A housing lottery has opened for 162 affordable apartments inside the former 77 Water Street office tower in Manhattan's Financial District, giving qualifying New Yorkers a shot at income-restricted studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms as the 1970s office building transforms into housing. Applications are due by November 17, 2026, and rents for the restricted units span from roughly $1,056 to $2,823 a month depending on apartment size and income tier.
The lottery covers units at 1 Gouverneur Lane, the address now assigned to the redeveloped tower. According to vouchermatch.com, applications are open on NYC Housing Connect, with a deadline of November 17, 2026. Qualifying New Yorkers earning 40%, 80% or 100% of area median income can apply, and Housing Connect guidance notes that minimum income requirements do not apply to applicants who already hold a voucher or rental subsidy, per the same listing.
Sources differ slightly on how the rent range breaks down. 6sqft reports the apartments are priced between $1,056 and $2,823 a month for studio to two-bedroom units, while vouchermatch.com describes rents running from $1,056 for a one-bedroom up to $2,823. Either way, the same outlet notes that every rent in the lottery sits at least $557 below HUD's estimated cost of an ordinary apartment in ZIP code 10005. The 162 affordable units are split across the three income levels, with more than half set aside as studios priced for applicants at 100% of area median income, per vouchermatch.com's reporting.
A 1970s Tower Getting a Major Makeover
77 Water Street sits a block from the East River, within reach of the Seaport District, the Pier 11 ferry landing, and the rest of Lower Manhattan, according to seed reporting on the project. Vanbarton Group is leading the conversion of the 26-story office building, also known as 1 Gouverneur Lane, and architecture firm CetraRuddy is designing the project. The developer's plans call for adding seven new floors and roughly 50,000 square feet to the existing structure, according to CCM, which puts the current building at about 525,000 square feet before the expansion.
How many total apartments the finished building will hold remains unsettled across public records and company statements. 6sqft reports Vanbarton is converting the tower into 648 luxury rental apartments, while Vanbarton Group's own announcement of its acquisition cited 649 units. Department of Buildings records described in vouchermatch.com's reporting show a conversion filing for 647 apartments across 33 stories, and an earlier plan reported by Commercial Observer called for 625 units, including 468 market-rate and 157 affordable apartments. The 162-apartment affordable set in the current lottery is described by vouchermatch.com as 25% of the 647-unit figure in those building department filings.
What Vanbarton Paid, and What's Coming Next
The purchase price behind the deal is similarly contested. Vanbarton Group confirmed it acquired 77 Water Street on December 4, 2024, but Commercial Observer reported the company bought the tower from Sage Realty for $95 million, while 6sqft put the price at $90 million. Commercial Observer's earlier reporting also described a $280 million acquisition and construction loan the developer was pursuing around the same period.
Once finished, the building is expected to include 30,000 square feet of amenities, including fitness and wellness facilities, resident lounges and outdoor space, per the seed reporting. CCM's project description lists additional proposed amenities such as an indoor/outdoor lounge, a speakeasy, a golf simulator, a full-service spa and a yoga studio. Completion is expected by the second quarter of 2027, according to vouchermatch.com, and the building is anticipated to receive a New York State 467-m tax exemption for converting office space into housing, the same outlet reports. Applicants with questions about the offer can reach NYC Housing Connect by dialing 311, and full application details are available through Housing Connect directly.
Part of a Broader FiDi Conversion Wave
77 Water Street joins a growing list of Financial District office towers going residential. A June 2025 lottery at 55 Broad Street offered 143 apartments in another FiDi office-to-rental conversion, with rents starting around $912 a month, according to 6sqft. Across the five boroughs, the trend is substantial: the NYC Comptroller's office has tracked 44 completed, ongoing and potential office-to-residential conversions citywide as of the first quarter of 2025, totaling 15.2 million gross square feet.
Remote work during the pandemic is part of what pushed developers toward emptying office towers, as developers increasingly saw vacant office buildings as opportunities to create housing, according to The New York Times. The Times has pointed to SoMA at 25 Water Street, just down the block, as the country's largest office-to-residential conversion to date, with 1,320 apartments and roughly 100,000 square feet of amenities; a quarter of those units were set aside as affordable housing.
Not every conversion in the city has gone smoothly. At 222 Broadway, a separate office-conversion project expected to produce nearly 800 apartments received a full stop-work order after concrete beams were found cracked and improperly repaired, according to CNN. CNN also reported that the former Pfizer headquarters conversion, involving roughly 1,600 planned apartments, hit trouble on July 7, 2026, when structural columns buckled and floors sagged. Those setbacks are unrelated to the 77 Water Street project but underscore the scale and risk of the office-conversion boom now reshaping Lower Manhattan's skyline.
