Is this the same address as a “109 E 16th St” listing in another state? No. Property-search results sometimes surface a similarly numbered address elsewhere. This profile covers only the Manhattan building at the corner of East 16th Street and Irving Place, ZIP 10003.
Inside the Building: Six HRA Service Units
This is a commercial office building occupied entirely by New York City government offices, not an apartment building. City records classify it as Office Only, 7 to 19 Stories (O3), and it has never carried residential rental listings despite appearing in apartment-search databases. Six distinct Human Resources Administration units share the address, each handling a different program and keeping its own phone line, according to HRA’s own location listings and program-specific pages.
| Unit | Floor | Primary function | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| HRA Benefits Access Center, Lower Manhattan | 1st | SNAP, Cash Assistance, and emergency-grant intake for ZIP codes across lower and midtown Manhattan | Fax 917-639-2505 |
| Union Square Service Center | Not listed publicly | Services for individuals with significant barriers to employment | 929-252-5580 |
| Residential Treatment Service Center | 2nd | Clients currently residing in a residential treatment facility | 929-252-5910 |
| Special Project Center | 6th | Youth referred by the Administration for Children’s Services | 929-252-5775 |
| Home Energy Assistance Program intake | 8th | Heating and cooling assistance applications | 718-557-1399 |
| CityFHEPS correspondence unit | 10th | Mail-in renewal processing for CityFHEPS rental assistance | Mail only |
The six-way split explains why callers sometimes reach the wrong extension: SNAP intake, employment services, residential-treatment casework, ACS referrals, energy assistance, and CityFHEPS correspondence each run through a separate office on a separate floor.
Is 109 East 16th Street an apartment building? No. It is a fully commercial office building; city records classify it as Office Only, 7 to 19 Stories (O3).
Ownership and the DCAS Lease Behind the Building
Gould Investors, a New York real estate investment trust, owns 109 East 16th Street. The city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services has leased the entire 12-story building to HRA since 1991 and, in 2017, renewed that lease for another 20 years. Commercial Observer reported the renewal terms, sourced to Cushman & Wakefield, which represented the city in the deal.
| Lease period | Annual rent | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Starting June 2018 | $15.8 million | Rent under the renewed 20-year term |
| After city-funded renovations | $16.5 million | Renovations cost up to $13.9 million, paid by the city |
| June 2023 to June 2028 | $19.1 million | Scheduled step-up |
| June 2028 to June 2033 | $21.8 million | Scheduled step-up |
| Final five years of the term | $24.7 million | Last scheduled step-up, running through roughly 2038 |
Under the prior lease, the city paid under $30 a square foot. The new terms brought that above $45 a square foot, whichever of the building’s two published square-footage figures is used to divide the rent.
How long has HRA operated out of this building? Since 1991, per Commercial Observer’s reporting on the 2017 lease renewal, with the current 20-year term running through the late 2030s.
Building Specs and Where the Numbers Diverge
City tax-assessor data puts the building at 288,402 total square feet across 12 floors, a figure reported identically by PropertyShark and RentHop. Commercial Observer’s coverage of the 2017 lease, however, cites the leased property at 349,777 square feet, the figure DCAS and Cushman & Wakefield used when negotiating the deal.
| Metric | RentHop | PropertyShark | Lease reporting (Commercial Observer) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year built | 1909 | 1909 | Not stated |
| Floors | 12 | Not stated in public preview | 12 |
| Total square footage | 288,402 sq ft | 288,402 sq ft | 349,777 sq ft (as leased) |
| Lot size | 24,764 sq ft | Not stated in public preview | Not stated |
| Market value | $41,202,000 | $130,366,000 | Not applicable |
For anyone valuing the building independent of the HRA lease, the PropertyShark figure is the current one; RentHop’s market-value number reflects an older assessment cycle and should not be quoted as today’s value.
Why do different sources give different square footage for this building? Tax-assessor records and real-estate databases count total building area (288,402 sq ft). Lease-negotiation coverage sometimes cites the specific square footage named in the deal itself (349,777 sq ft), and the two numbers serve different purposes.
Why the Numbers Matter for Anyone Researching the Property
109 East 16th Street operates as a single-tenant government office building, not a multi-tenant commercial property; the O3 classification and the DCAS lease terms explain why standard multi-tenant office comparables don’t apply here. The 20-year term, with rent escalations already scheduled through the early 2030s, gives the building a publicly documented income stream that most Manhattan office properties of the same age don’t have on record.
If You’re Visiting for Benefits Services
All six units share the entrance at the corner of East 16th Street and Irving Place, a block from Union Square and reachable by the 4, 5, 6, L, N, and R trains at the 14th Street and Union Square station. Which floor to head to depends on the program: SNAP and cash-assistance intake, employment services, residential-treatment casework, ACS referrals, HEAP applications, and CityFHEPS correspondence each run through a separate office on a different floor. Every unit in the building keeps the same walk-in hours, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Do I need an appointment to visit an HRA office at this address? HRA’s Lower Manhattan Benefits Access Center and the other units operate on walk-in hours Monday through Friday, though some programs, including CityFHEPS renewals, are processed by mail rather than walk-in visits.
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