150 West 82nd Street (The Marlow)

The elevation is a restrained Neo-Georgian composition in limestone and brick, restored during the conversion under Landmarks Preservation Commission jurisdiction. The building reads as a mid-block prewar apartment house of its period — no courtyard, no monumental entrance, a straightforward masonry mass — which is precisely the character of the block. The visible change from the conversion is at the roofline, where the new tenth-floor level was set back and detailed to sit quietly against the restored cornice line.

Residences run from studios through a four-bedroom penthouse duplex. The interior specification is consistent across the inventory: airy great rooms, nine-foot ceilings, white oak herringbone floors, open kitchens with Miele appliances, spa-scaled baths, multi-zone heating and air conditioning, and stacked Miele washer and dryer in-unit.

Two details from the plan on file are worth carrying into a floor-plan review. First, certain residences include accessory storage rooms labeled "Pantry" — these are not habitable space, may not be used for sleeping, cooking or living, and may not be rented separately. Read them as closets, not as rooms, when comparing square footage between units. Second, the storage lockers are separately offered limited common elements rather than deeded space, they range from roughly 15 to 25 square feet, and they are not served by the building's emergency generator.

The recorded unit roster shows lines running A through K but not continuously floor to floor — a signature of a recombined prewar plan. As at any conversion of this type, the correct pricing anchor is the specific line and floor, not a building average across a forty-unit roster with that much layout variance.

The staffing model is the most important operating fact at The Marlow, and it is the one most often misread. The first-year budget in the offering plan on file projects a superintendent at approximately fifteen hours per week, a single doorman working forty hours per week Monday through Friday, one full-time maintenance worker and one part-time weekend maintenance worker — all engaged through a staffing agency under contract to the condominium board rather than employed directly. The plan describes a part-time lobby attendant in its amenity summary. This is a boutique building, not a 24-hour full-service one, and the common charges should be read against that service level rather than against the larger doorman buildings nearby. Confirm current staffing with the managing agent, as the board has had years to adjust it.

The amenity package is compact and family-oriented: a residents' lounge with a kitchenette, a children's playroom, a fitness center, a laundry room, the landscaped interior courtyard, and the landscaped common roof terrace with a grilling area and open city views. Use of the roof terrace is subject to board regulation on occupancy limits and noise, as set out in the plan.

Two structural items belong in any diligence file here. First, the building sits within a designated historic district, so every façade alteration requires Landmarks approval — the plan discloses this explicitly. Combined with Local Law 11's periodic façade examination requirement, this means the exterior maintenance cycle is both mandatory and slower than in an unregulated building. The conversion-era restoration means near-term exposure is low, but the obligation is permanent.

Second — and this is the item a buyer is least likely to think to ask about — the offering plan disclosed that rent-regulation status at this building was determined unit by unit, turning in part on the expiration of tax-exemption benefits, and that twenty-seven of the offered units were not subject to any rent laws at the time of filing. The plan also carried the standard non-eviction-conversion special risk that the sponsor retained the unconditional right to rent rather than sell units, meaning purchasers could find themselves living alongside non-purchasing occupants indefinitely. Recorded transfers now show deeds across effectively the entire unit roster, so the sellout did complete. But the unit-level regulatory history is documented in the plan, and for any specific apartment it is worth confirming.

Pets: Permitted. Confirm size and breed conditions against the current house rules.

Pied-à-terre: Permitted.

Subletting: Permitted with conditions. Confirm the conditions, any right of first refusal on leases and any minimum lease term with the managing agent.

LLC, trust and foreign ownership: Permitted.

Financing: Not documented; confirm in the declaration, bylaws and house rules.

Flip tax: No traditional flip tax. The plan on file instead imposes a non-refundable working capital contribution equal to two months' common charges at the initial closing and at each resale closing. Include this contribution explicitly in each closing estimate and confirm the responsible party from the current documents; do not assume that both buyer and seller pay it.

Storage: Nine storage lockers were offered under the plan, priced at roughly $15,000 to $17,000 each and structured as limited common elements rather than deeded units. Availability today should be confirmed with the managing agent.

Property tax abatement: As at every New York condominium, the NYC Co-op/Condo Property Tax Abatement requires primary residence. LLC purchases and pied-à-terre use forfeit it — model the difference on the specific unit before offer.

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 (2025) cleared a median $2,185/sf (floor-adjusted) across 2 sales. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 0.9% 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 1-01212-7503; 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.

Buy the plan, not the vintage. The value here is that a 1926 shell was gutted and re-planned in 2020 — nine-foot ceilings and prewar moldings on top of a contemporary layout with in-unit laundry and open kitchens. Compare specific surrounding cooperatives for retained prewar layouts and dated sale prices; ownership form alone does not establish a lower price.

Know the service level before you compare common charges. A part-time-attended lobby with weekday doorman coverage is not the same product as a 24-hour building, and the charges reflect that. Compare like with like.

Add the two-month working capital contribution to your closing costs. It applies at resale closings as well as first sale; confirm the amount and payment responsibility.

Pull the plan and the financials. The offering plan, the reserve position since conversion, the current budget, the completed sponsor scope, and the unit-level rent-regulation history for the specific apartment are all documented. All of them are worth reading before contract.

Model the abatement. LLC and pied-à-terre purchases lose the Co-op/Condo Property Tax Abatement. On a three-million-dollar apartment that is a material monthly difference.

The conversion story is the selling story. BKSK Architects, a full gut and re-plan, a restored landmarked façade, a new rooftop level with two duplex penthouses — this is a documented, high-quality conversion, and buyers who have looked at unrenovated prewar cooperatives all week will recognize the difference immediately.

Market the documented terms. Leasing is permitted with conditions and in-unit laundry is permitted; confirm pied-à-terre, LLC, trust and foreign-purchase rules in the declaration, bylaws and house rules before marketing them.

Be candid about staffing. Buyers coming from full-service buildings will notice. Positioning it honestly — a boutique building with proportionate common charges — converts better than letting it surface at diligence.

Comparables have to be built by hand. With this few trades, an appraiser or a buyer's agent will reach for the surrounding market. Assemble the line-specific and boutique-conversion comparables yourself and put them in front of the buyer rather than letting them be assembled against you.

If you're considering The Marlow, also evaluate:

• 393 West End Avenue — Goldner & Goldner 1927, converted 2022 with CetraRuddy Architects; the larger, full-service version of the same prewar-conversion thesis
• 219 West 81st Street (The Avonova) — Gaetano Ajello prewar building converted to condominium; the closest direct peer two blocks south
• 134 West 82nd Street — prewar low-rise elevator cooperative on the same block; the co-op comparison at identical location
• 139 West 82nd Street — Gronenberg & Leuchtag Renaissance-inspired cooperative, also on the block
• The Rousseau (2280 Broadway / 221 West 82nd Street) — Emery Roth condop around the corner on Broadway; condominium-style rules in a cooperative wrapper
• The Belnord (225 West 86th Street) — 1908 courtyard building converted to condominium; the trophy-scale version of the conversion category
• 215 West 84th Street (The Henry) — Robert A.M. Stern Architects new-construction condominium; the ground-up alternative two blocks north
• 100 West 80th Street (The Orleans) — former hotel converted to condominium; boutique scale, similar buyer profile
• 101 West 87th Street (Park Columbus) — 1980s masonry mid-rise repositioned in a 2013 condominium conversion
• 252 West 85th Street — Schwartz & Gross prewar cooperative; the classic Upper West Side co-op benchmark