215 West 98th Street (The Gramont)

The building is a genuine corner property, with the long elevation on West 98th Street and the short one on Broadway, and the Blums used the depth to cut two light courts into the 98th Street side. The entrance sits between them, in a landscaped court, under an arched stained-glass pavilion — an arrangement that gives the building a residential address on a side street while its base earns retail rent on the avenue. The annex at 207 West 98th Street continues the frontage east of the main house and shares the tax lot and the cooperative; its apartment lines are lettered differently and generally smaller, and they trade at a distinctly lower band than the main-house lines.

The apartment stock is prewar in the substantive sense rather than the marketing one. Six apartments per floor on a plate this large yields real room counts and real proportions: entry foyers, separated public and private wings, kitchens with windows rather than vents. Ceiling heights around ten feet are documented in listing records and are visible in the window rhythm from the street. Decorative fireplaces survive in a number of apartments.

The wings are the thing to walk before contract. A deep court gives interior rooms genuine light and air by 1911 standards, which is better than an airshaft and worse than open exposure; the difference between a court-facing bedroom and a Broadway-facing one is real, and it is the largest single driver of value inside the building. Broadway lines carry the light and the avenue noise together.

The Gramont is a full-service, doorman-staffed prewar cooperative with union building staff. Operations are funded by maintenance on the cooperative side and by common charges on the condominium side, with the residential unit carrying 92 percent of the condominium's common interest — so in practice the shareholders bear almost all of the building's operating expense, and the six commercial units carry the rest.

The reviewed capital history includes a façade program; its dated completion report does not establish current condition or the absence of further work. The condominium ran a cornice and Local Law 11 restoration program across 2020 and 2021, funded by capital assessments in both years totalling roughly $3.2 million, with the work reported completed and paid from the assessment and reserves. A separate operating assessment in 2021 covered an insurance increase. Maintenance rose 5.79 percent effective January 2022 and a further 4.5 percent effective January 2023. A roof replacement was in planning as of the most recent amendment on file, with costs not yet determined.

The reviewed documents describe historical capital spending funded by assessments and reserves, including the 2020–2021 façade program. They do not establish present façade condition, remaining obligations or a low-debt ranking. The December 2020 refinancing was documented at $9 million and 3%, maturing January 1, 2031. Verify current terms and balance, and model several maturity-funding scenarios over the buyer's actual holding period without assuming a cost ranking or future rate. The reviewed statement reports combined reserve, escrow and operating balances above $1.8 million against an annual budget near $3.9 million, with a recurring reserve contribution. The reporting year is not specified here; separate restricted and operating cash from available reserves and obtain current balances and commitments.

Two caveats. The condominium has not commissioned a reserve study, and the auditors note the absence of the required supplementary information on future major repairs — common in New York but worth knowing. And the roof project was still unpriced as of the last filing reviewed, which means one more capital event is probably ahead.

Ownership form: Cooperative shares in Gramont Owners Corp., which owns the residential condominium unit. Purchases require board approval and a board package; expect a cooperative timeline rather than a condominium one.

Financing, minimum down payment, subletting, and pied-à-terre use: Governed by the cooperative's house rules and board policy. None of these terms is documented in the amendments reviewed for this page. Confirm each one in writing with the managing agent before making an offer — the condominium wrapper does not make this a condominium, and assuming condominium flexibility here is the most expensive mistake available at this address.

Pets: Permitted per listing and management-sourced records; confirm limits in the house rules.

Air conditioning: Through-the-wall and protruding units are permitted, which is not universal in prewar buildings of this vintage and materially affects the cost of making an apartment comfortable.

Sponsor units: Twenty apartments remained sponsor-held as of the most recent amendment on file, some sublet. Ask the managing agent for the current count, and ask your lender how it treats sponsor concentration.

Recent sales

Recent transfers 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. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2025): a median $1,061/sf (floor-adjusted) across 2 sales. The building has traded as recently as 2026. Median listing discount 1.7% 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 1-01870-7502). 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 on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

This is a condop, and you are buying co-op shares. Board package, board approval, board financing rules. Every automated data source will tell you it is a condominium. It is not.

Confirm financing, sublet and pied-à-terre policy in writing. They are not in the public filings and they are the terms most likely to be misrepresented by third-party data.

Update the façade and roof record. The reviewed amendment reported the 2020–2021 façade program complete and the roof replacement still in planning. Ask for current scope, inspections, bids, completion records and any declared or proposed assessment.

The underlying mortgage matures January 1, 2031. Model a refinance at a market rate and see what it does to maintenance.

Ask for the current sponsor unit count. Twenty as of the last amendment reviewed; the number moves, and it matters to your lender.

Search all four addresses. 215 West 98th Street, 207 West 98th Street, 2600 Broadway and 2610 Broadway are one tax lot. Older recordings appear under all of them.

Do not confuse this with the buildings on the next block. Ariel West (245 West 99th Street) and Ariel East (2628 Broadway) sit on block 1871 and are 2007 new-construction condominiums with nothing in common with this building but a subway stop.

If you're considering The Gramont, also evaluate:

• 240 West 98th Street (The Sabrina) — the closest peer: large prewar building on the same street, converted to ownership, with a substantial sponsor block
• 255 West 98th Street — 1912–13 Gaetan Ajello cooperative half a block west, inside the historic district
• 305 West 98th Street — prewar cooperative alternative toward Riverside Drive
• 311 West 97th Street — prewar cooperative one block south, comparable room scale
• The Terra Cotta (780 West End Avenue) — prewar West End Avenue condominium; the ownership-form alternative in the same catchment
• 275 West 96th Street (The Columbia) — large full-service Broadway condominium two blocks south, for buyers weighing prewar rooms against modern systems
• 2681 Broadway (The Broadmoor) — large Broadway-corridor prewar cooperative to the north
• 251 West 89th Street (The Admaston) — prewar condominium in the same architectural generation, further south
• 100 West 93rd Street (Leader House) — postwar full-service condominium alternative between the two markets