24 Gramercy Park South

Herbert Lucas designed a restrained brick building rather than a decorative one. The park elevation is a plain brick field disciplined by splayed stone lintels, a columned entrance portico set behind a wrought-iron areaway, and shallow half-oval iron balconies at intervals up the façade — the Juliet balconies that recur in listing descriptions. At twelve stories it rises well above its protected low-rise neighbors, which is precisely why its upper north lines carry the park view outright and cannot be built out: the buildings that would block them are landmarked at four and five stories.

Inside, the plan is wings rather than a single corridor plate — the recorded unit designations carry E, W, S and N suffixes, and the duplexes climb through two of those wings at a time. Apartments carry wood-burning fireplaces, original crown moldings, and ceiling heights consistent with a 1909 building of this class. Renovation filings on this lot describe gut-level work: full duplex renovations on the tenth and eleventh floors and associated work on the twelfth floor and roof, split-system air conditioning replacing through-wall units, bathroom and kitchen rebuilds. The inventory has been comprehensively modernized apartment by apartment over the past two decades.

Exposure drives value here as it does on any park-front building. North-facing lines look directly into the park's canopy; south and west lines look at the block interior.

The building runs as a full-service white-glove house at small scale: 24-hour doorman, elevator attendant, live-in resident manager, central laundry, private storage, bicycle storage, and private wine cellars. An elevator attendant in a nineteen-apartment building is an unusually high service level and an unusually high fixed cost spread across a small denominator — expect maintenance per square foot to reflect it, and read the operating budget rather than the amenity list.

Capital posture is the thing to underwrite. The building has been in and out of façade cycles for two decades: sidewalk sheds and remedial-repair filings in 2006, 2010, 2013 and 2017, the balcony and railing restoration completed under Commission approval, and a current program — permits for localized masonry, window, balcony and cornice repair at the exterior envelope, plus sidewalk shed and pipe scaffold — running since early 2025. On a landmarked masonry building with iron balconies on the park elevation, this is normal and recurring rather than alarming, but it is expensive, and it is funded by nineteen apartments.

On the underlying debt: ACRIS records a mortgage and assignment of leases and rents against the cooperative's parcel in 2015, and a satisfaction and termination of that assignment recorded in November 2025, with no successor mortgage recorded on the parcel as of this writing. If the cooperative has retired its underlying mortgage, that is a meaningful balance-sheet fact and the managing agent should confirm it — along with whether an assessment funded the payoff.

What the record supports. The park is privately owned by the holders of the original lots surrounding it and administered by a small board of trustees. Key rights descend from the 1831 Ruggles deed and attach to those lots, which today sit under fewer than forty buildings. 24 Gramercy Park South is one of them: it fronts the park's south side, it stands on two original lots, and management-sourced and listing records for the building consistently describe residents as having a key. The cooperative corporation, as the owner of the underlying lots, is the party that holds and administers whatever rights the deed confers.

What the record does not support. Nothing in the public record establishes how many keys this building holds, how the board allocates them among apartments, whether every shareholder receives one, whether a key transfers automatically with a purchase, or what the trustees' current annual per-lot assessment is. Published accounts of the park describe a small fixed number of keys issued per original lot against an annual assessment, but those figures are secondary, unaudited, and not building-specific. The trustees do not publish an allocation, and the cooperative's house rules are not public.

What this means at offer stage. Ask the managing agent three questions in writing before you sign: how many park keys the cooperative holds, what the house rule is on issuing them to shareholders, and what the annual carrying cost of those rights is within the maintenance budget. A park key is the most valuable amenity on this block and the least documented. Treat any listing statement about it as a claim to be verified, not a fact already established.

There is no offering plan, no house rules document and no financial statement for this building in either the Compass Offering Plan Library or The Roebling Research Library, and the policy stack does not appear in any public record. That is unusual to state on a page, and it is more useful than guessing.

What a buyer must obtain from the managing agent before offering: the maximum financing percentage and minimum down payment; the post-closing liquidity requirement, which in a building of this price tier is frequently expressed as a multiple of annual maintenance plus debt service and is often the binding constraint rather than income; the flip tax and who pays it; the sublet policy, including seasoning period, term limits and fee; the pied-à-terre position; whether trusts, limited liability companies and guarantors are entertained and on what conditions; the pet policy; the alteration agreement and any wet-over-dry restriction; and the current status of the co-op/condo tax abatement.

What is documented: cooking gas runs through a single house meter rather than apartment meters, following a 2013 conversion. The building is landmarked, so exterior and window work requires a Certificate of Appropriateness and cannot be undertaken as an ordinary alteration.

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 (2021): a median $1,625/sf across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2025. Median listing discount 12.1% 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 1-00875-0056) 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.

Get the park-key rule in writing. It is the reason the building commands what it commands, and it is the least documented thing about it. Number of keys, allocation rule, cost — from the managing agent, before contract.

Underwrite the façade program, not just the apartment. There is an active exterior envelope project under permit, following two decades of recurring remedial cycles on a landmarked masonry-and-iron elevation. Ask for the engineer's report, the project budget, the funding plan, and whether an assessment is contemplated or in place.

Confirm the tax abatement status. The cooperative/condominium abatement was applied through tax year 2023 and shows as denied for tax year 2024 in the Department of Finance's record. That changes the monthly number. Find out why and whether it has been restored.

Expect the financing test to be strict and unpublished. Small park-front cooperatives of this class typically run low financing ceilings and heavy post-closing liquidity requirements. Model your package against the worst plausible version before you make an offer, and run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator.

Landmark status governs your renovation plans. Windows, balconies and anything visible from the street require a Certificate of Appropriateness. Budget for the process as well as the work.

Lead with the two structural scarcities. A twelve-story building on the protected south blockfront of a private park, and a floor plate that produces duplexes of two thousand square feet and up. Neither can be reproduced anywhere in Gramercy.

Document the park rights precisely. Vague language invites a discount when the buyer's attorney asks. A clear written statement from the managing agent about the cooperative's key allocation is a selling document.

Get ahead of the façade and the abatement. Both will surface in diligence. Presenting the engineer's scope, the funding plan and the current abatement standing up front converts two objections into evidence of a well-run house.

Price against duplexes, not against averages. The right comparable set is other park-front duplex and full-floor inventory. Run the Renovation Cost Calculator against condition before setting an asking price.

If you're considering 24 Gramercy Park South, also evaluate:

• 26 Gramercy Park South (The Irving) — the 1901 apartment-hotel conversion immediately east at the Irving Place corner; also park-front, far more apartments, far smaller ones
• 18 Gramercy Park South — the 1927 building converted to condominium in 2012–2013; the park-front condominium alternative with condominium rules and none of the cooperative's approval friction
• 34 Gramercy Park East (The Gramercy) — 1883, the park's landmark cooperative on the east blockfront; the closest peer for scarcity and character
• 36 Gramercy Park East — 1910 park-front cooperative; the nearest like-for-like by vintage and position
• 44 Gramercy Park North — 1930 cooperative on the park's north blockfront
• 45 Gramercy Park North — 1927 cooperative facing the park from the north
• 32 Gramercy Park South — the larger cooperative just east of the park's southeast corner; the same neighborhood at a different scale and price
• 1 Lexington Avenue — 1910 cooperative at the park's northeast corner
• 112 East 19th Street — one block south; a twelve-story building that is expressly not in the historic district despite the address, and a useful reminder to verify designation by lot
• 200 East 16th Street — the 1930 Gramercy cooperative at greater scale, for buyers who want full service without park frontage