104 West 70th Street (The Walton)

LPC records the style as Beaux-Arts and the materials as brick, stone and pressed metal. The elevation is organised in the classic apartment-hotel manner: a rusticated two-story stone base carrying the retail and the entrance, a long brick shaft, and — originally — a heavy metal cornice, since removed. The corner siting gives the building two long frontages, on Columbus Avenue and West 70th Street, and correspondingly good light on the upper floors.

The plan is the product of the 1980 conversion. Architectural records describe that renovation as producing eight apartments per floor and adding a penthouse level. The apartment lettering in ACRIS is consistent with that: units run 2B through 11-something across letters A to H, with the higher letters appearing on most floors. The typical apartment is a one- or two-bedroom of modest prewar hotel proportions; the exceptions are the combinations, and there are a number of them on the record.

Department of Buildings filings show combinations executed at a steady rate: 3A with 3B in 2004, a pair of apartments on the eleventh floor in 2005, apartments G and H in 2005, 9F with 9G in 2008, 10H with 11A in 2008 — a duplex, with a new convenience stair — and 10D, 10E and 10F in 2019. A 2008 major alteration took the dwelling-unit count from 84 to 85 and changed the occupancy classification from J-0 to R-2; filings from the same period describe a penthouse addition. Whether that 2008 work created the penthouse level or extended the one added in 1980 is not resolved on the face of the record.

Because the building is inside the Upper West Side / Central Park West Historic District, window replacement, air-conditioning sleeves and any storefront work at the base require LPC approval before DOB will permit them. DOB records exactly that sequence more than once, including a 2008 filing to construct a mock-up for LPC review — the tell of a building that has been through a serious window or façade approval.

The Walton is a mixed-use condominium: a residential regime of 84 apartments above a separately owned retail condominium unit on Columbus Avenue, assessed as tax class 4 and carrying its own tax bill. Retail at this corner has turned over repeatedly — DOB filings record successive national tenants fitting out the space between 2010 and 2018, with partition work, accessibility modifications, sprinkler and awning filings each time. For a residential buyer the practical implications are ordinary: construction noise during fit-outs, and a commercial neighbour whose common charge contribution is fixed by the declaration rather than negotiable.

The capital record shows the exterior filings of a prewar building; completion and current condition need confirming:

• Façade. A 240-foot heavy-duty sidewalk shed went up in 2002 during remedial repairs. Further exterior repair followed in 2007, masonry façade repairs in 2011, and then the major cycle: façade repairs filed in 2013 at an estimated $856,199, with pipe scaffold and a debris chute following in 2015. A building of this size and age can expect the cycle to repeat; ask for the current Local Law 11 filing status and the engineer's most recent report.
• Sidewalk vault. Repaired in 2006 at roughly $85,000 — a Columbus Avenue corner obligation that catches owners by surprise when it recurs.
• Mechanical. A new boiler and oil burner in 2005; a metal chimney replaced in 2004 and extended in 2014; air-handler work in 2009; sprinkler and standpipe modifications through 2010 and 2011.
• Windows and sleeves. Window and A/C-sleeve installation filed in 2010 and again in 2014, both under landmark review.

The building is not documented as having a doorman, and the public record does not establish the staffing level. Confirm services, the superintendent arrangement and the current common charge structure with the managing agent.

There is very little here that we can state with confidence, and we would rather say so than guess.

No offering plan, declaration, by-laws or set of house rules for The Walton Condominium was located in either the Compass Offering Plan Library or The Roebling Research Library at the time of writing. That means the specifics of the policy stack — pets, subletting and any minimum lease term, the board of managers' right of first refusal and how the waiver process runs, application fees, move-in deposits, alteration agreement terms, and whether the sponsor or any successor retains rights over unsold units — are undocumented for our purposes.

What is structurally true, because it follows from the tenure rather than from any policy document, is the shape of the transaction. This is a condominium: a purchaser takes a deed to a unit tax lot, receives an individual tax bill, and is subject to a board of managers whose ordinary power over a resale is a right of first refusal rather than a right of rejection. There is no cooperative board interview, no proprietary lease and no cooperative flip tax. Confirm financing, leasing and ownership-entity rules, including for trusts, limited liability companies and non-resident purchasers, in the current declaration, bylaws and house rules.

Obtain the declaration, by-laws, house rules, most recent financial statements and the current common charge and assessment schedule from the managing agent before you make an offer.

Recent sales

Recent closings at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. 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 to date) cleared a median $1,284/sf (floor-adjusted) across 2 sales. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 0.0% from the last ask.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01141-7501; each condominium apartment is its own tax lot). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. 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.

The tenure is the product. Prewar Lincoln Square, condominium ownership. The nearby prewar stock of comparable vintage is overwhelmingly cooperative, and even the large postwar tower across the block line at 2025 Broadway is a condop whose apartments transfer as shares. If you want a deed rather than shares, the alternatives on this block are few; confirm trust, entity, non-resident and leasing rules in the declaration, bylaws and house rules.

Check the unit's own tax bill. The J-51 benefits expired in 2000. Because this is a condominium, each apartment carries its own tax lot and its own assessment; do not extrapolate from another unit, and confirm on the bill that no abatement applies. Run the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator on the specific unit's actual tax bill and common charge.

Ask for the façade file. The 2013 cycle was substantial, and the building's exterior obligations on two frontages plus a sidewalk vault are not trivial. Ask for the current Local Law 11 status, the engineer's report, and any assessment history or planned assessment.

Verify the apartment against the tax lot. Combinations have been executed on at least six occasions since 2004, some of them across floors. Confirm that the unit lot, the certificate of occupancy and the declaration's schedule of units all describe the apartment you are actually buying.

Expect the landmark review on any renovation. Exterior work, including windows, sleeves and anything visible from Columbus Avenue or West 70th Street, needs LPC permission before the Department of Buildings will issue its permit; work that meets LPC's rules can be approved at staff level without a full Commission hearing. Interior work that needs a DOB permit also needs LPC permission, often through a Certificate of No Effect. Confirm the review path for the actual scope. Build the time into your schedule and the cost into the Renovation Cost Calculator.

Treat PLUTO with caution for this building. Its building area, building count and total unit count differ from the Department of Finance record, and the sources use different dates and definitions. This profile follows the Department of Finance figures where they differ and says so; reconcile them against the current certificate of occupancy and the approved unit schedule.

Market the tenure, not just the apartment. Condominium ownership in a 1903 building two blocks from Lincoln Center is the scarce attribute. Confirm entity, trust, non-resident and investor rules in the declaration, bylaws and house rules before marketing to those purchasers.

Assemble the diligence package early. We did not locate an offering plan in the libraries searched, so a buyer's attorney may have to assemble the governing documents from the seller. A seller who arrives with the declaration, by-laws, house rules, current financials and the unit's tax bill lets buyers' counsel start diligence early.

Be direct about the taxes. The roll shows no benefit with years left to run, so no scheduled step-up is ahead; future bills still change with assessments and rates, and the apartment's own bill should be checked.

Price the line, not the building. Corner apartments on the Columbus frontage, combined units, and the penthouse level price on a different basis from the interior lines. Anchor to comparables on the specific line and exposure.

If you're considering The Walton, also evaluate:

• 2025 Broadway (Nevada Towers) — the 1977 Philip Birnbaum tower on the adjoining triangular block; the same neighbourhood at postwar scale, but a condop, so apartments transfer as shares
• 105 West 70th Street — directly across the street; the closest like-for-like address
• 120 West 70th Street — prewar cooperative on the same block front, west of Columbus
• 135 West 70th Street (The Pythian) — the 1927 Pythian Temple conversion, one block west; the other great adaptive-reuse address on this street
• 155 West 70th Street (The Coronado) — full-service condominium at Amsterdam Avenue; the newer, amenitised alternative
• 201 West 70th Street (One Sherman Square) — large full-service building at Amsterdam and 70th
• 243 West 70th Street — West End Avenue-adjacent prewar alternative
• 18 West 70th Street — small prewar building east of Columbus, toward Central Park West
• 140 West 69th Street — the block to the south, west of Columbus
• 11 West 69th Street, 24 West 69th Street and 26 West 69th Street — the Central Park West side-street cooperatives one block south