229 West 97th Street (The Powellton)
229 West 97th Street, New York, NY 10025
Upper West Side
BBL 1018697501 · BIN 1075313
- Year built
- 1901
- Type
- Condop
- Units
- 55
- Floors
- 7
- Landmark
- No
- Pets
- Permitted, cats and dogs, per management-sourced records
Every recorded sale at this building, 2003–2026
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $998
- Listing discount
- 4.6%
- Recorded sales
- 49
- On record
- 2003–2026
The Powellton is a condop, and almost nothing written about it says so. City data classifies the tax lot as a condominium because the wrapper is one; brokerage descriptions call it a co-op because the apartments are sold as shares. Both are half right, and the half that gets dropped is the half a buyer needs.
Here is the actual structure, from the recorded documents. In January 1988 the owner of the building declared a condominium of seven units — call them a residential unit and six commercial-and-other units. Two months later the residential unit, roughly 66,500 square feet holding 55 apartments, was deeded to 229 Owners Corp., a newly formed cooperative housing corporation. The commercial units on Broadway were sold off separately in 1988 and 1989 to unrelated owners, where they remain. One additional residential apartment of roughly 1,200 square feet was carved out as its own condominium unit and sold in 1989; it has changed hands twice since and is still owned outside the cooperative.
That structure has three consequences a buyer should price. First, you are buying shares, so this is a board-approval purchase with a board package, an interview, and a co-op closing timeline — not the right-of-first-refusal process a condominium would give you. Second, the cooperative has no commercial income. Many prewar Broadway co-ops are subsidized by their own retail; The Powellton's retail was sold away at conversion, which means maintenance carries the entire operating cost with no rent roll behind it. Third, the condominium wrapper means the cooperative is not exposed to the federal 80/20 test that constrains ordinary co-ops with heavy commercial rent — a technical benefit, but one that only exists because the retail was severed in the first place.
The building itself predates all of this by nearly ninety years. In 1900 Catharine Wilson commissioned William H. Boylan to design a seven-story apartment house on the northeast corner of Broadway and 97th Street; his plans were filed in January 1901 at a construction cost of $275,000 and the building opened the following year. Boylan's move was to cut deep light courts into the 97th Street elevation so the building reads as three separate structures, then to reconnect them with single-story arcades at the base. It is why the apartments have real cross-light and real air on a corner lot that could easily have been built solid, and it is the reason the interiors still hold ten-to-twelve-foot ceilings and oversized windows more than a century later.
The capital picture is the quiet strength. The cooperative refinanced its underlying mortgage in June 2025 to a consolidated $1.6 million — roughly $29,000 per apartment. For a 55-unit prewar building on the Upper West Side that is unusually light debt, and it is the single most useful number a buyer can put next to the maintenance figure on a listing.
Architecture and unit composition
Boylan built to the full corner: roughly 101 feet on Broadway by 150 feet along West 97th Street, irregular, carrying about 72,500 square feet of building area of which roughly 67,700 is residential and 4,800 commercial. Seven stories, beige brick, limestone trim, neo-Renaissance detailing, and the tripartite 97th Street elevation created by the light courts.
The apartment stock is prewar in the terms that matter. Ceiling heights are reported at ten to twelve feet, windows are oversized, floors are hardwood, and decorative fireplaces survive in a number of residences. Renovated apartments commonly carry exposed brick and restored moldings. Layouts are irregular — the light courts mean that no two lines on a floor are quite alike, and the Broadway-facing rooms have a different acoustic and light profile from the 97th Street rooms and the court-facing rooms.
Combination history is real here and is worth understanding before you tour. Department of Buildings filings from 2003 forward record apartment combinations, and the unit counts reported on those filings drift between 55 and 61 across two decades — the signature of a building whose apartment count has been reduced by mergers. Listing records show merged unit designations. The practical effect is that the building's large apartments are assembled rather than original, and that the floor plan you are looking at may not repeat anywhere else in the building. Line-to-line comparison is unreliable at The Powellton in a way that it is not at a building with a uniform stack.
Building operations
The cooperative runs a full-service prewar operation: a restored lobby, a full-time doorman, a live-in superintendent, central laundry, bicycle storage and private storage, per management-sourced records. There is no fitness center, garage or roof deck documented in city or management-sourced records — this is a service building, not an amenity building, and its maintenance should be evaluated on that basis.
Two operating facts deserve weight at diligence. The first is the absence of commercial income already discussed: the Broadway storefronts belong to third parties and contribute nothing to the cooperative's budget. The second is the low underlying debt — a consolidated $1.6 million as of June 2025, refinanced from a prior facility that had been carried since the early 2000s. Low leverage gives a board room to fund capital work by borrowing rather than by assessment, which matters in a 1901 building where façade and roof cycles are permanent line items.
The building has carried Local Law façade work in the past, including a filing in 2014. Ask for the current LL11 cycle status, the reserve balance, and the assessment history in the same request.
Policy framework
Ownership form: Condop. Purchases are cooperative share transactions with a board package, board interview and board approval. Budget the longer timeline a co-op purchase requires.
Pets: Permitted, cats and dogs, per management-sourced records.
Subletting: Permitted, and characterized as liberal in management-sourced records. Confirm the current term limit and sublet fee with the managing agent — sublet policy is the most frequently amended house rule in any cooperative.
Pied-à-terre, parents buying, gifting and guarantors: All permitted per management-sourced records. That combination is unusual on the Upper West Side and materially widens the buyer pool relative to stricter neighboring cooperatives.
Financing and minimum down payment: Not documented in public records. Confirm the current financing ceiling with the managing agent before writing an offer.
Flip tax: Not documented in public records. Confirm with the managing agent before pricing a sale.
Real estate taxes: No J-51 or other building-wide abatement appears on the residential unit lot in any assessment roll from FY2011 forward. The cooperative's tax bill is unabated and is embedded in maintenance; there is no burn-off to model and no step-up to anticipate.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $10,810/yr
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $74,189/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $16 – $110
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 →Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available filing classified the facade as SWARMP — Safe With A Repair and Maintenance Program: the engineer identified conditions requiring monitoring or repair before the next inspection cycle. The scope, timeline, and how the building funds the work are building-specific — we review the filings and board materials for you.
How to read this, and where it comes from
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — the licensed engineer the city requires to sign the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent).
Penalties shown are amounts DOB assessed against filings on record across 2005–10 to 2020–25. The FISP dataset does not record whether they were paid, contested or remain open, so treat the figure as history rather than a current balance and confirm the building’s standing with the managing agent.
Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
Recent sales
The cooperative trades actively and has for twenty years. Fifty-four cooperative share transfers have been recorded against the residential unit lot since 2004, with transfers recorded in each of 2024, 2025 and 2026. Against 55 apartments, that is roughly a full turnover of the building over two decades — a healthy, liquid pattern rather than a building where nothing moves.
Because The Powellton is a cooperative, pricing is best read per room and against the prewar Upper West Side cooperative stock between 95th and 100th Streets, not against the condominium inventory on the same blocks. Two adjustments matter. The building has no commercial income, so maintenance carries more of the operating load than at comparable buildings with Broadway retail on their own books — compare maintenance per share, not maintenance in the abstract. Against that, the underlying mortgage is very low, which reduces the debt-service component inside maintenance and lowers the probability of a debt-driven assessment.
Combination apartments complicate comparables. The building's larger residences are merged units with layouts that do not repeat, so a per-room or per-square-foot average taken across the building will mislead on any specific apartment. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 26, 2026 | 6E | 3 BR · 2 BA · 1,400 sf | $1,150,000 | $821/sf | -17.6% |
| Feb 26, 2026 | 1E | 3 BR · 2 BA · 1,400 sf | $1,285,000 | $918/sf | -4.5% |
| Jan 14, 2026 | 5G | 2 BR · 1 BA · 775 sf | $880,000 | $1,135/sf | -2.2% |
| Jul 8, 2025 | 4B | 4 BR · 2.5 BA | $2,475,000 | -4.8% | |
| Dec 6, 2024 | 5M | 2 BR · 1 BA | $1,155,000 | +5.0% | |
| Nov 22, 2024 | 7E | 4 BR · 3 BA | $1,650,000 | -8.1% | |
| May 26, 2022 | 1E | 3 BR · 2 BA · 1,400 sf | $1,250,000 | $893/sf | -7.4% |
| Mar 23, 2022 | 6D | 4 BR · 3 BA · 2,300 sf | $2,280,000 | $991/sf | -7.9% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $998/sf across 3 sales. Median listing discount 4.6% 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 1-01869-7501) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
You are buying shares, not a condominium unit. Every city record and several marketing sources will tell you this is a condominium. It is a condop. Plan for a board package, an interview, and cooperative financing terms.
Confirm the flip tax and the financing ceiling in writing. Neither is documented in public records for this building. Both change your net and your qualification, and both are questions for the managing agent before you write an offer.
Read the maintenance with the retail question in mind. The Broadway storefronts are not the cooperative's. Do not assume commercial rent is subsidizing your maintenance here, because it is not.
The low underlying mortgage is a genuine asset. A consolidated $1.6 million across 55 apartments as of June 2025 is light. Ask what the board intends to do with that capacity, and whether any capital project is in planning.
Do not assume landmark protection. Six lots on this block are inside the Riverside–West End Historic District Extension II. This one is not. There is no Landmarks review on exterior work here, which cuts both ways — cheaper capital projects for the cooperative, less protection against change on the block.
Walk the specific line. Boylan's light courts mean the floor plans are irregular and the combinations are one-offs. Court-facing, Broadway-facing and 97th-Street-facing rooms are three different products inside one building.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the structure, correctly stated. Buyers and their attorneys will discover the condop wrapper. Explaining it up front — including why it exists and what it does — reads as command of the asset rather than as a complication.
Put the underlying mortgage in the marketing. Low building debt is a real underwriting advantage and most sellers never mention it.
Emphasize the policy stack. Pets, a liberal sublet policy, pied-à-terre, parents buying, gifting and guarantors is a broad permission set for a prewar Upper West Side cooperative, and it widens the buyer pool measurably.
Price the apartment, not the building. With combination units and irregular light-court layouts, a building-average number will underprice a good apartment and overprice a compromised one.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering The Powellton, also evaluate:
- 215 West 98th Street (The Gramont) — the closest structural analogue in the neighborhood: a 1911 prewar building organized as a condop, with the residential unit held by a cooperative corporation and the commercial units held separately
- 240 West 98th Street (The Sabrina) — on the same tax block but a different lot and a genuinely different animal: a true condominium of 166 residences created by a 1923 prewar conversion, spanning two wings on one BBL and carrying its own transfer fee. Do not confuse the two
- 780 West End Avenue (The Terra Cotta) — also on this block, a 1912 building converted to condominium in 1988, and — unlike The Powellton — inside the Riverside–West End Historic District Extension II
- 311 West 97th Street — a 1901 cooperative on the same street; the closest peer by vintage and tenure
- 760 West End Avenue — a 1926 cooperative converted from rental in 1982; the larger prewar co-op alternative on the block
- 255 West 98th Street — a 1913 cooperative converted in 1984; comparable vintage, conventional co-op structure
- 305 West 98th Street — an early-1900s cooperative converted in 1981; the West End Avenue alternative
- 12 West 96th Street — a 1930 cooperative of 69 apartments converted in 1970; the postwar-conversion comparison
- 150 West 95th Street — a 1925 cooperative a few blocks south; similar scale, different corridor
- 15 West 96th Street — a 21-residence new-construction condominium delivered in 2024; the modern-condominium alternative in the same submarket, with entirely different economics
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Upper West Side — read The Roebling Team Guide to Upper West Side.
The full playbook — what goes in the package, how boards read your financials, the interview, and the timeline — plus sample cover, reference, and personal letters you can adapt.
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.
Considering a move at The Powellton?
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A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at The Powellton would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.