- Year built
- 1910
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 8
- Floors
- 12
- Landmark
- No
Every recorded sale at this building, 2013–2025
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $1,407
- Listing discount
- 0.3%
- Recorded sales
- 15
- On record
- 2013–2025
The Pell Building is a twelve-story 1910 loft on a twenty-five-foot lot between Broadway and Fifth Avenue, and it holds eight apartments. That ratio — twelve floors, eight homes — is the whole product. Floors are full or nearly full, several units are duplexed, ceilings run around eleven feet, and there is no interior corridor consuming plan area. In a neighborhood that has filled since 2015 with high-rise new construction, this is the opposite kind of building.
It exists as housing because of a regulatory sequence, and the sequence is the most useful thing on this page. The lot sat in an M1-6 manufacturing district, where conventional residential use was not permitted as of right. The building's pre-conversion residential floors were carried by the Department of Buildings under Use Group 17 — the classification that in an M1 district covers joint living-work quarters for artists — rather than Use Group 2. To convert to ordinary residential use, the owner went to the Board of Standards and Appeals, obtained approval under calendar number 120-07-BZ, and filed a second Alteration Type-1 in January 2011 reciting that approval on its face. Temporary certificates of occupancy began issuing in October 2012 and the final certificate of occupancy issued on 12 September 2013, for eight dwelling units. The condominium subdivision of the underlying tax lot was filed in April 2013, and the sponsor's first unit deeds recorded that July.
That is a fully documented conversion, and it settles a number of things the market record gets wrong. It settles the unit count at eight residential and four commercial — not the eighteen that circulates in secondary building databases. It settles the completion date at 2013 rather than 2012. And it establishes that the residential use here rests on a discretionary BSA approval rather than on an as-of-right entitlement, which is the sort of fact a buyer's counsel should read the underlying resolution on.
Architecture and unit composition
The building runs twelve stories on a twenty-five-foot frontage and a lot roughly 98 feet deep, with about 24,300 square feet of gross building area — roughly 15,800 residential and about 8,500 commercial, including retail at the base and office space above it. The façade is light terra cotta and masonry with a prominent cornice, restored as part of the conversion; separate façade repair filings follow in 2018 and 2019.
Above the commercial base, the residential floors are recorded as RES 1 through RES 8. The plan is loft-shaped — north and south window walls at either end of a narrow, deep floor plate — with several units running as duplexes across two levels and ceiling heights around eleven feet per listing records. The filing record shows a sustained interior program from 2009 through 2014: mezzanine removal and storefront work, sprinkler and alarm modernization, and unit-by-unit renovation filings continuing into 2017.
Building operations
This is a small, self-contained condominium rather than a serviced building. No doorman staffing appears in city filings, and eight apartments carry the residential share of a twelve-story structure with a shared elevator, façade and roof — the reason a façade cycle here is a meaningful number per unit. Four commercial units occupy the base and lower floors and share the envelope, which makes the common-charge allocation between the residential and commercial sections a document worth reading rather than assuming.
The tax posture is unusually clean for a conversion of this vintage. Loft conversions completed in the early 2010s frequently carried J-51 benefits that burned off in stages, producing bills that stepped up sharply after closing. That did not happen here: no exemption appears on any unit lot from the 2014/15 roll through FY2026, and PLUTO reports zero exempt value. The residences have been taxed at full assessment since the first closings, and nothing is scheduled to expire.
The August 2025 Midtown South rezoning reaches this lot — and the change is material
On 14 August 2025 the City Council approved the Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan, replacing the area's manufacturing-only zoning with paired manufacturing-and-residential districts and creating the Special Midtown South Mixed-Use District. PLUTO now records this lot as M1-8A/R12 within that special district (MSX), and the same designation runs across the surrounding lots on the block.
The practical effect is large. The M1-6 district that made this building's residential use a variance question no longer applies to the site; residential use is now contemplated by the underlying zoning. PLUTO records a residential FAR of 15.0 for the lot against a built FAR of 9.84 — meaning that on paper the site now carries substantial unused residential floor area where it previously carried none. Residential development in the rezoned area is subject to Mandatory Inclusionary Housing.
For a buyer of a single apartment, the immediate consequence is not a windfall. It is that the block's development context has changed decisively: neighboring low-rise lots on the same frontage now carry residential development capacity they did not have in 2024, and light and air across the mid-block should be underwritten with that in mind. For the condominium as an entity, the unused floor area is a real asset whose disposition — if it is ever pursued — would require board action and unit-owner consent under the declaration. Both are worth raising with the managing agent.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- Per unit / month range
- —
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 FISP filing classified the facade as Safe — no repairs were required at that inspection. Facade inspections run on a fixed five-year cycle; future inspection, repair, and any assessment decisions remain building-specific.
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 Pell Building trades as NoMad loft product — priced on floor plate, ceiling height and duplex configuration rather than on amenity. The relevant comparison set is other converted early-twentieth-century loft buildings in NoMad and the Flatiron blocks, not the full-service towers on Sixth Avenue and Broadway, whose per-foot pricing carries a service load this building does not have and does not charge for.
Two points shape resale depth. With eight residences, the building produces very few trades in any year, and the in-building comparable set is correspondingly thin. And the sponsor retained and released inventory gradually over more than a decade — the last sponsor unit sold in 2024 — so a meaningful share of the recorded transaction history is first-sale rather than resale, and reads differently from a fully seasoned building's record. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
Do not confuse this building with its neighbors. 11 West 30th Street, the Empire State Lofts cooperative, sits on a different tax block entirely and is a cooperative, not a condominium. 50 West 30th Street (The NOMA) is a separate new-construction building further west on the same street. Comparable-sales work on this stretch of West 30th Street goes wrong most often at exactly this step.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 11, 2025 | RES | 1,979 sf | $3,100,000 | $1,566/sf | off-mkt |
| Feb 24, 2025 | 6 | 3 BR · 3 BA · 2,800 sf | $3,495,000 | $1,248/sf | +0.0% |
| Feb 1, 2024 | 5S | 1 BR · 1.5 BA · 1,075 sf | $1,300,000 | $1,209/sf | -13.0% |
| Jan 17, 2023 | 9 | 2 BR · 2.5 BA · 1,960 sf | $2,750,000 | $1,403/sf | +0.0% |
| Dec 29, 2022 | RES | 6 BR · 4 BA · 1,979 sf | $2,200,000 | $1,112/sf | off-mkt |
| Oct 23, 2019 | RES | 1,979 sf | $3,175,000 | $1,604/sf | off-mkt |
| Jun 16, 2014 | 7 | 2 BR · 1,979 sf | $2,280,622 | $1,152/sf | -0.6% |
| Sep 23, 2013 | RES | 1,979 sf | $2,438,708 | $1,232/sf | off-mkt |
Market read. Most recent trades (2025) cleared a median $1,407/sf across 2 sales. Median listing discount 0.3% 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 1-00831-7501) 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.
What to know if you’re buying
Read the BSA resolution. Residential occupancy here was established by discretionary approval under calendar number 120-07-BZ, not as of right at the time. Your counsel should read the resolution and confirm that all conditions were satisfied and that the final certificate of occupancy is clean.
Ask about the unit's pre-2013 history. The Department of Buildings record shows residential occupancy predating the conversion, and the sponsor acquired individual residential units from prior occupants in 2014 and 2022 before reselling them. Confirm in writing that the unit you are buying is free of any surviving occupancy or regulatory claim.
Underwrite the commercial section. Four commercial units share the building. Get the common-charge allocation, the commercial section's obligations for its own systems and refuse, and the current tenancy — the elevator, entrance and envelope are shared.
There is no abatement to lose. Compare the tax line honestly against abated NoMad new construction, where the number climbs on a schedule. Here it does not.
Price the rezoning into your view of light and air. The block's low-rise lots now sit in an M1-8A/R12 special district with residential capacity they did not have before August 2025. That cuts both ways for a mid-block loft.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the floor plate, the duplexes and the ceiling height — buyers comparing this to new construction are comparing square footage that behaves differently, so show the plan. Correct the unit count in writing: public building databases carry an inflated figure, while the final certificate of occupancy and the recorded unit-lot schedule both say eight residences — and eight is the stronger story, because it is what makes the building boutique. Then document the conversion. The BSA approval, the 2013 certificate of occupancy, the façade campaigns and the absence of any expiring abatement all survive attorney diligence; we provide the underlying records from the Research Library to serious buyers' counsel.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 24 West 30th Street, also evaluate:
- 11 West 30th Street (Empire State Lofts) — the immediate NoMad loft neighbor, one block east and one tax block over; a cooperative rather than a condominium
- 1200 Broadway — an 1871 building on the same tax block, also inside the new Midtown South special district
- 15 East 30th Street and 33 East 30th Street — boutique NoMad alternatives across Fifth Avenue
- 127 East 30th Street and 111 East 30th Street — small-building peers on the East 30th blocks
- 130 West 30th Street (The Cass Gilbert) — the landmark-quality loft conversion alternative further west
- 241 Fifth Avenue — boutique NoMad condominium on Fifth Avenue
- 1107 Broadway (The Toy Building) — the marquee NoMad loft conversion and the neighborhood's price ceiling for converted product
- 212 Fifth Avenue — the full-service, Madison Square–facing conversion; the step-up alternative
- 50 West 30th Street (The NOMA) — new construction on the same street; the ground-up alternative
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Flatiron — read The Roebling Team Guide to Flatiron.
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 Pell Building?
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