24 West 30th Street (The Pell Building)

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.

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 roll is unusually clean for a conversion of this vintage. Loft conversions completed in the early 2010s frequently carried J-51 benefits that phased out in stages, producing bills that stepped up sharply after closing. The roll shows none here: no exemption appears on any unit lot from the 2014/15 roll through FY2026, and PLUTO reports zero exempt value. Abatements are applied on the bill, not the roll, so each apartment's current tax bill should be checked.

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; that simple comparison suggests unused residential floor area on paper but does not establish legal zoning floor area or permitted future work. 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, whether usable floor area exists would need a zoning analysis, and any disposition — if it is ever pursued — would follow the declaration's approval requirements. Both are worth raising with the managing agent.

Recent sales

Recent closings 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. Most recent trades (2025) cleared a median $1,338/sf (recorded) across 3 sales. Median listing discount 0.3% 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 1-00831-7501; each condominium apartment is its own tax lot). 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.

Read the BSA resolution. Residential use on the converted floors (part of the fifth, and the eighth, tenth and eleventh) was established by discretionary approval under calendar number 120-07-BZ, not as of right at the time; the other residential floors predate the variance as existing legal residences. Your counsel should read the resolution, confirm that its conditions were satisfied and that the final certificate of occupancy is clean, and identify which floor the unit sits on.

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.

The roll shows no exemption. Check the unit's tax bill, then compare the tax line against abated NoMad new construction, where the number climbs on a schedule; taxes here still change with assessments and rates.

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.

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 tax roll's record of no exemption are all documented in public records; we provide the underlying records from the Research Library to serious buyers' counsel.

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