205 East 59th Street

The building occupies a corner lot with roughly 80 feet of frontage on the east side of Third Avenue and about 20 feet on East 59th Street — a site the offering plan puts at roughly 10,000 square feet, against 8,434 in PLUTO for the condominium billing lot. The plan's floor scheme runs subcellar, cellar, first (lobby), third, and then fifth through Penthouse 27, with numbers skipped along the way; the first two levels are roughly twenty-and-a-half-foot double-height retail volumes designed to let a tenant build a mezzanine. That is why the plan's floor count and the Department of Buildings' 25 stories do not agree, and why marketing records for the building have carried 25, 26, 27 and 28 at various times. Twenty-five is the structural number.

Residential circulation is served by two passenger elevators at the central core plus a service elevator on the south side, with two scissor stairs. Above the retail base the tower runs three residences to a floor from the seventh through the twenty-sixth, with the penthouse at the top and the superintendent's unit on the sixth. The east and west elevations curve; corner glass and the Queensboro Bridge outlook to the south and east are the building's distinguishing views. Every residence was delivered with a washer and dryer and a decorative gas fireplace, both unusual for a building of this vintage at this price point.

The commercial base is a separate condominium unit, retained by the sponsor and never offered for sale. The offering plan is explicit that the Board has no right to approve or restrict its use — restaurant use included — and that the residential rules may not be amended in a way that adversely affects it without the commercial owner's written consent. On a Third Avenue retail corner, that is a real allocation of control and a buyer should read it before assuming the base will always be what it is today.

The lobby is attended around the clock. The staffing model in the offering plan is a resident superintendent, two porters, a handyman, and rotating concierge attendants covering the lobby 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The amenity program is compact and concentrated on the fifth floor: a fitness room with a kitchenette and half bath, a common laundry room, and the landscaped terrace and sun deck, which architectural records put at roughly 5,800 square feet and which includes a covered dog run. Residential storage sits at the subcellar. The plan states plainly that there are no other common recreational facilities and no parking.

The fifth floor and its terrace were comprehensively renovated in a capital cycle that ran from a roughly $920,000 assessment levied in December 2019 through a construction contract awarded in February 2021 and completed that year. Capital spending has been light since — additions to property and equipment of about $27,000 in 2023 against roughly $195,000 in 2022, and no major repairs expense in 2023.

The financial picture at the most recent year-end on file is straightforward. The condominium ran an operating surplus in 2023 after a deficit in 2022, and carried cash of roughly $563,000 against members' equity of roughly $1.06 million. There is no designated reserve fund and no reserve study, and the governing documents do not require the condominium to accumulate funds for future major repairs. The Board's stated approach is to fund capital work from cash, common-charge increases, special assessments, borrowing, or deferral. That is common in condominiums of this size and vintage, and it is the single most important thing to price into a purchase here: the building has no designated reserve, so the next envelope or mechanical cycle would be funded from cash, common-charge increases, a special assessment or borrowing.

Ownership form: Condominium, fee simple. There is no ground lease or leasehold anywhere in the documents on file.

Transfers: Sale and leasing are unrestricted as to the buyer or tenant, subject only to the Board's right of first refusal at the same price and terms. The Board's remedy is to buy or lease the unit itself, not to reject the purchaser — which produces faster and more predictable closings than a cooperative approval process. The right may be waived by the Board and does not apply to transfers to a spouse, child, parent or sibling, or to units owned by the sponsor.

Leasing: Permitted. Leases must conform to the by-laws, may not be modified, extended or assigned without written Board consent, and tenants may not sublet without written Board consent. The Board may terminate a lease or bring a summary proceeding in the owner's name on default.

Alterations: The Board must answer a written alteration request within 30 days; silence is treated as consent. An alteration agreement is on file.

Pets and pied-à-terre: No pet provision and no residency restriction appear in the offering plan or by-laws on file. Both would sit in the house rules, which are not in the document set on file — confirm the current rules with the managing agent.

Flip tax: None documented. No flip tax, transfer fee or resale capital contribution appears in the offering plan or by-laws on file.

Working capital: Two months of common charges at closing.

Sponsor control: The offering plan reserved the sponsor's right to designate a Board majority for up to five years after the first closing, with the cover-page warning that owner-occupants might never control the Board. The sponsor relinquished Board control on August 23, 2010, per the most recent amendment on file.

Real estate taxes — no exemption. The offering plan records that a partial exemption under Section 421-a of the Real Property Tax Law was applied for, with benefits to be retroactive to July 1, 2004. Whatever benefit ran has ended. No exemption of any kind — 421-a, J-51, or otherwise — appears on any of the building's 62 residential unit lots in Department of Finance exemption records for tax years 2021 through 2027, and the FY2027 assessment roll shows zero exempt value on every unit lot. That does not rule out a bill-level abatement, so check the specific unit's tax bill, and note separately that units held by an LLC or other business entity, and units that are not the owner's primary residence, generally do not qualify for the New York City co-op and condo property tax abatement; a trust-held unit can qualify if it is the primary residence of the trustee, all of the trust's beneficiaries, or the life estate holder.

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 (2026 to date) cleared a median $1,488/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. 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 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 1-01414-7502; 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.

Confirm the sponsor's current holding. The most recent financial statements on file show 18 of 62 residential units, the commercial unit, and 27 storage units still in sponsor hands and rented. Ask the managing agent for the number as of today, and ask your lender how it treats single-entity concentration and owner-occupancy in this building.

Check the unit's tax bill. The records show no 421-a, no J-51, and no other exemption on any residential unit lot; abatements apply at the bill level, so confirm the specific unit's bill. If the unit will be held in an LLC or used as a second home, the city's co-op and condo abatement is generally unavailable as well; a trust qualifies only if the unit is the primary residence of the trustee, all beneficiaries, or the life estate holder.

Establish which windows are protected. The perpetual light-and-air easement runs over the property to the south only. The north side has no protection. Get the specific unit's exposures and lot-line windows identified before contract.

Read the reserve position, not the reserve line. There is no designated reserve fund and no reserve study, and the by-laws do not require one. Ask for the current budget, the last three years of capital spending, and the Board's plan for the next façade cycle.

Understand the retail base. The commercial unit is a separate, sponsor-held condominium unit whose use the residential Board cannot control, on one of the busiest retail corners on the East Side. Restaurant use is expressly contemplated in the plan.

Test the corner at street level. Third Avenue at 59th is a working intersection — bus routes, Bloomingdale's loading, the Lexington Avenue subway complex a block west, and the Queensboro Bridge ramps. Visit at rush hour, not midday.

Lead with the corner and the light. A 25-story tower with three apartments a floor, curved corner glass, bridge outlooks, and a protected southern exposure is a specific product. That is the argument the prewar co-ops on the surrounding blocks cannot make.

Be direct about the tax posture up front. Sophisticated buyers will find the unabated line themselves. Presenting it with a True Monthly Carrying Cost analysis produces a better outcome than letting it surface in diligence.

Address the sponsor block before it is raised. The rental component is public in the amendments and the audited statements. A seller who has the current figure, the sponsor's mortgage position, and the lender picture in hand controls that conversation.

Price by line, not by building average. With three residences per floor across twenty tower floors, outdoor space, exposure and floor drive the spread far more than the building average does.

If you're considering 205 East 59th Street, also evaluate:

• 200 East 59th Street — 2018 new-construction condominium directly across the street; the newest alternative on the same block front
• Bridge Tower Place (401 East 60th Street) — 218-residence full-service condominium of 2000, the larger and more amenitized alternative a few blocks east
• 303 East 60th Street (Evans View) — 157-residence 1980s condominium; the older, lower-priced condominium comparable in the same pocket
• 1059 Third Avenue (The Leyton) — 38-residence 2021 new construction; the current-vintage boutique condominium alternative on Third Avenue
• Place 57 (207 East 57th Street) — 2005 condominium of almost exactly the same vintage; the closest peer by delivery year
• 212 East 57th Street — 2004 condominium; the other same-vintage boutique tower in the corridor
• 252 East 57th Street — 2016 tower whose for-sale residences sit above a rental base; a useful comparison for how a mixed ownership structure prices
• 117 East 57th Street (The Galleria) — 253-residence 1975 condominium; the large full-service alternative with a very different cost base
• The Landmark (300 East 59th Street) — 207-residence cooperative on the same street; the co-op alternative, with entirely different policy and financing rules
• Blair House (200 East 58th Street) — 1963 building converted to condominium in 1986; the postwar-conversion alternative nearby