136 West 75th Street (The Brick House)

Six floors of brick over a 63-foot frontage, 27,176 square feet in total, and no commercial space: the building is entirely residential, which keeps the corporation's income simple and its exposure to retail vacancy at zero. Average unit size in the original 30-apartment configuration is roughly 900 square feet, but the average is misleading. The combinations recorded since 2002 — 3D with 3E, 1E with 2E, 4A with 4B, 6D with 6E, 5C with 5D and later 5E, 2A with 2B — have produced a handful of substantially larger apartments, some duplexed across floors, alongside the surviving one- and two-bedroom lines. Pre-war proportions are intact, and rear-facing lines look onto mid-block gardens rather than an avenue.

Staffing is a live-in superintendent, not a doorman — the appropriate model for a 30-apartment house and a principal reason the maintenance base stays low. Bike storage and basement storage are documented in listing records. Capital work in the DOB record is proportionate and steady rather than dramatic: a lintel and cornice/balustrade repair in 2005, a full facade restoration filed in January 2016 under a heavy-duty sidewalk shed, and structural joist repair between the second and third floors in 2015. Nothing in the open record suggests deferred-maintenance stress. Because the building is described as self-managed, the audited statements and any board communications are the documents to request; The Roebling Research Library holds the offering plan.

Very little of this building's policy stack is published, which is normal for a small self-managed co-op and is the single most important diligence point here.

Financing ceiling and post-closing liquidity. Neither is published. Small Upper West Side co-ops of this vintage commonly cap financing between 70 and 80 percent and expect liquid reserves after closing measured in years of maintenance and debt service, but nothing in the public record establishes this building's figures. Get them from the managing agent in writing before you write an offer, not after.

Board package and interview. Expect the standard Manhattan package — two years of returns, a full REBNY-style financial statement, personal and professional references, and an interview with the board. In a 30-apartment building the board is small and the interview is decisive.

Sublet policy. The proprietary lease on file gives the directors unrestricted discretion. Whatever the current house rule allows — seasoning period, term cap, sublet fee — it sits on top of a lease that permits the board to say no without explanation. Treat this as a primary-residence building unless management tells you otherwise in writing.

Flip tax. Listing records cite one percent, paid by the purchaser. Confirm the base (price, or gain, or per-share) and who bears it; this is a term boards revise.

Pied-à-terre, trusts and LLCs. Listing records describe pied-à-terre purchases as welcome. Trust and LLC ownership is not addressed anywhere in the public record. If you intend to buy through a trust, an LLC, or with a guarantor or co-purchaser, raise it before you make an offer.

Pets. Recent listing records describe the building as not allowing pets. That is a policy worth confirming directly, because it is also the sort of rule boards amend.

Recent sales

Recent transfers 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. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2017): a median $1,248/sf across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2022. Median listing discount 0.0% from the last ask.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01146-0049) 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 on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

Underwrite the corporation before the apartment. No underlying mortgage, if confirmed, is a genuine asset — it means the maintenance is funding operations and reserves rather than debt service, and it removes refinancing risk. Ask for the last two audited statements and the current reserve balance.

Price the combination premium honestly. The combined lines are the building's scarce product and the reason large-apartment pricing here reaches well above the small-line pricing. They are also the units most likely to carry legacy renovation work of varying age. Run the Renovation Cost Calculator against what you see.

One elevator, six floors, no doorman. A modest service model. If package handling and a staffed lobby matter, price the difference against the doorman buildings on Central Park West and West End Avenue.

Landmark status is a cost, not just a credential. Exterior work — windows, facade, ironwork — needs LPC review. The 2016 facade restoration is behind the building; future cycles will follow the same path. And run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator with the actual financing ceiling once management provides it, not with a market-standard assumption.

Lead with the corporation. In a market where buyers read co-op balance sheets carefully, an unencumbered, self-managed house with a documented capital record is the headline. Have the audited statements ready for buyers' counsel on day one.

Name the building. "The Brick House" is how this address is known in the neighborhood and in the offering plan itself. Use it.

Set expectations on the board package early. Small self-managed boards move at their own pace. A seller who briefs the buyer's team on the package and interview at contract, rather than at board submission, closes faster.

If you're considering 136 West 75th Street, also evaluate:

• 123 West 74th Street — same tax block, same side-street pre-war co-op profile one street south
• 161 West 75th Street — the closest like-for-like on the same street, in the corridor's other tenure
• 125 West 76th Street — pre-war side-street co-op converted in the same era
• 105 West 73rd Street — comparable boutique pre-war cooperative between Columbus and Amsterdam
• 160 West 77th Street — small pre-war co-op on a landmarked block; the step-north alternative
• 112 West 79th Street — similar scale and staffing model
• 101 West 78th Street — corner pre-war co-op with more service
• 20 West 77th Street — the prestige step-up toward the Museum block
• 235 West 75th Street — the condominium alternative on the same street, west of Broadway