 rent stabilization. However, several conversions received 421-g or 421-a abatements that attached stabilization for fixed terms, and many of those terms are now expiring. The audit's DHCR + tax-program check shows specific status.

The 421-g program (1995-2006) gave tax abatements for Lower Manhattan office-to-residential conversions in exchange for rent stabilization during the abatement term. Many 421-g buildings are now exiting stabilization. The audit flags 421-g status and DHCR registration; for any pre-2007 FiDi conversion lease renewal, check whether stabilization has expired and whether the rent is being raised at market vs stabilized rates.