201 East 83rd Street (Saxon Towers)

The building is a plain, well-proportioned 1964 tower: red brick over a one-story white brick base, a canopied residential entrance mid-block on East 83rd Street, and continuous retail wrapping the Third Avenue corner. It carries no landmark designation and sits in no historic district — verified by lot against the Landmarks Preservation Commission's database — which means window replacement, façade treatment and rooftop work here proceed as ordinary alterations rather than through a Certificate of Appropriateness. On a building facing a fifty-year cycle of envelope and energy work, that freedom is worth more than it sounds.

The original mix ran studios through three-bedrooms across A through G lines, with the larger lines at the corners. What exists today is the result of two decades of combining. The Department of Buildings record shows single-line combinations on nearly every floor and full-line combinations on the 14th, 16th, 17th and 18th floors, and the recorded share transfers carry designations like 14ABC, 16ABG, 9DEF and 8CD. The building therefore holds two distinct products: the original small lines, largely unchanged, and a set of large combined homes on the upper floors with open outlooks north, east and south over lower Yorkville rooftops. Upper-floor light is genuine here — at eighteen stories the building sits above most of its immediate neighbors.

Ceiling heights and finishes are postwar rather than prewar: efficient plans, real closets, no fireplaces, no moldings of consequence. What the building offers instead is central air conditioning through a chilled-water system rather than window units, which is uncommon in this vintage and which the building reinvested in as recently as 2017.

Saxon Towers runs as a full-service cooperative: 24-hour doorman, live-in resident manager, a union staff under the Local 32BJ agreement, a renovated roof deck, basement laundry and bicycle storage. There is no garage and no fitness facility. Real estate taxes are by a wide margin the single largest line in the budget — larger than labor — which is characteristic of a converted postwar cooperative on a high-value commercial corner and which is why the tax abatement mechanics below matter.

Capital posture, from the audited financial statements on file. The cooperative funds major work by assessment rather than from a large reserve, and it has said so plainly. The auditor's report notes that the governing documents do not require the accumulation of reserve funds and that no reserve study has been performed; invested reserves at the most recent year-end on file stood in the low six figures against operating cash of several hundred thousand dollars. Against that, the assessment record is disciplined and disclosed:

• A capital assessment approved in January 2018 at approximately $9.00 per share, payable over twelve months, funding the gas conversion project.
• A capital assessment approved in August 2020 at approximately $10.36 per share, payable over fifteen months, funding the exterior and roof project — a project to which the corporation was committed at roughly $1.29 million.
• A supplemental assessment approved in March 2021 at approximately $4.36 per share, payable over nine months, funding the continuation of that same exterior and roof project.
• A recurring operating assessment in the range of $1.60 per share. The board's stated policy is to refund the New York City cooperative/condominium tax abatement to shareholders at approximately the same time the operating assessment is charged — so the two roughly offset for an abatement-eligible primary resident, and do not offset for a purchaser who is not.

The envelope is not finished. The Department of Buildings record shows façade and roof repairs permitted in 2020, a sidewalk shed installed in 2025, and a new façade repair filing covering floors one through eighteen permitted in 2026, with suspended scaffold outriggers and supported pipe scaffold. Any buyer in 2026 should assume a live capital cycle and ask directly whether a further assessment has been approved or is contemplated.

Underlying debt. The financial statements on file record a first mortgage originally $2,500,000 at 3.66 percent, maturing July 1, 2023 with a balloon of roughly $1,967,000, alongside a $1,000,000 revolving credit line that had not been drawn. ACRIS shows the cooperative refinanced ahead of that maturity: the prior debt was satisfied in November 2022 and replaced with a $2,100,000 first mortgage and a $500,000 credit line. Both the mortgage and the line came down. For a building of this size that is conservative leverage, and it is the strongest single item on the balance sheet.

Commercial income. The entire commercial and professional space is let under a single master commercial lease that commenced January 10, 1985 at an annual rent of $139,000 with two percent annual increases. The lessee exercised the first ten-year renewal option effective January 10, 2015, and a 2017 amendment created a third five-year option in exchange for $300,000 of additional rent paid in installments through 2019. Commercial income runs a bit above a tenth of total revenue. The first renewal term ran through January 2025, at which point the second ten-year option came up for decision — a buyer today should ask the managing agent whether that option was exercised, at what rent, and whether the tenancy or the sublets beneath it have changed.

Everything below is taken from the cooperative's purchase application, house rules and audited financial statements on file in The Roebling Research Library.

Board package. The application requires the contract of sale; the bank commitment letter, loan application and recognition agreement where there is financing; two years of income tax returns; reference letters from the current landlord, from the employer stating base salary and position, and from banks; at least two personal references; and business and professional references. Two collated sets are required, with social security numbers redacted on the board's set. The application is circulated to an Admissions Committee.

Background screening. The board requires a criminal background search on all applicants and reserves the right to obtain a consumer and tenant screening report. Both are disclosed in the application. This is more screening than most postwar Upper East Side cooperatives run, and applicants should expect the process to take longer accordingly.

Flip tax. $3.50 per share, payable to the corporation by the seller. Because the flip tax is share-based rather than price-based, it is a fixed dollar amount per apartment that does not move with the sale price — favorable in a strong market, less so in a weak one. Get your share count and multiply.

Subletting. Prohibited for two years from the closing of title, by board resolution, with the purchaser acknowledging the restriction in the application itself. Sublet terms after that period are not stated in the materials on file.

Pets. Permitted only with the express written permission of the corporation, revocable at any time, under house rule 15. Do not treat a neighbor's dog as evidence of a pet-friendly policy.

House rules of practical consequence. Construction and repair work is confined to weekdays, excluding legal holidays, between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Window air-conditioning units and ventilators require express approval. Terrace and balcony plantings are governed by a detailed containment and drainage rule. Deliveries and heavy items move through the service entrance.

Not documented, and required before offering: the maximum financing percentage; the post-closing liquidity requirement; the pied-à-terre position; whether trusts, limited liability companies, guarantors and co-purchasers are entertained; and the alteration agreement terms. Ask for all of them in writing.

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 (2022): a median $888/sf across 2 sales. The building has traded as recently as 2026. Median listing discount 3.5% 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 1-01529-0001) 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.

Ask about sponsor-held shares first. At the most recent year-end covered by the financial statements on file, the original sponsor entity still held roughly nineteen percent of the corporation's shares. Sponsor concentration affects lender eligibility — some agency and portfolio programs cap sponsor-held units — and it affects governance. Ask the managing agent for the current sponsor share count and unit list before you apply for financing, not after.

Assume the façade project is live. There is a permitted façade repair filing covering all eighteen floors dated 2026, on top of the 2020 exterior and roof project and the assessments that funded it. Ask what has been approved, what remains, and how it will be funded.

Understand the flip tax math now. $3.50 per share is a fixed cost per apartment. On a small line it is nominal; on a large combined apartment carrying several thousand shares it is a real number, and it is the seller's to pay — which means it will show up in your own eventual exit math.

Two years before you can sublet. If your plan involves flexibility, this building is the wrong one. The restriction is a board resolution acknowledged in writing at application.

Budget the extra screening time. Criminal background search plus tenant screening plus an Admissions Committee is a longer process than a standard postwar board. Build the timeline into your contract.

The tax line is the building's biggest expense. Real estate taxes exceed labor here. Model the carrying cost against the current bill, and run the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator rather than the maintenance figure alone.

Sell the systems, not the vintage. Central chilled-water air conditioning, a 2017 plant replacement, a completed gas conversion and a funded exterior and roof program are a better story than a 1964 build date. The assessment history is evidence of stewardship, not of trouble, and it should be presented that way.

Lead with the combination if you have one. A combined upper-floor apartment here belongs in a different comparable set than the rest of the building. Market it against condominium and larger cooperative inventory on the corridor, not against the building average.

Present the flip tax up front. It is yours to pay, it is fixed per share, and buyers' attorneys will find it. Disclose it with the share count attached.

Have the diligence file ready. Financial statements, the assessment history, the current façade scope and the sponsor share position will all be requested. Assembling them before listing shortens contract-to-close materially in a building with an Admissions Committee.

If you're considering Saxon Towers, also evaluate:

• 200 East 84th Street — 1961 cooperative one block north; the closest peer by vintage, scale and corridor
• 235 East 87th Street (The Plymouth House) — 1962 cooperative in Yorkville; the same postwar full-service product a few blocks north
• 140 East 83rd Street — 1961 cooperative on the same street closer to Lexington; same era, quieter block, different price tier
• 215 East 80th Street — early-1960s building held as a condominium; the condominium alternative at similar vintage
• 201 East 80th Street (The Richmond) — a 1926 warehouse converted to residential use; the loft-style alternative on the corridor
• 151 East 83rd Street — 1929 building converted to cooperative in 1986; the prewar co-op alternative on the same street
• 112 East 83rd Street — 1929 prewar cooperative; smaller, older, and a very different policy framework
• 1538 Third Avenue (The Gotham) — 1991 full-service building on the same avenue; the newer alternative with condominium-era finishes
• 200 East 83rd Street — 2021 new construction directly across the street; the new-development comparison that sets the ceiling on the block
• 205 East 85th Street (The Brompton) — full-service condominium two blocks north; the amenity-rich condominium alternative