10 Lenox Avenue

The building is a straightforward contemporary Harlem infill condominium: eight stories, 85 feet, on a 7,183-square-foot corner lot in an R7-2 district, with the two-story sanctuary base reading differently from the residential shaft above. The architect of record is a firm that has built extensively in this category across upper Manhattan and the outer boroughs. There is no landmark constraint on the exterior — LPC's building database carries no record for this block, and every DOB filing confirms landmark status "N" — so the design answers to the zoning envelope rather than to a district's design guidelines.

Apartments are on floors three through eight. Unit designations in ACRIS run in the pattern 3E, 5A, 5D, 6B, 6D, 7A, 7C, 8-series — roughly five apartments per residential floor. The assessment roll shows a mix weighted toward smaller units: gross areas on individual unit lots in the FY2027 roll run from the mid-500s to roughly 1,000 square feet across the sampled lots, which places the building squarely in the studio-through-two-bedroom range rather than the family-sized tier. Eighth-floor apartments carry private terraces, held as limited common elements appurtenant to those units — the most differentiated inventory in the building, and the line to which the top of the price range attaches.

The three roof cabanas are worth understanding precisely. They are common elements owned by the board of managers and licensed to unit owners, not deeded appurtenances and not separately conveyable real property. A licence can be granted, and it can be dealt with differently by a future board. Confirm the current licence status and any fee before assuming a rooftop cabana travels with an apartment.

Services are deliberately minimal. A virtual doorman intercom system handles entry and deliveries; the offering plan on file records that the sponsor covered its first-year cost. There is one passenger elevator for the residential floors, held to the statutory service contract, with monthly inspections and an annual test. Common electric covers the elevator, corridor and stair lighting, common mechanical equipment and outdoor lighting. There is no retail unit and therefore no commercial rent roll subsidising the residential budget.

Two operating characteristics follow directly from the structure and should be verified against the current audited financials and budget:

• Cost allocation between the residential and community facility units. The offering plan is explicit that the community facility unit bears the cost of its own elevator and stairwells and the internal repairs and maintenance of its unit, and that the residential elevator is allocated one hundred percent to the residential units. Ask the managing agent whether the board has applied the plan's allocation in practice, and whether the church unit is current on its common charges.
• Reserve depth in a twenty-nine-unit building. Boutique condominiums of this size have little room between the reserve fund and an assessment. The building is now six years into its life, which is when the first non-warranty items — roof, façade sealants, elevator components, mechanical — begin to appear. Ask for the reserve balance, the assessment history, and any outstanding sponsor obligations under the plan.

Two neighbourhood facts a buyer should have and would not otherwise find. First, the sponsor reserved an unconditional right to rent unsold units after consummation of the plan; how much of the building is owner-occupied today is a question for the managing agent and a question your lender will ask. Second, the Department of Finance assessment roll carries a New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision building at 31 Central Park North, on the same tax block, classified as a government building. It is a matter of public record and it is the kind of thing better learned before an offer than during diligence.

A 2018 Manhattan condominium invites the assumption that a 421-a abatement is running and that carrying costs are artificially low until it steps down. That assumption is wrong here, and getting it wrong would materially misprice the apartment.

• The offering plan contains no tax abatement or exemption programme. There is no 421-a section, no benefit schedule, and no projected abatement in the first-year budget.
• The Department of Finance assessment rolls confirm it. Across fiscal years 2023 through 2027, not one of the twenty-nine residential unit lots carries a tax abatement or exemption beyond ordinary personal exemptions claimed by individual owners.
• The exemption you will see in aggregate data belongs to the church, not to you. PLUTO reports a substantial exemption on the condominium's billing lot. That figure is entirely attributable to lot 1001 — the community facility unit owned by Second Canaan Baptist Church, assessed at class RA and fully exempt as a religious use. It confers nothing on the residential owners. Any tool that divides a building-level exemption across residential units will produce a badly wrong number for this address.
• The programme timing explains why. The 421-a programme in force when this building was filed and completed — Affordable New York, the 2017 successor statute — limited its homeownership option to projects outside Manhattan. A Manhattan condominium of this size and vintage was not eligible. The 485-x programme that replaced 421-a in 2024 postdates the building entirely and is directed at rental construction.

The practical consequence: residential owners at 10 Lenox Avenue pay full, unabated Manhattan Class 2 taxes, and have since the first closings in January 2020. There is no benefit to expire, no step-down schedule to model, and no cliff. Run the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator on the specific unit's actual tax bill.

Documented from the offering plan on file:

• Right of first refusal. Any lease or sale of a residential unit is subject to the board of managers' right of first refusal. Sponsor-held units are excluded. This is a genuine right of first refusal rather than the more common waiver mechanism, and it should be built into transaction timelines on both sides.
• Pets. Dogs and cats are permitted. Other birds, animals and reptiles require express written permission. Pets must be carried or on a leash in the common elements.
• Terraces. The eighth-floor terraces are limited common elements. Alterations to a limited common element that deviate from what the sponsor originally delivered require express written permission from the board of managers.
• Cabanas and storage. Three cabana spaces and twenty-two storage spaces are licensed, not deeded. Licences are appurtenant to the licensee, not automatically to the unit.
• Sponsor rental rights. The sponsor retained an unconditional right to rent units, and made no commitment to sell more than the minimum required for the plan to be declared effective.

Not documented, and to be confirmed with the managing agent: the current common charge and any assessment, the move-in and application fee schedule, alteration agreement terms, and whether any sponsor units remain unsold. This is a condominium, so there is no financing ceiling, no post-closing liquidity test, no board interview of the cooperative kind and no cooperative flip tax; financing terms are set by the lender. Trusts, entities and non-resident purchasers are ordinarily accommodated in a condominium structure, subject to the board's right of first refusal.

Recent sales

Recent closings at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.

Market read. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $1,041/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 0.0% from the last ask.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01594-7501) and verified listing data. Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified by The Roebling Team research desk. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price; square footage from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.

Model full taxes from day one. There is no abatement, there never was, and the exemption visible in building-level data belongs to the church. This is the most common and most expensive error made on this address.

Confirm the right of first refusal process before you go into contract. It is a real right of first refusal, exercisable by the board, and it applies to leases as well as sales. Ask how it has been administered and how long the board has taken to respond.

Understand the church as a permanent condition. The community facility unit is restricted to community facility use for twenty-one years from its January 2020 conveyance — into the 2040s. That is a stable, documented arrangement, not an uncertainty. Visit at a service time.

Ask about owner-occupancy and remaining sponsor units. The sponsor's rental rights are unconditional under the plan. Lenders test owner-occupancy ratios in small condominiums, and a high rental share can constrain financing for the next buyer as well as for you.

Price the terrace line separately. The eighth floor is the differentiated inventory. Everything below it is a fairly uniform boutique product and should be compared on exposure and finish rather than on floor alone.

Treat the cabana as a licence, not an asset. Confirm in writing whether a licence exists for the apartment, what it costs, and whether the board will transfer it.

Get ahead of the abatement question. Every informed buyer will assume a 2018 Harlem condominium has 421-a running. Correcting that assumption yourself, with the plan and the tax bill in hand, is far better than having a buyer's attorney raise it in week three. And there is a genuine argument to make: full taxes now means no step-down and no cliff later, which is not true of the abated new-development inventory this building competes with.

Lead with the location. The corner of Lenox and Central Park North, one block from the park, is the strongest single line in the pitch, and it is the attribute that will not change.

Have the plan and the allocation explained. The church structure reads as unusual to a buyer seeing it cold. Presented properly — a separate unit, its own elevator, its own tax bill, a documented cost allocation that protects the residential budget — it is a neutral or positive fact. Presented badly, it becomes a discount.

Build the right of first refusal into the timeline. A condominium closing here has one more gate than a buyer may expect. Set expectations at contract.

If you're considering 10 Lenox Avenue, also evaluate:

• 111 Central Park North — the closest direct comparable; contemporary condominium on the same park frontage
• 145 Central Park North — park-facing condominium a few blocks west, at a larger scale
• 285 West 110th Street (Circa Central Park) — full-service new-development condominium at the western end of the same street
• 2101 Eighth Avenue — contemporary condominium on the Frederick Douglass corridor
• 380 Lenox Avenue — the Lenox Avenue alternative further north
• 1485 Fifth Avenue — park-adjacent condominium on the Fifth Avenue frontage
• 301 West 118th Street — boutique condominium in central Harlem
• 100 West 119th Street — comparable boutique scale, a few blocks north
• Graham Court — the 1901 landmark cooperative at 116th and Adam Clayton Powell; the prewar alternative at a very different price and tenure