Étage (176 East 82nd Street)

ODA's elevation is a stack of horizontal stone bands alternating with ribbon glazing, wrapping the wider East 82nd Street face and the narrower Third Avenue face and terminating in a flat parapet. The banding does real work at the scale of a small building: it disguises the sill and head heights of the fenestration, which reads the elevation as taller and more continuous than a ten-story punched-window building would. The design has not been universally admired — the horizontal banding drew comparisons to earlier decades when the building topped out — but it is a coherent and consistently executed idea rather than a value-engineered default.

Inside, the plan is as simple as a Manhattan floor plan gets. Floors two through nine are single residences of approximately 2,371 square feet; the penthouse is approximately 2,467. The elevator is key-locked and opens into the apartment. Ceilings run to roughly nine feet. Kitchens are custom in white lacquer and dark oak with marble counters and islands and Miele appliances; laundry is in-unit.

The mechanical specification is worth knowing before contract. Residences are conditioned by through-wall PTAC units rather than by a central or ducted system, and the by-laws on file confirm that residents pay their PTAC gas and cooking gas directly to the utility. PTACs are individually controllable; they are also audible, they occupy wall space, and they age on a shorter replacement cycle than ducted equipment, so ask the age of the units in the apartment. On a corner site on Third Avenue, the acoustic question is worth testing at rush hour rather than midday.

Because the building occupies a narrow corner lot, exposures concentrate on the north and east — East 82nd Street and Third Avenue. Buyers should confirm which windows in the building are lot-line windows and what the development potential is on the abutting parcels to the south and west.

Étage runs as a small full-service condominium: an attended lobby with doorman coverage, a fitness center, a common laundry room, private cellar storage and a rooftop terrace with an outdoor kitchen. Assess staffing and amenity costs against the actual budget and the residential/retail expense allocations.

Even so, the denominator is the operative fact. Establish how staffing, insurance, the elevator contract, roof and façade costs are allocated among the nine residential interests and retail unit; the declaration may treat expense categories differently. Common charges per square foot should be evaluated against the actual budget rather than against the amenity list, and a buyer should ask specifically about the reserve position, any assessment history, and the status of the sponsor's obligations under the plan.

Sponsor financing for the project came from a $26,350,000 construction loan closed in December 2018, disclosed in the second amendment to the offering plan on file. That facility was structured to be released unit by unit at closing and was subordinated to the declaration at the first closing; with the full sellout completed by 2022, it is of historical interest rather than current concern, but it explains the building's late-cycle delivery.

Ownership form: Condominium. Purchases close through the board's right of first refusal rather than a cooperative approval.

Pied-à-terre, subletting, LLC, trust and foreign ownership: Not documented; confirm in the declaration, bylaws and house rules. Leasing terms, including any minimum term, should be confirmed with the managing agent.

Pets: Not documented in the records reviewed. Confirm with the managing agent and obtain the house rules.

Smoking: Permitted inside residences and on unit terraces only, provided smoke and odor do not escape the unit. Prohibited throughout the common elements — lobby, hallways, elevators, stairwells, basement, storage areas and rooftop — and within twenty-five feet of the building entrance. The policy sits in Section 6.28 of the by-laws and is distributed annually under Local Law 147 of 2017.

Flip tax: Not documented in the records reviewed. Confirm any resale capital contribution with the managing agent before pricing a sale.

Real estate taxes: No abatement on the building. Eight of the nine residences are taxed at full assessment. The ninth carries an exemption that runs with its nonprofit institutional owner and not with the apartment; a purchaser of that unit would be taxed at full assessment. Underwrite full unabated taxes on any residence here, and run True Monthly Carrying Cost analysis against the current bill.

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 (2022) cleared a median $1,927/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. Median listing discount 4.2% 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 1-01510-7503; 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.

Do not read the PLUTO year built as delivery. It reports 2017. DOB issued the first temporary certificate of occupancy in May 2020, and the first closing was June 2020. For valuation models and building-age comparisons, distinguish the recorded construction field from the 2020 occupancy and closing milestones; insurance and warranty terms depend on the applicable policy and offering plan. Ask the managing agent where the final certificate of occupancy stands.

Do not read the exemption on the tax lot as a building benefit. One residence carries a large exemption because a nonprofit institution owns it. That benefit attaches to the owner. There is no 421-a, 485-x or J-51 on this building, and eight of nine residences pay full unabated taxes today.

Check the expense allocation. The condominium has nine residential units plus a retail unit. Read the declaration and budget to establish each interest’s share of operating costs, project costs and any assessment, alongside reserves and assessment history.

Test the PTACs and the avenue. Through-wall units on a Third Avenue corner are the two variables most likely to differ from expectation. Visit at rush hour with the windows closed and then open.

Check the lot-line windows. The lot is 25 feet wide. Confirm which openings are lot-line windows and what could be built on the abutting parcels.

Confirm pets and any transfer fee in writing. Neither is documented in the public record for this building.

Search under both addresses. City records split between 176 East 82nd Street and 1444 Third Avenue. Search both aliases and the parcel identifiers, and deduplicate overlapping records.

Lead with the floor, not the finishes. A private-landing, full-floor, four-bedroom condominium of roughly 2,400 square feet east of Lexington is a short list. That scarcity is the argument, and no amount of kitchen specification competes with it.

Position against the co-ops on the merits. Your most likely buyer is someone who has just been through, or is dreading, a prewar cooperative board package. Condominium tenure and no co-op board interview are the differentiators, and they are worth stating explicitly. Confirm financing, leasing and pied-à-terre rules in the current declaration, bylaws and house rules before marketing them.

Get ahead of the tax number. There is no abatement and sophisticated buyers will find that quickly. Presenting the full unabated figure alongside a True Monthly Carrying Cost analysis produces better outcomes than letting it surface late in diligence.

Present the construction chronology. Public data says 2017, while the first certificate of occupancy and first closing came in 2020. Provide the relevant records so a buyer can distinguish construction, occupancy and conveyance dates.

Expect thin same-building comparables. With nine residences and a 2020–22 sellout, floor-specific and neighborhood-wide new-development analysis will carry more weight than any building average.

If you're considering Étage, also evaluate:

• 167 East 82nd Street (Merritt House) — prewar building converted to condominium on the block directly north; the closest alternative by address and an entirely different vintage and plate logic
• 175 East 82nd Street — CetraRuddy Architects' new-construction condominium at the same Third Avenue and East 82nd Street intersection; the most direct comparison there is
• 122 East 82nd Street — prewar cooperative on the same street west of Lexington; the co-op alternative with entirely different policy and financing rules
• 108 East 82nd Street — prewar cooperative closer to Park Avenue; the block's other end and the block's other economics
• ARLOPARC (126 East 86th Street) — 28-residence new-construction condominium four blocks north; the closest peer on vintage, tax posture and half- and full-floor layouts
• 200 East 83rd Street — Robert A.M. Stern Architects' 2021 tower one block north at Third Avenue; the traditionally detailed new-construction alternative on the same avenue
• The Hayworth (1289 Lexington Avenue) — 2019 new construction on Lexington; the nearest peer by delivery date and corridor
• 180 East 88th Street (DDG) — Carnegie Hill new-construction condominium tower; larger, taller and a very different architectural argument
• 389 East 89th Street — built as a rental in 2002 and converted to condominium in 2016; the Yorkville conversion alternative
• 20 East End Avenue — Robert A.M. Stern Architects' traditionally detailed new construction on the far east side; lower density, further from transit