244 East 52nd Street (Minuet)

Fifteen residences across seven floors produces two to three apartments per landing above the ground floor, and a clean vertical stack. Gross floor areas from the Department of Finance unit-lot roll run: 610 square feet in the A line on floors two through four; 917 square feet in the C line on floors two through four; 1,090 square feet at 2B and 3B; 1,295 square feet at 5A and 6A; 1,314 square feet at 5B and 6B; 1,878 square feet at the seventh-floor penthouse; and 2,561 square feet at 1A, the ground-floor residence that takes the rear yard. Department of Finance areas and marketed interior areas use different sources and can differ in either direction. For example, the unit-lot roll lists 1,295 square feet for 5A and 6A, while their sales records use 1,449 square feet; verify the measurement source before comparing price per square foot.

The offering ran from one-bedrooms through a four-bedroom penthouse with substantial private outdoor space. Balconies sit at the western end of the fifth and sixth floors, the roof terrace above the seventh floor carries lounge seating, an outdoor kitchen and a dining area, and the 30-foot rear yard sits behind the ground floor. Interiors are wide-plank white oak with custom cabinetry, Taj Mahal quartzite in the kitchens and North Pearl marble in the baths.

The staffing model is the single most important operating fact and the one most often glossed over. Minuet has a part-time doorman supplemented by virtual doorman service — not a 24-hour attended lobby. For a 15-unit building this is the economically rational choice, and it holds common charges down, but a buyer trading out of a full-service building should price the difference in service honestly before writing an offer. The amenity set is otherwise complete for the scale: fitness center with a yoga and movement studio, laundry room, bicycle storage, private storage available for purchase, and the roof terrace.

This is the most useful thing a buyer can know about Minuet, and it comes out of ACRIS and the assessment roll rather than out of a marketing sheet.

The condominium declaration was recorded on February 12, 2024. Since then, recorded deeds show nine of the 15 residences transferred to nine named purchasers — individuals, a living trust, and two limited liability companies — with recorded closings running from May 2024 through September 2025. The units that have transferred are 2A, 2B, 2C, 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, 5A and 6A. The names alone do not establish whether purchasers are unrelated or independent of the sponsor; current beneficial ownership and retained rights require further documentation.

Six residences remained in sponsor ownership on the FY2027 assessment roll: 1A, 3C, 4C, 5B, 6B and PH7. Two of those are the largest apartments in the building. That represents roughly forty percent of the original offering on that roll. Confirm later deeds and current sponsor inventory; the selected closing history does not establish an annual sellout pace.

The dated inventory count does not establish the sponsor’s liquidity, current financing or willingness to concede. For a sponsor sale, review current availability, the offering plan and contract, including closing-cost allocation, any finish or appliance credits, storage rights and transfer taxes, before comparing the offer with a resale.

The assessment roll shows no tax exemption for Minuet. Every one of the 15 residential unit lots shows zero exempt value and no exemption code in the FY2027 assessment roll, and the condominium billing lot shows the same across the FY2025 through FY2027 rolls. No 421-a, 485-x or J-51 exemption appears on the roll; abatements are applied on the bill, so check each apartment's current tax bill.

The practical consequence is that no scheduled step-up appears on the roll. Buyers who have underwritten abated new-development inventory elsewhere in Manhattan are used to a real estate tax line that starts small and steps up over a decade or more; here the roll shows full Class 2 assessment from the start, though the bill still changes with assessments and rates. Total cost depends on each unit's charges, taxes, financing and assessments. Run the carrying number, not the sticker.

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 $1,742/sf (floor-adjusted) across 5 sales. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 5.7% 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 1-01325-7505; 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.

Establish first whether your unit is a sponsor sale or a resale. Six residences were still sponsor-held on the most recent assessment roll. On a sponsor unit the purchaser is customarily asked to absorb the New York State and New York City transfer taxes and the sponsor's attorney fee — real money at this price point, with actual allocation and any negotiated changes governed by the contract; the dated inventory count does not establish leverage. On a resale, those costs sit with the seller in the ordinary course.

Underwrite the tax line, not the price. The roll shows no exemption. Pull the current tax bill for the specific unit lot to confirm no abatement applies, and put the full number into your carrying-cost model before you agree on price.

Test the staffing. Part-time doorman plus virtual doorman is a genuine cost saving and a genuine service reduction. Visit in the evening.

Ask about the lot-line walls. The east and west flanks are largely solid by design. Confirm which openings, if any, are lot-line windows in your specific unit, and understand that those can be lost to a neighboring development.

Read the offering plan. File no. CD20-0034. We do not carry a copy; request it from the sponsor and have your attorney review the budget, the common-charge allocation, the sponsor's obligations while it retains units, and the board control provisions.

Check current sponsor competition. Six residences were sponsor-held on the FY2027 roll; confirm which remain owned and which are available, along with actual asking prices and offered concessions, before treating them as competing listings.

Lead with how a resale differs from a sponsor unit — ordinary-course cost allocation and no sponsor transfer-tax absorption; confirm the apartment's condition and any open punch-list items in diligence.

Document the building's condition. A 2024 Certificate of Occupancy and new mechanicals are the strongest arguments this building has; back them with current engineering reports and board materials. Run the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator and put the honest monthly number in front of buyers rather than letting the unabated tax bill surface late in diligence.

If you're considering 244 East 52nd Street, also evaluate:

• 249 East 50th Street — a 2022-delivered boutique condominium by the same architect, Isaac & Stern; the closest like-for-like in scale, era and design vocabulary
• 250 East 53rd Street (The Veneto) — 2008 glass-and-masonry condominium; the full-service alternative at larger scale
• 226 East 52nd Street (The Enclave) — 1984 condominium on the same blockfront corridor
• 216 East 52nd Street (The Pantheon) — turn-of-the-century building converted to condominium; the loft-character alternative on the same block
• 245 East 50th Street — 1980 condominium; established Turtle Bay condominium inventory
• 211 East 51st Street — 1958 building reclad and rebuilt internally as a high-design condominium
• 400 East 51st Street (The Grand Beekman) — the new-classical condominium alternative a few blocks east
• 230 East 50th Street — 1927–1929 cooperative; the prewar cooperative alternative; compare dated, matched prices and total costs