The Keller (150 Barrow Street)

Munckwitz built the hotel in 1897–98 for William Farrell, an Irish-born coal merchant, at an estimated cost of $68,000. It opened as the Knickerbocker Hotel with its entrance and lobby on Barrow Street, became the New Hotel Keller around 1911, the Keller Abington Hotel from 1929, and simply the Keller Hotel from 1993 until it closed. The building is clad in light-colored brick laid in stretcher bond, five bays wide on West Street and six on Barrow, with string courses at each floor, an entrance portico with Corinthian columns, and a restrained cornice. The two cast-iron storefronts on West Street share a continuous cornice, and their column capitals carry a stylized floral design. It is a disciplined, unshowy Renaissance Revival building, and the restoration treated it that way.

The conversion added a set-back penthouse level above the original six floors — the element that took the longest to resolve at LPC, and the reason the approval process ran from 2017 to the 2020 permit filings. The new building on the Barrow Street lots was designed to hold the datum line of the block rather than rise above it, which is why the assemblage reads as a group of buildings rather than as a tower behind a preserved façade.

Residences run from one to four bedrooms across roughly 40,000 square feet of building area. Interiors are consistent across both the historic and new portions: custom-stained European white oak floors, quarter-cut walnut entry doors, kitchens with custom walnut cabinetry and honed White Macaubas stone slab counters and backsplashes, primary baths with walnut-finish vanities and a mix of marble surfaces, high-efficiency central heating and cooling, and vented in-unit washer/dryers. One model residence was styled by the interior design studio ASH.

The two penthouses are the outliers. The larger is a four-bedroom of roughly 4,287 interior square feet with about 2,073 square feet of exterior space — a scale that has no real peer in the immediate blocks and that put the top of the building in a different pricing conversation from the rest of it. Both penthouses went into contract before the building was ready for occupancy.

The Keller runs as a full-service boutique condominium: a 24-hour attended lobby with a custom stone-and-wood reception desk, a package room, a bike room, a laundry room, and purchasable private storage. The lounge is deliberately modeled on a boutique-hotel club room and opens directly onto the landscaped courtyard terrace, which carries a barbecue and kitchenette — a meaningful amenity in a neighborhood where most buildings of this size have no outdoor common space at all. There is a children's playroom and a fitness center with cardio, free-weight, and movement areas.

At 22 residences, the operating math deserves attention. A doorman around the clock and a full amenity floor are being carried by a small number of apartments, which puts common charges per square foot toward the higher end of the West Village condominium range rather than the lower. That is the normal trade for a boutique building with a full staff, and it is worth modeling rather than assuming.

Two structural items belong in diligence. First, the individual landmark designation means every element of the exterior — façade, cornice, storefronts, windows, and the hotel sign — is subject to LPC jurisdiction, which raises the cost and lengthens the schedule of any future façade cycle relative to an unregulated building. Second, the building is a new condominium: the first full building budget, the first Local Law 11 cycle, and the sponsor's transition of control to a resident board are all recent or still ahead. Review the current budget, the reserve position, and the status of any sponsor-held units before making an offer.

Recent sales

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00604-7502) 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.

Know which building you are buying in. The condominium spans a restored 1898 hotel and a 2023 structure behind it. Window depth, ceiling geometry, sound transmission, and light all differ between them. Walk both before you decide which one you want.

Underwrite the carrying cost, not the price. Twenty-two residences supporting a 24-hour staff and a full amenity floor produce a higher common charge per square foot than a larger building would. Model the true monthly carry — common charges, taxes, insurance, and debt service — rather than comparing sticker prices against larger West Village condominiums.

Read the landmark file, not just the offering plan. Individual designation governs the exterior permanently. Ask what LPC approvals were granted in the conversion, what conditions attached to them, and what the building's façade maintenance obligations look like on a twenty-year horizon.

Ask about sponsor inventory and board transition. In a building this new and this small, whether the sponsor still controls the board and how many units remain unsold materially affect both financing and governance.

Lead with the designation. The individual landmark status, the retained hotel sign, and the Hudson River Park frontage are the durable, non-replicable parts of the story. They differentiate the building from every new condominium south of 14th Street, and they should be in the first line of the listing, not the fourth.

Position against the correct comparable set. The right frame is boutique West Village condominium with river exposure, not generic downtown new development. Buyers who want scale and a health club go elsewhere; buyers who want an unrepeatable building on a park block are the audience here.

Have the paper ready. A young condominium invites questions — budget, reserves, sponsor holdings, LPC obligations. Assembling the current budget, the most recent financial statement, and the house rules before you list removes the friction that stalls contracts in small buildings.

If you're considering The Keller, also evaluate:

• 150 Charles Street — CookFox's 2015 condominium two blocks north; the benchmark for full-amenity West Village river-adjacent new development, at a larger scale and a higher price tier
• 165 Charles Street — Richard Meier's West Street glass tower; the other end of the architectural spectrum on the same waterfront
• 140 Charles Street (The Memphis Downtown) — West Village condominium a block away; a useful check on price per square foot without the landmark premium
• 433 West Street — the Sapolio Loft Building, another West Street industrial-era survivor converted to residences; the closest peer on adaptive reuse
• 130 Barrow Street — the 1983 loft condominium conversion of a 1931 truck garage, immediately to the east on the same tax block; the older-conversion alternative on the same street
• 100 Barrow Street — Toll Brothers' 2017 building four blocks east; comparable in vintage, finish level, and boutique scale, though it is a leasehold cooperative on land owned by the Church of St. Luke in the Fields rather than a fee condominium
• 1 Morton Square — Costas Kondylis's 2004 condominium at the western edge of the neighborhood; larger, with a broader amenity set
• 99 Jane Street — West Village condominium in a converted industrial building near the Hudson; another reuse comparable
• 80 Clarkson Street — the current generation of West Village new development on the Hudson; the direct competitor for buyers shopping new construction with park frontage
• The Greenwich Lane — the neighborhood's largest full-service condominium; the alternative for buyers who want scale and a health club rather than a boutique house