- Year built
- 1912
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 13
- Floors
- 10
- Landmark
- No
Every recorded sale at this building, 2019–2026
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $1,982
- Listing discount
- 6.7%
- Recorded sales
- 22
- On record
- 2019–2026
Most of West 17th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues is a loft street that never got landmarked. The Chelsea Historic District and its extension stop several blocks north, around West 20th through West 22nd, and everything below that boundary has been available for the kind of work that produced this building: keep the masonry loft, add floors on top of it, and sell the result as condominiums. That is the whole thesis at 221 West 17th Street, and it is the reason the building exists in its present shape.
The numbers are unusually clean in the public record. A six-story, sixty-foot manufacturing loft with a single dwelling unit of record became a ten-story, 119-foot residential building with thirteen. The alteration was filed in September 2014, approved in July 2015, and fully permitted in January 2017. The first temporary certificate of occupancy issued in February 2019 and sales closings began the following month. The final certificate of occupancy did not issue until April 2022. That is roughly seven and a half years from filing to sign-off for a thirteen-unit conversion, which is a long build even by Manhattan standards, and construction-press coverage from the period reports a fire at the building during the conversion in the autumn of 2015 that damaged upper floors and the roof. The permitting gap between the July 2015 approval and the January 2017 full permit is consistent with that account.
What the buyer gets from that history is a building where four of ten floors are new construction sitting on a retained 1912 masonry frame. The distinction is not cosmetic. The lower floors carry the proportions and the structural grid of the original loft — deep plates, generous ceiling heights, big windows on the street elevation. The penthouse volume is purpose-built residential construction with terraces, and it was designed to take the southern outlook over the low-rise blocks below West 17th Street. The two halves of the building are genuinely different products and should be underwritten as such.
The second thing that separates this building from most of its Chelsea peers is scale. Thirteen residences across roughly 28,500 square feet of residential area is an average of about 2,200 square feet per home. Chelsea's condominium inventory is dominated by one- and two-bedroom stock at half that size. Full-floor and near-full-floor living in a boutique building, on a mid-block Chelsea street, is a narrow product with a correspondingly narrow buyer pool — which cuts both ways on liquidity.
The third is the tax posture, and it is the fact most likely to change a buyer's monthly number. There is no abatement here of any kind. No J-51 was ever taken on this lot, and no exemption appears on the base lot or any of the fourteen unit lots. Buyers who have underwritten 421-a inventory in Hudson Yards or on the far West Side will find the carrying cost at The Dorian meaningfully higher than the purchase price alone implies, and it does not step up on a schedule. It starts where it stays.
Architecture and unit composition
The façade is smooth brick, carried continuously from the retained base up through the added floors rather than expressed as a distinct contemporary cap. The effect is deliberately quiet on a street of masonry lofts — the building reads as a taller version of its neighbors rather than as an insertion. Rogers Partners Architects+Urban Designers carried the design, with Robert Rogers as architect of record on the alteration filing.
The unit stack is legible from the recorded condominium schedule. Floors 2 through 6 carry paired A and B residences; the third floor was offered as a single full-floor home and trades that way. Above that sit four penthouses. Ceiling heights on the loft floors follow the original structure and are high by conversion standards; the penthouse floors carry private outdoor space, and the house rules expressly contemplate grilling on designated terraces and roof terraces, which is rarer in Manhattan condominiums than buyers assume.
The commercial unit occupies the ground floor and the cellar and is roughly 4,500 square feet. It is a separate condominium unit, was sold by the sponsor in 2022, and trades independently of the residences. Buyers should read the commercial-unit rules in the house rules — they impose insurance, disclosure and conduct obligations on the commercial owner and its tenants, and they permitted the sponsor to amend those rules unilaterally while it held unsold units.
Building operations
This is a boutique condominium with a small denominator. Thirteen residences carry the entire fixed cost of the building's operation, and prospective buyers should look at common charges per square foot against the current operating budget rather than against the amenity list. Ask specifically for the reserve position, the schedule of any completed post-completion capital work, and whether any sponsor units remain unsold.
The building is young. Its first temporary certificate issued in 2019 and the final certificate in 2022, which means the operating history that a buyer can actually examine is short and the building has not yet been through a full façade cycle. The rules and regulations on file give the board and managing agent a retained pass-key, restrict roof access to what the board permits, and confine noisy construction work to weekdays and Saturdays between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. — a term worth knowing before planning a renovation.
Policy framework
Ownership form: Condominium. Purchases close through the board's right of first refusal rather than a cooperative approval, which produces predictable 30-to-45-day closing timelines.
Pets: Permitted with board consent — dogs, cats, caged birds and fish, and not more than two per unit without prior written approval. Animals must be carried or leashed in common areas. Violations carry fees set by the board.
Pied-à-terre, subletting, LLC, trust and foreign ownership: Permitted under the standard condominium framework. The house rules prohibit using any unit for transient, hotel or motel purposes, which forecloses short-term rental regardless of what state law permits. Confirm minimum lease terms with the managing agent.
Outdoor space and grilling: Barbecuing is permitted on designated terraces and roof terraces subject to code and to conforming equipment. Nothing may be hung or placed on window sills; roof access beyond a unit's own terrace is at the board's discretion.
Renovation hours: Weekdays and Saturdays, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., excluding legal holidays, except in emergencies.
Flip tax: Not documented in the materials on file. Confirm any resale capital contribution with the managing agent before pricing a sale.
Real estate taxes: No abatement on any unit lot. Underwrite full unabated taxes against the current bill for the specific unit and run True Monthly Carrying Cost analysis, not a projected schedule.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $1,219/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $8
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
See full Local Law 97 analysis — emissions history, scenarios, methodology →Recent sales
The sponsor sold out the residential inventory quickly. Closings ran from March 2019 through August 2019 for twelve of the thirteen residences, with the commercial unit following in 2022. That compressed sellout means the building's original pricing is well documented and closely clustered in time, which is helpful — but it also means the resale record is thin. Fewer than ten resales have been recorded across the building since sellout.
Two structural features shape pricing. First, the split between the retained loft floors and the purpose-built penthouse volume produces two distinct tiers within a thirteen-unit building; penthouse residences with private outdoor space and southern exposure have consistently traded at a premium to the loft-floor plates below, and mixing the two in a comparable set produces misleading results. Second, several residences are held by entities rather than by individuals — trusts and limited liability companies appear repeatedly in the recorded chain, and one affiliated entity family has assembled more than one unit over time. That concentrates the building's ownership somewhat and thins the pool of units likely to come to market in any given year.
The right comparable set is Chelsea's small-format loft-conversion condominiums with large average unit sizes, not the neighborhood's larger new-development towers, whose common charges, amenity loads and tax positions are structurally different. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
Recent closings 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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 5, 2026 | 2A | 2 BR · 2.5 BA · 1,703 sf | $3,375,000 | $1,982/sf | -3.6% |
| Jul 17, 2023 | PH1 | 3 BR · 2,770 sf | $6,250,000 | $2,256/sf | -6.7% |
| Jun 29, 2023 | 4A | 3 BR · 2.5 BA · 1,953 sf | $4,200,000 | $2,151/sf | -4.5% |
| Jul 30, 2021 | PH2 | 3 BR · 3.5 BA · 2,474 sf | $5,800,000 | $2,344/sf | -10.8% |
| Jun 16, 2020 | 3Sponsor Sale | 5 BR · 3.5 BA · 3,443 sf | $6,000,000 | $1,743/sf | -14.2% |
| Dec 30, 2019 | 5A | 3 BR · 3.5 BA · 2,029 sf | $4,200,000 | $2,070/sf | off-mkt |
| Aug 8, 2019 | PH4Sponsor Sale | 3 BR · 3.5 BA · 2,786 sf | $5,925,000 | $2,127/sf | -13.5% |
| Jul 30, 2019 | 2BSponsor Sale | 2 BR · 2.5 BA · 1,942 sf | $2,775,000 | $1,429/sf | -22.9% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $1,982/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 6.7% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Full closing history with price-per-square-foot over time, the complete retrade record, and every line that has traded.
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-00767-7506) 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.
What to know if you’re buying
Know which building you are buying. Six of the ten floors are 1912 masonry loft; four are 2015-to-2019 construction. Ask which category your unit falls in, and read the engineer's report accordingly. The two halves have different structural systems, different window systems and different expected maintenance profiles.
Underwrite full taxes from day one. No J-51, no 421-a, no exemption of any kind, on the base lot or any unit lot. This is the largest single variable between the sticker price and the true monthly cost.
Ask about the 2015 fire. The construction record shows a long permitting gap and a seven-and-a-half-year path from filing to final sign-off, and contemporaneous construction-press coverage attributes it to a fire during the build. Have counsel confirm what was rebuilt, under what filing, and whether any warranty or sponsor obligation survives.
Read the commercial unit's rules. The ground floor and cellar are a separate condominium unit under separate ownership, with its own rules governing insurance, tenant disclosure and hours of operation. Know who the commercial tenant is and what the lease permits.
Thirteen units is a small denominator. Every fixed cost in the building is spread across thirteen homes. Read the budget and the reserve. A single capital event at this scale moves common charges materially.
Both street names are the same building. Marketing materials, city records and recorded deeds variously use 221 West 17th Street and 225 West 17th Street. There is one building, one tax lot and one condominium. Do not let the dual addressing confuse a comparable search.
What to know if you’re selling
Sell the plate. Roughly 2,200 square feet of average residential area in a boutique Chelsea building is the scarce thing here. Buyers cross-shopping smaller new-development stock a few blocks away are not evaluating the same product, and the pitch should make the difference explicit.
Present the tax number yourself. Sophisticated buyers will find the absence of an abatement in diligence. Leading with the full unabated figure alongside a carrying-cost analysis produces better outcomes than letting it surface late.
Penthouse and loft-floor comparables are not interchangeable. With thirteen units and a thin resale record, pricing has to be argued from the correct tier and defended. Expect to reach outside the building for support.
Be ready on the construction history. A long build with a fire in it invites questions. Having the certificate of occupancy history, the sign-off record and the building's post-completion capital file assembled in advance keeps that conversation from becoming a discount.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering The Dorian, also evaluate:
- 201 West 17th Street — Vesta 17, the boutique condominium at the Seventh Avenue end of the same block front
- 257 West 17th Street (The Steiner Building) — the loft-conversion condominium at the Eighth Avenue end of the same street; the closest peer by typology
- 246 West 17th Street — condominium directly opposite; the south-side alternative on the same block
- 151 West 17th Street — Chelsea condominium a block and a half east; different scale, same corridor
- 113 West 17th Street — smaller-format Chelsea condominium for buyers weighing unit size against price
- 224 West 18th Street (The Campiello Collection) — boutique condominium one block north with comparable unit counts
- 214 West 15th Street (The Sebastian) — boutique Chelsea condominium two blocks south; a separate building on a separate block, and a useful counterpoint on scale
- 251 West 14th Street (The Elisa) — the southern edge of the corridor; new-construction alternative at smaller average unit size
- 212 West 18th Street (Walker Tower) — the large-format Chelsea conversion at the top of the market; the benchmark against which loft-conversion product is priced
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Chelsea — read The Roebling Team Guide to Chelsea.
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent.
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