Walking down Bowery in NYC is pretty much like any other downtown street. Stores, shops, bums, business men, fashion forward dressers, and of course, graffiti. There is no way you can not notice the art that covers 190 Bowery. The building takes up an insane amount of space and at first looks, seems abandoned. The front steps are most nights, filled with homeless people sleeping, or just taking in the sites. The windows are covered, and it is easy to wonder, how, why, would a gigantic building in downtown NYC, the heart of the world, be abandoned. It surprised, and even shocked me to find out I couldnt be more wrong.

Jay Maisel, the photographer who bought it 42 years ago for $102,000, still lives there, with his wife, Linda Adam Maisel, and daughter, Amanda. It isn’t a decrepit ruin; 190 Bowery is a six-story, 72-room, 35,000-square-foot single-family home. The building was the abandoned Germania Bank, built in 1898, and at the time, Maisel figured it would be perfect for a photo studio. He still has an entire wing dedicated to supplies, and he even keeps his prints in the Banks of safe vault, which is still functional. As of 2005, 190 Bowery became an official landmark. Maisel says. “If you have a window that needs fixing, you fix it. If I have a window that is broken, I have to repair it, with approval, the way it was done in 1898.”

The city wants the exterior graffiti-free, but it’s impossible: 190 Bowery is a mecca for street artists, as its neighbor 11 Spring was before it went luxury. Maisel tried scrubbing the building every week, but “it was like I was providing a fresh canvas for them.” Keith Haring used to cover the exterior in chalk babies, says Maisel, and that he liked, both for the spirit of the images and because they washed off so easily.

So the big question. Whats it actually worth? I found 5 estimates.

Reid Price
Brown Harris Stevens
“Propertyshark.com lists the square footage as 27,500, in which case it’s worth $30 million to $35 million. If it’s [Maisel’s figure of] 38,000, it would be $35, $45 million.”

Erin Boisson Aries
Brown Harris Stevens
“That building is a dream!” she says, putting it at about $45 million to $50 million. “I could see a hip art collector there.”

Peter McCuen
Peter McCuen & Associates
“It’s a tough one, but it might sell for $35 million to a developer or $40 million to a commercial user. Or, in the best scenario, up to $50 million for a high-net-worth buyer for a single-family residence.”

Robby Browne
The Corcoran Group
“Without actually seeing it, I’m guessing the value is between $40 million and $70 million.”

Leonard Steinberg
Prudential Douglas Elliman
Steinberg puts it at $40 million, based on 35,000 square feet, and adds, “I would do anything to get that building.”