History and conversion: from bank vaults to condos
Built in 1928 as the headquarters of the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, a predecessor of JPMorgan Chase, the tower was designed with Egyptian-motif ornamentation, including 17 sphinx gargoyles on its setbacks, by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White. That firm was the direct successor to Daniel Burnham’s Chicago practice, reorganized in 1912 after Burnham’s death and renamed in 1917; the same lineage produced Chicago’s Wrigley Building and the Field Museum, per The Cultural Landscape Foundation. Leviev Boymelgreen acquired the property from the Resnick and Reuben families in 2004 and converted it to residential condominiums, with Gruzen Samton as conversion architect and Armani/Casa designing interiors, per CityRealty’s 2011 review – the first time Armani/Casa had worked with a New York developer this way, according to Armani/Casa executive Robert Triefus.
The disputed numbers
| Figure | CityRealty (review + listing pages) | Compass (updated Apr 2026) | Other sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Units | 409 | 408 | 409 (broker marketing site, RealtyHop) |
| Stories | 35 | 38 | 38 (StreetEasy, RealtyHop, 20pinestreet.com) |
| Conversion year | 2009 (review) / 2007 (listing page) | Building “last altered” 2005 | 2005 (broker marketing copy) |
Three of four sources agree on 38 stories; Compass is the only one of the four built on structured building-record fields rather than editorial copy, so its 408-unit, 38-story, 2005-alteration figures are the best-supported set here, though none has been checked against a DOB Certificate of Occupancy in this pass.
How many units does 20 Pine have? Structured building-record data from Compass puts it at 408; CityRealty’s editorial pages say 409. The one-unit gap has never been reconciled by either source, and a DOB Certificate of Occupancy is the only record that would settle it.
Current pricing by floor
| Unit | Floor | Beds/Baths | Sq. ft. | Price | $/sq. ft. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1416 | 14 | 0/1 | 1,005 | $799,000 | $795 |
| #2207 | 22 | 1/1 | 926 | $845,000 | $913 |
| #2114 | 21 | 1/1 | 991 | $1,288,888 | $1,301 |
| #2705 | 27 | 1/1 | 723 | $895,000 | $1,238 |
| #3102 | 31 | 1/1.5 | 1,185 | $1,650,000 | $1,392 |
Data from Compass’s live building feed, April 2026. Unit 1416, listed at $799,000, currently sits among the cheapest active listings in the building, a plain fourteenth-floor data point rather than a rounded average.
Floor-tier premium, quantified
| Floor band | Active sales (n) | Average $/sq. ft. |
|---|---|---|
| Floors 9 to 14 | 6 | $1,019 |
| Floors 15 to 24 | 5 | $1,068 |
| Floors 25 and above (Concierge Residences) | 5 | $1,247 |
CityRealty describes floors 25 to 35 as “Concierge Residences” with a private elevator and dedicated lounge; this building’s own current listings put roughly a 22% premium on that tier over the 9-to-14 band, computed directly from the 16 priced active sales above.
A rental-yield example
Unit 910 (1,101 sq. ft., one bed, one bath) is listed for sale at $1,100,000. Unit 1505, at 1,100 sq. ft., is a comparable one-bedroom currently renting for $6,750 a month. On those two listings alone, annualized rent ($81,000) against the sale price works out to a 7.4% gross yield, before common charges, taxes, or vacancy. This is illustrative only, not a projection for any specific unit.
Buying in: board rules and what they mean
| Policy | 20 Pine’s rule | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer fee (flip tax) | None | A seller keeps more of the sale proceeds than in buildings that charge 1 to 2% on resale |
| Minimum down payment | 10% | Lower cash-in bar than co-ops, which commonly require 20 to 25% |
| Guarantors | Allowed | Buyers without full qualifying income can still close with a guarantor’s backing |
| Parental purchasing | Allowed | A parent can hold title for a child-occupant, common for younger buyers |
| Gifting | Allowed | Down-payment gifts from family don’t need board waivers here |
| Co-purchasing | Allowed | Two unrelated buyers can jointly hold title |
Source: Compass building-policy data, updated January 30, 2025. This combination, no flip tax plus 10% down plus guarantors, gifting, and co-purchasing all permitted, reads closer to a typical new-development condo than to a traditional co-op board.
Is there a flip tax at 20 Pine? No. Compass’s building-policy data lists the transfer fee as none, and nothing else checked here contradicts it.
Amenities
The Collection’s amenity floors sit in the space once occupied by Chase Manhattan’s bank vaults: a 60-foot lap pool, a Turkish Hammam-style spa, a fitness center, a golf simulator, a library lounge, and a 25th-floor open-air terrace with a reflecting pool. A 33-foot lobby sets the entry.
Risk factors and open questions
Beyond the unit, story, and conversion-year gap above, three practical items remain unverified in this pass and are worth checking before a purchase decision: whether 20 Pine Street itself carries an individual NYC landmark designation (its neighbor, One Chase Manhattan Plaza, was individually designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in February 2009, but no equivalent designation for 20 Pine turned up here), the building’s current DOB violation and Local Law 11/144 façade-filing status, and a representative monthly common-charge and property-tax figure for a benchmark unit, none of which the building-level pages checked here publish.
Is 20 Pine Street individually landmarked? Its neighbor across Chase Manhattan Plaza, One Chase Manhattan Plaza, received an individual LPC designation in 2009. No equivalent designation for 20 Pine Street itself surfaced in this research; confirm directly with the LPC’s database before assuming either way.
How 20 Pine compares to a real peer conversion
| Building | Original use / architect | Converted | Units | Standout amenity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Pine Street (The Collection) | Morgan Guaranty Trust HQ; Graham, Anderson, Probst & White | 2005 to 2009 (disputed, see above) | 408 to 409 | Turkish Hammam spa |
| 15 Broad Street (Downtown by Philippe Starck) | J.P. Morgan banking HQ / Equitable Trust Building; Trowbridge & Livingston | 2005 to 2007 | 326 to 382 (sources vary) | Rooftop garden with children’s pool |
| 20 Exchange Place | City Bank-Farmers Trust HQ; Cross & Cross | 2004 (acquisition year only) | Not verified in this pass | Not verified in this pass |
15 Broad Street was converted by the same development group, Boymelgreen, and carries the same former-Morgan-family-bank story as 20 Pine, making it the closer of the two comparisons; its own unit count is disputed across sources in exactly the same pattern as 20 Pine’s.
Which floor gives the best price-to-amenity trade-off? The 15-to-24 floor band averages $1,068 a square foot, roughly $180 less per square foot than the 25-plus Concierge Residences tier, while still sitting above the ground-facing 9-to-14 band on views and quiet.
Location and transit
20 Pine sits on Chase Manhattan Plaza, steps from the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and 14 Wall Street, with the 2, 3, 4, 5, and J subway lines within a few blocks.
Leave a Reply