110 West 25th Street

The 1913 building is a conventional Chelsea commercial loft of its moment: a masonry pier-and-spandrel front with limestone and white terra-cotta facing, large industrial window openings, and a base built for a store. It has none of the cast-iron theatricality of SoHo and none of the ornament of the Ladies' Mile department-store blocks a few streets east; it is a working building, and what it gives a residential owner is column spacing, ceiling height and glass.

The residential product is one loft per floor from the third floor up — and, since the 2013 alteration and the January 2020 final certificate, from the second floor up. Each is roughly 2,500 square feet with the full forty-foot street frontage. Floor plans in buildings like this are typically laid out with public rooms on the window walls and bedrooms and service pushed to the interior; the constraint is that a 40-by-83 floor plate has a deep middle, so light distribution and mechanical routing are what separate a good renovation from an indifferent one. The twelfth floor carries the building's top-floor premium and is marketed as a penthouse.

This is a self-directed building with no documented staff. The filing history shows work filed on the pre-war envelope and systems: exterior façade and roof-level repairs in 2009, sidewalk and vault replacement in 2012, a 2014 boiler and burner replacement filed to remove the No. 6 oil burner and tank and install a dual-fuel gas and No. 2 oil plant with a lined chimney, a fire pump installation and sprinkler replacement in 2015, façade repair with a new roof deck in 2019, and limited exterior repairs at the roof and all four elevations in 2020. Sidewalk sheds appear in 2009, 2014 and 2020. Filings do not show completion or current condition; confirm both with sign-offs and recent engineering reports.

Two of those matter more than the rest. The 2014 boiler conversion filing off No. 6 oil is the most consequential mechanical item a pre-war building of this size can have on record, and it dates from more than a decade ago; confirm its sign-off and the plant's current condition. And the run of temporary certificates from 2017 that resolved into a final certificate of occupancy in January 2020 is a cleaner position than a building still operating on temporaries.

The condominium framework here is the standard one and the specifics are not published. What is documented: pied-à-terre use is permitted, and purchases run through the board's right of first refusal. What is not documented and must come from the managing agent or the declaration and bylaws: entity and trust ownership rules, the pet policy, any flip tax or resale capital contribution, any sublet rules or minimum term, in-unit laundry rights, and the status and access rules for the roof deck approved in 2019–2020.

One structural item deserves attention in a building this small. With twelve unit lots, one or two of them commercial, two lender tests matter: the share of total floor area in commercial use, and how many units any single owner holds. The unit count alone does not show whether either is close to a limit. Ask for the condominium questionnaire the building has most recently completed, with its floor-area and ownership schedules, before you assume a conforming loan.

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 (2023) cleared a median $1,480/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. Median listing discount 3.0% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00800-7502; 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.

Confirm the unit's tax classification, not just its use. The building's own record shows a second floor that the certificate of occupancy treats as a dwelling unit and the assessment roll reviewed for this profile treated as commercial. Classification drives the tax rate, the availability of the co-op/condo abatement, and in some cases the lender's willingness. Get the current tax bill for the specific unit lot before contract, not after.

Ask for the condominium questionnaire early. In a twelve-unit condominium with commercial space at the base, the commercial floor-area share and any concentration of ownership are what a conforming lender will check first. This is a two-day question at the start and a two-week problem at the end.

The absence of landmark designation is an asset — use it. Windows, storefront and rooftop work here require no Landmarks review. If you are planning a renovation, that removes a review cycle and a category of cost that identical-looking buildings a few blocks south cannot avoid.

Underwrite the rezoning as a neighborhood, not as a building. MSX changed what can be built around you, not what you own. Walk the block and the two adjacent, look at what is currently one-story or vacant, and decide how you feel about a high-density residential district forming next door.

Check the actual tax bill. The roll shows no J-51, no 421-a and no building exemption. The co-op/condo abatement is available only to primary-residence owners and does not transfer as a building benefit. Run the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator on the actual bill.

Lead with the full floor. Buyers shopping this price band in Chelsea and NoMad are mostly looking at line units in larger buildings. Private-floor living with front and rear exposure is the differentiator and it should be the headline.

Say plainly that the building has a final certificate of occupancy. Issued January 8, 2020, per Department of Buildings records. Buyers' counsel will check it; having the certificate ready shortens diligence.

Get the address convention right in the listing and the contract. The lot is 108 West 25th Street in PLUTO and at the Department of Buildings, 110 West 25th Street at the Department of Finance, and both in ACRIS. Title and lender searches have been known to stall on exactly this. Name both numbers.

Document the mechanical history. The 2014 boiler and burner conversion, the 2015 fire pump and sprinkler work, and the 2019–2020 façade cycle are the answers to the questions a buyer's engineer will ask about a 1913 building.

If you're considering 110 West 25th Street, also evaluate:

• 219 West 25th Street — the closest comparison on the same street
• 254 West 25th Street — Chelsea loft building west of Seventh Avenue
• 124 West 24th Street — full-floor loft condominium one block south
• 159 West 24th Street — loft conversion on West 24th Street
• 101 West 24th Street — the large full-service condominium on the same tax block; the amenitized alternative
• 128 West 26th Street — boutique loft condominium one block north
• 146 West 26th Street — comparable Chelsea loft building
• 22 West 26th Street — NoMad loft conversion at the eastern edge of the district
• 245 Seventh Avenue — the full-service condominium alternative at the corner
• 200 West 24th Street — Chelsea avenue-corner building for a service comparison