210 West 21st Street

Seven storeys of prewar masonry on a roughly 47-foot frontage — about 25,100 square feet of building on a 4,809-square-foot lot, with a limestone-and-brick front carrying ornamented detail at the base. The building is an elevator house rather than a walk-up, which at seven storeys in 1902 was the point of it. Roughly four apartments to a floor produces a plan of studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms with prewar proportions; listing records report that many apartments retain exposed brick and beamed ceilings.

The Department of Buildings record is small and almost entirely apartment-level: interior renovations, kitchen and bathroom work, and at least one filing converting two bedrooms into one within an existing three-bedroom. There is no history here of large combinations across lines, which is consistent with a plan built around four apartments per landing and a 28-unit share structure that has not changed since conversion.

The J-51 question, and a contradiction in the record. The documents on file disagree with each other, and the disagreement is worth stating plainly because it is the kind of thing a buyer's attorney will find.

The sponsor's June 2011 amendment, in the section addressing the Roberts v. Tishman Speyer decision, states that "the building has never received J-51 tax benefits and there is no present intention to file for such J-51 tax benefits."

The corporation's own audited financial statements, annexed to that same amendment, state that the corporation "is receiving [an] abatement of up to $3,192 per annum, under [the] New York City J-51 program," that "the abatement commenced in the tax year 1994/1995," and that it "will be received through 2005/2006."

The audited financial statements win. They are the corporation's own accounting record, prepared by its independent auditors, and they name the programme, the amount, the start year and the end year. The J-51 abatement at 210 West 21st Street ran from the 1994/1995 tax year through 2005/2006 and has been gone for twenty years. Department of Finance records corroborate the outcome: across every assessment roll from 2010/11 through 2027, the parcel carries no J-51 entry, no 421-a entry, and no exemption of any kind beyond shareholder-level benefits worth a few thousand dollars a year in aggregate. Underwrite the real-estate-tax line at full cost.

The burn-off left a mark on the carrying costs. The amendment on file records that assessments were implemented for each of the years 2006 through 2011 in amounts "equivalent to the Real Estate Tax Abatements" — the co-op/condo abatement then being passed through to eligible shareholders — which is a common device for capturing an abatement at the corporation while leaving shareholder cash flow unchanged. On top of that, a special assessment of $4.00 per share per month was approved effective October 2010 through March 2011 to pay for pointing and sealing the parapet wall.

Capital work. The roof deck was approved and built by the board in September 2009 and is governed by a detailed set of house rules on file — access hours, owners and accompanied guests only, no grilling, no pets, no storage of personal items, and door-locking obligations. The parapet pointing and sealing followed in 2010–11. Beyond that the audited statements show a building running lean: elevator maintenance, fuel, water and sewer, insurance and a modest management fee, with total annual revenues in the low-to-mid hundreds of thousands and stockholders' equity in the region of $560,000 to $590,000 against an accumulated deficit. The auditors carry the standard note that no study of the remaining useful lives of the common property has been conducted and that future needs will be met by borrowing, raising maintenance, assessing, or deferring.

Debt. ACRIS records a refinancing on January 26, 2021: a mortgage of $1,500,000 together with a $250,000 instrument, each accompanied by an assignment of leases and rents. The rate, amortisation and maturity are not documented in anything on file with us. On a 28-unit corporation with 7,233 shares, the terms of the underlying mortgage are the single largest determinant of where maintenance goes next. Ask the managing agent for the note.

Sponsor position — read this before you underwrite. As of the most recent amendment on file, the holder of unsold shares still held the shares allocated to nine apartments — roughly a third of the building — and rented them, funding its maintenance obligation from the rents. The amendment also discloses that an entity related to the sponsor was the managing agent of the corporation, while stating that the sponsor did not control the board and was current on its obligations.

None of that is unusual for a 1980s Chelsea conversion that never fully sold out, and it is not by itself a problem. It is, however, three concrete diligence items. A large sponsor block means a meaningful share of apartments are tenant-occupied, which some lenders test for under owner-occupancy requirements. A related-party management arrangement is a governance question a buyer's attorney should ask about directly. And a sponsor that has held unsold shares for decades may or may not still hold them today — the current sponsor position is the first thing to ask the managing agent, because the answer changes the financing analysis, the board dynamic and the resale pool.

Everything in this section comes from the offering-plan amendments and house rules on file in The Roebling Research Library, with the board resolution dates as recorded. Confirm all of it against current practice before offering — a board can change any of it.

• Flip tax: 2 percent of the selling price, no cap, by board resolution effective September 22, 2004. Which side pays is not stated in the document on file — establish it in writing.
• Subletting: permitted with board approval, reviewed every two years. Fee of 7 percent of the rent charged to the tenant for the first two years of subletting, 15 percent for years after that.
• Move-in fee: $500, non-refundable, effective June 15, 2011.
• Storage lockers: $35 a month.
• Roof deck: open to shareholders and accompanied guests, on posted hours, with no grilling and no pets.
• Financing ceiling, minimum down payment, post-closing liquidity, pets, pied-à-terre ownership, and purchases in a trust or an LLC: none of these is published. They are set by the board and available only from the managing agent. Do not assume the answer from the building's size or era.

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 (2023): a median $1,075/sf across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2025. Median listing discount 0.0% from the last ask.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00770-0048) 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; square footage on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

Ask about the sponsor block first. Nine of twenty-eight apartments were sponsor-held and rented as of the last document on file, under a management arrangement related to the sponsor. Where that stands today determines whether your lender will treat the building as owner-occupied enough to underwrite, and it shapes everything about how the corporation is run. This is the question to ask before you spend money on an appraisal.

Then ask about the mortgage. A $1.5 million underlying mortgage plus a $250,000 instrument was recorded in January 2021. Rate, amortisation and maturity are not in the documents on file. Across 7,233 shares, that loan is the maintenance line.

The flip tax is 2 percent with no cap — price your exit now. On a small building with modest turnover, a 2 percent uncapped transfer fee is a real number at resale. Establish the payer as well as the rate.

The board package is the gate. This is a share purchase: board package, personal interview, board discretion. The financing ceiling and the post-closing liquidity requirement are not published, and on a 28-unit corporation the board will not necessarily follow a Manhattan norm. Get both in writing before you offer, and run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator against your own numbers.

If you plan to sublet, read the policy carefully. Board approval is required, it is reviewed every two years, and the fee steps from 7 percent of rent to 15 percent after the first two years. That is a policy designed to allow occasional subletting and to discourage investors, and it should shape any plan that depends on rental income.

The tax line is full freight. The J-51 is gone and has been since 2005/2006. Do not let a listing history that mentions an abatement mislead your arithmetic.

Lead with the things that are documented. The 2009 roof deck, the parapet work, the flip-tax and sublet resolutions with their dates, and seven years of audited statements make this an easy building to diligence. Assemble that package before the first offer and the deal moves faster.

Correct the landmark question in your own materials. This block is not in the Chelsea Historic District and this building is not designated. Buyers who assume otherwise price in review time and cost that do not exist here.

Be direct about the sponsor position. A buyer's attorney will find it. Volunteering it, with the current number, is worth more than the two weeks it costs you when it surfaces later.

Condition sets the price. Original apartments and renovated apartments in this building are different products. Run the Renovation Cost Calculator against your asking strategy before you set it.

If you're considering 210 West 21st Street, also evaluate:

• 228 West 21st Street — a small cooperative a few doors east on this same tax block; the closest like-for-like on the street
• 125 West 21st Street — The Indigo, the condominium alternative on the same street east of Seventh Avenue
• 153 West 21st Street — Chelsea Green, the new-development condominium on the block
• 240 West 23rd Street — The Arcadia, an 1899 loft building converted to a cooperative in 1984
• 315 West 23rd Street — The Broadmoor, the 1926 full-service prewar cooperative; the step up in scale and services
• 121 West 20th Street — an 1890s loft converted to condominium in 1991; the loft alternative
• 129 West 20th Street — The Chelsea Quarter, an early-century building converted around 2000
• 130 West 20th Street — Prima, the 2008 ground-up condominium; the new-construction alternative
• 422 West 20th Street — the Chelsea Historic District condominium on the Seminary block; the designated counterpoint to this address