150 East 73rd Street

The 1949 plan's apartment schedule is the clearest surviving picture of how the building was laid out: four lines — A, B, C and D — running from the second floor to the eleventh, plus a penthouse. Room counts ran from five rooms and two baths in the smaller A-line apartments through seven- and eight-room, three-bath B- and C-line layouts to nine-room, three- and four-bath D-line apartments; the penthouse was offered as six rooms and three baths. In the vocabulary of the period that means classic-six through classic-nine plans with maids' rooms, defined foyers and separate service entrances.

Those plans have moved since. Department of Buildings filings across the past two decades record steady interior renovation, a 2016 application to divide the penthouse into two apartments, and a 2020 job relocating floor area between the two penthouse units. City records now count 43 residential apartments where the 1949 schedule offered roughly 44. Listing records over the years have described nine-foot-two ceilings, wood-burning fireplaces and herringbone floors in the apartments; those are unit-by-unit features, not building-wide guarantees, and should be verified line by line.

The building is in the Upper East Side Historic District Extension, which governs the exterior. The co-op replaced windows under a 2017 filing and completed a full facade restoration in the 2020–2023 cycle; both are the kind of work that requires Landmarks review, and any future window, storefront or ironwork change will too.

The building is staffed under a Local 32BJ collective bargaining agreement that expires April 20, 2026 — worth noting for anyone underwriting the 2026 and 2027 budgets, since labor is the largest single operating line here and a new contract sets it. Total labor and related expense ran just over $1.04 million in 2023 against total operating expense of about $3.29 million.

Capital work, from the audited financial statements on file. In 2020 the corporation contracted for a $2,034,245 restoration of the building's exterior facade under the city's Local Law 11 facade safety program. As of December 31, 2023 that project was fully complete. A separate $208,200 sidewalk replacement contracted in May 2023 was also complete at year end. This is a building that has recently spent real money on the envelope — which is generally good news for a buyer, because the work is behind rather than ahead.

The underlying mortgage is the single most important number in the file. The corporation carries a $3.3 million mortgage that matures January 1, 2028 and pays interest only at 3.71 percent. There is no amortization. The corporation also holds an undrawn $750,000 unsecured line of credit available through the same January 2028 date. A 3.71 percent interest-only loan maturing in early 2028 will almost certainly refinance into a materially higher rate, and unless the corporation pays the balance down, the debt-service line will step up. Any buyer's attorney should ask the board directly what the refinancing plan is.

Assessments have been a recurring feature, not an exception. The board levied capital assessments of $907,735 in 2022 and $483,299 in 2023, and approved a further $130,000 capital assessment in December 2023 to be billed across 2024. Separately, shareholders were assessed $267,735 in 2022 and $200,000 in 2023 to supplement operations because of shortfalls from commercial rent revenue, with another $100,000 operating assessment approved in December 2023 for 2024. There is also an annual assessment matched to the co-op/condo tax abatement, which is a common pass-through mechanic rather than a sign of stress.

Reserves and reserve planning. Cash and equivalents stood at $1,265,025 at December 31, 2023, up from $600,636 a year earlier. The corporation's governing documents do not require the accumulation of a reserve fund, and the auditors noted that no formal study of future major repairs and replacements has been prepared. The board's stated approach is to review capital needs with its engineer and to fund work through the credit line, maintenance increases or assessments as needed. Maintenance was billed at $147.50 per share in 2022, $157.81 in 2023, and $161.76 effective January 1, 2024.

Commercial income. The three ground-floor stores were let in November 2021, January 2022 and May 2023, with leases expiring in November 2031, January 2032 and May 2026. Minimum base rent was scheduled at roughly $411,000 for 2024. The near-term diligence question is the store whose lease runs out in May 2026 — re-letting risk in that space feeds straight back into the operating assessments described above.

Tax certiorari proceedings seeking reductions in assessed value for tax years 2020/21 through 2023/24 were pending at the end of 2023.

The policy stack here is tight even by Lenox Hill standards, and two lines in it are unusual enough to price:

• Financing is capped at 50 percent of purchase price. That is stricter than the 65 to 75 percent that is common across the corridor and it narrows the buyer pool. Refinancing is separately constrained: a shareholder may borrow the greater of the existing balance or 40 percent of appraised value, and cannot take an equity loan until three years after closing.
• The 3 percent flip tax is paid by the purchaser, not the seller. This is confirmed in both management-sourced records and the corporation's audited financial statements, which describe the transfer fee as "payable to the Corporation by the purchaser." Model it into the buy side, not the sell side — it is a real closing cost that many buyers assume is the seller's problem.
• Corporate purchase or lease is not permitted. Trust purchases and transfers into trust are considered case by case, as are pied-à-terre use, secondary residence, co-purchase, guarantors, parents purchasing for a child, and diplomatic purchase. Short-term rentals are prohibited.
• Pets are permitted with approval. In-unit washer/dryers are considered case by case — meaning some apartments have them and a new installation is a board decision, not a right.
• Subletting is permitted, but the current seasoning period, term cap and sublet fee are not published. Get them in writing from the managing agent before you underwrite a rental exit.

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 $1,660/sf across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2023. Median listing discount 1.7% 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 1-01407-0051) 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.

Underwrite the 2028 mortgage maturity. A $3.3 million interest-only loan at 3.71 percent maturing January 1, 2028 is the building's largest forward variable. Ask the board what it intends to do — pay down, refinance, or refinance larger — and price the maintenance consequence of each path.

Bring more cash than the corridor average. Fifty percent financing is a hard ceiling, and it is checked at the board package stage, not negotiated afterward. Run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator before you offer, and add the 3 percent purchaser-paid flip tax to your closing costs.

Read the assessment history as two separate stories. The capital assessments funded a completed facade restoration — money spent on an asset you are buying. The operating assessments covered commercial rent shortfalls — an income-side problem that recurs until the stores are stably let. They deserve different weight in your analysis.

Expect a substantive board package and interview. A 43-apartment prewar corporation with a 50 percent financing cap, no corporate ownership, and case-by-case treatment of trusts and pieds-à-terre reviews applications closely. Post-closing liquidity expectations are not published; ask the managing agent what the board has historically wanted to see, and prepare a complete, un-caveated package.

Confirm the exterior scope of anything you plan to change. The apartment is yours; the facade is not. Landmarks jurisdiction applies to windows, terrace railings, through-wall units and anything else that reads from Lexington or 73rd.

Lead with the completed capital cycle. The Local Law 11 facade restoration and the sidewalk replacement are finished and paid for. Buyers who have been burned by open facade projects elsewhere will value that; make sure their attorney sees it in the financials.

Address the flip tax before the buyer's lawyer does. Because the 3 percent is on the purchaser, sophisticated buyers will attempt to price it back into the bid. Decide in advance how you want to handle that conversation.

Qualify buyers on cash, early. The 50 percent ceiling disqualifies a meaningful share of the corridor's buyer pool. Screening for it before accepting an offer prevents the most common failure mode in this building — a deal that dies in the board package.

Price condition honestly. Prewar apartments of this scale renovate expensively and buyers now underwrite that cost openly. Run the Renovation Cost Calculator against your asking strategy.

If you're considering 150 East 73rd Street, also evaluate:

• 1019 Lexington Avenue — the immediate neighbor, a 1924 building organized as a cooperative from the start; the closest possible like-for-like on the same avenue frontage
• 164 East 72nd Street — 1925 prewar masonry co-op a block south; comparable scale and side-street position
• 117 East 72nd Street — 1928 prewar co-op in the same Lexington-adjacent band
• 132 East 72nd Street — 1925, converted to cooperative ownership in 1960; a useful comparison on conversion vintage
• 168 East 74th Street — 1926 red-brick prewar converted from rental in 1953, one of the closest analogues on conversion history
• 112 East 74th Street — 1917 Robert T. Lyons prewar co-op; older stock, similar buyer
• 130 East 75th Street — 1928 Schwartz & Gross prewar co-op; the architectural step-across
• 103 East 75th Street — 1913 prewar co-op with an unusually detailed limestone base
• 157 East 74th Street — mid-1980s condominium; the alternative for buyers who cannot clear a 50 percent financing cap