- Year built
- 2002
- Type
- Condominium
- Floors
- 10
- Landmark
- No
- Pets
- Permitted per management-sourced records; confirm any weight or breed rule in the house rules
Every recorded sale at this building, 2005–2025
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $2,000
- Listing discount
- 2.8%
- Recorded sales
- 22
- On record
- 2005–2025
The block of West 17th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues is a prewar block. It reads as one — masonry, cornices, fire escapes, a run of Italian Renaissance–inflected loft and apartment fronts — and then, mid-block on the south side, there is a steel-and-glass building ten stories tall. That building exists because of a fact of the public record rather than a fact of design: the lot is not landmarked and sits in no historic district. A block face that looks protected is not, and 136 West 17th Street is the proof.
What was done here is more unusual than a ground-up tower would have been. The 2002 application was not a new building. It was an alteration that took a four-story residential structure, added floors five through ten, cut a new rear yard, rebuilt the exterior walls, partitions, floors and ceilings, and changed the use to condominium — an enlargement of 11,373 square feet against a finished gross of 11,200. In practice almost nothing of the predecessor survives above the foundation line, but the filing history matters, because it is the reason PLUTO has no year-built for the lot at all. The city's land-use file treats the parcel as an altered building with no construction date rather than as a 2005 completion. Anyone pulling municipal data on this address will find a blank where the vintage should be.
The reconstruction is not difficult once the records are read in order. Alteration 103236543 was filed in August 2002 with Gene Kaufman as architect of record and was fully permitted in May 2004. Personnel and material hoists went up in December 2004 and February 2005. The entrance marquee was filed in June 2005 and the fire-alarm system that November. The condominium declaration was recorded on June 16, 2005, and the seven residences closed to seven separate purchasers between March 29 and May 30, 2006, each at its own price and most with its own purchase-money mortgage. The building was finished in 2005 and occupied from 2006. That is the date a buyer should use.
The result is a very small building with a very specific product. Seven residences over ten floors means a full floor per apartment from the second through the sixth, at roughly 1,260 square feet each, and then two penthouses in the setback volume above — one of them a duplex at roughly 1,900 square feet. There are no shared corridors to speak of. The elevator opens into the apartment. There is no staff, no lobby to maintain, and no amenity program, which is the trade a boutique building of this size makes: the common charge is low because there is almost nothing common to charge for, and the flip side is that nobody is there to accept a package.
The tax posture deserves its own line, because it runs against the Chelsea default. A great deal of the neighborhood's 2000s condominium inventory was built with 421-a and has spent the last decade stepping up toward full assessment. This building has no exemption on any unit lot in any year of DOF's current exemption file, and none in its history that the records disclose. Residences have paid unabated taxes since 2006. The monthly number is what it is and does not have a scheduled increase built into it.
Architecture and unit composition
The lot is 25 feet wide by 92 deep, and the building fills it — 25 by 92 at the base, ten floors, 104 feet to the roof. On a parcel that narrow, with no corner and no protected exposures on either flank, the whole architectural argument has to happen on the street elevation, and it does: a glazed front with the top floors pulled back to make terraces. The rear yard cut in the 2002 alteration gives the south side of each floor plate real light rather than a lot-line condition.
Unit sizes from DOF's lot record run tightly: 2A through 6A between roughly 1,259 and 1,266 square feet, PHB at roughly 1,318, and PHA at roughly 1,906 across two levels. The ground-floor commercial unit is roughly 1,657 square feet and was built out as a medical office in 2005 and 2006 under separate DOB filings — worth knowing, because it means the building's street level operates on a weekday professional schedule rather than as retail.
Alteration filings on individual apartments record what buyers will actually find inside: a gas fireplace installed on the third floor in 2009 and another removed in 2010, limestone pavers laid on a terrace in 2014, a hot tub filed for the second-floor terrace in 2009 and another at roof level in 2007. Fireplaces exist in the building but are not uniform across the line, and whether a given one is gas or wood-burning is a unit-level question rather than a building-level one. Confirm it in the specific apartment.
Building operations
Seven residences, one elevator, no staff. Access is by video intercom with a virtual doorman system per management-sourced records; a keyed-elevator arrangement delivers residents directly into their apartments. Private storage and in-unit washer/dryers are documented in listing records. Pets are permitted. A heavy-duty sidewalk shed was filed in 2003 for façade repair under Local Law 33 of 1991, and a fire-protection plan was filed for the completed building in 2010 — the ordinary maintenance rhythm of a small Chelsea condominium, with nothing in the public record suggesting an unusual capital burden.
The absence of staff is the single operational fact that most changes the experience relative to a full-service building. It keeps the common charge low. It also means deliveries, contractors and building access are self-managed, and that the board is small enough that a single unengaged owner is a meaningful fraction of it. Ask for the last two years of financial statements and the current budget before contract; in a seven-unit building the reserve position and any assessment history are far more consequential per apartment than they would be in a hundred-unit house.
Policy framework
The condominium framework governs: no board interview, no financing ceiling, no post-closing liquidity test, and purchases in trusts and entities are permitted, with the board holding a right of first refusal on a sale rather than an approval right. Pets are permitted per management-sourced records. Subletting and pied-à-terre use are permitted on the standard condominium terms. No flip tax or resale capital contribution is documented in public records for this building; whether one exists is a question for the managing agent, and it should be asked rather than assumed.
Local Law 97
This building is below the 25,000 sq ft threshold at which LL97 emissions caps apply. No regulatory capital pressure from this law specifically, current or 2030.
See full Local Law 97 analysis →Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available FISP filing classified the facade as Safe — no repairs were required at that inspection. Facade inspections run on a fixed five-year cycle; future inspection, repair, and any assessment decisions remain building-specific.
How to read this, and where it comes from
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — the licensed engineer the city requires to sign the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent).
Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
Recent sales
The building trades as full-floor Chelsea condominium product in a narrow size band, which makes it unusually legible: five of the seven residences are within a few square feet of one another, so pricing separates on floor, condition, outdoor space and light rather than on layout. The two penthouses are the exception and price on their own terms — the duplex in particular, which is roughly half again the size of a typical floor and carries terraces.
All seven residences sold to separate, unrelated purchasers in the sponsor sellout of spring 2006, and the building has traded steadily on resale since, with multiple apartments turning over more than once. Recent activity has been concentrated in the mid-floor full-floor lines, with the penthouses trading less often and at a clear premium. Because taxes are unabated and there is no staff, the total carrying cost per square foot compares favorably with abated new-development inventory a few blocks west once the abatement schedule is run out — a comparison worth doing explicitly rather than by sticker price. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 9, 2025 | PHB | 2 BR · 2.5 BA · 1,400 sf | $2,800,000 | $2,000/sf | -6.5% |
| Jun 11, 2024 | 3A | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,265 sf | $2,250,000 | $1,779/sf | -2.0% |
| Feb 12, 2024 | 5 | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,265 sf | $2,050,000 | $1,621/sf | -10.7% |
| Sep 27, 2023 | 4 | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,265 sf | $2,125,000 | $1,680/sf | -7.4% |
| Jun 16, 2016 | PHA | 3 BR · 2 BA · 1,906 sf | $3,950,000 | $2,072/sf | -1.1% |
| Apr 26, 2013 | PHB | 2 BR · 1,318 sf | $2,497,000 | $1,895/sf | off-mkt |
| Jun 29, 2011 | 3A | 2 BR · 1,328 sf | $1,535,625 | $1,156/sf | -3.7% |
| Jun 28, 2011 | PHA | 3 BR · 1,906 sf | $3,250,000 | $1,705/sf | +0.0% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2025) cleared a median $2,000/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 2.8% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Full closing history with price-per-square-foot over time, the complete retrade record, and every line that has traded.
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00792-7507) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
The vintage in city data is wrong, or rather absent. PLUTO shows no year built. Appraisers and lenders pulling automated data on this address will find a blank or will default to the 2004 alteration year. The defensible dates are a 2004 permit, a 2005 completion, and 2006 first occupancy, all documented in DOB filings and the ACRIS declaration.
There is no abatement to lose and none to gain. Underwrite the tax line as it stands today. It is not stepping up.
Size the building risk honestly. Seven residences means seven owners funding every capital event. Read the financials and the reserve position, and ask specifically about façade compliance cycles and elevator work, which are the two line items that hit a small building hardest.
Confirm the fireplace and outdoor space unit by unit. DOB filings show fireplaces and terraces in some apartments and not others, and at least one fireplace was removed. Do not price a feature that is documented at the building rather than at the apartment.
Check what is happening at street level. The ground-floor unit is a separately owned commercial condominium built out as a medical office. Confirm the current occupant and the by-laws' commercial-use provisions.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the full floor. Whole-floor living with a keyed elevator opening into the apartment is the product, and it is rare below 1,500 square feet in Chelsea. Say it plainly.
Get ahead of the missing year built. Buyers and their counsel will pull the city record and see nothing. Supply the alteration number, the permit date, the declaration date and the first-closing dates up front, and the question closes before it becomes a valuation discussion.
Present the tax line as a feature. Against abated competition, a fully taxed unit with no step-up ahead of it is a cleaner ten-year carry. Run the comparison for the buyer rather than leaving it to them.
Have the financials ready. In a seven-unit condominium, a buyer's attorney will want the budget, the reserve balance and the assessment history immediately. Delay reads as a problem even when there isn't one.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 136 West 17th Street, also evaluate:
- 133 West 17th Street — the 24-unit loft cooperative directly across the street on block 793; the share-ownership alternative on the same block face
- 151 West 17th Street — a 2001–2002 Chelsea condominium; the closest peer by vintage and tenure
- 121 West 17th Street — a 1911 building converted to cooperative use in 1988; the prewar co-op alternative on the block
- 113 West 17th Street — a 1911 warehouse converted to condominium lofts in 1982; loft proportions in condominium form
- 15 West 17th Street — a 1907 loft converted to a ten-residence condominium; the closest match in building scale
- 14 West 17th Street — a self-managed Beaux-Arts loft cooperative; the same street, an entirely different governance model
- 100 West 18th Street — 2006 new-construction Chelsea condominium; the contemporaneous ground-up alternative
- 126 West 16th Street — a 15-residence condominium built around an 1886 church; boutique scale one block south
- 144 West 18th Street — a 1910 loft converted to an 18-unit condominium in 2002; the loft-conversion comparison
- 111 West 16th Street — an 83-residence prewar cooperative; the full-service alternative at the opposite end of the scale
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Chelsea — read The Roebling Team Guide to Chelsea.
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent.
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