- Year built
- 1920
- Type
- Condominium
- Floors
- 1
- Landmark
- No
- Pets
- Not documented in the portion of the plan on file — confirm the house rules
Every recorded sale at this building, 2004–2021
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $2,385
- Listing discount
- 1.6%
- Recorded sales
- 7
- On record
- 2004–2021
The building is 25 feet wide on a 2,581-square-foot lot, and there are four apartments in it. That is the entire proposition, and it is a genuinely unusual one in Chelsea.
The site began as commercial and industrial space — the certificate of occupancy carried factory and storage use as recently as 2013, when a filing sought to legalize a basement chiropractic office out of it — with two legal dwelling units attached. In April 2016 the sponsor filed an Alteration Type 1 that took the building from three stories to six, converted the occupancy to R-2, and produced four full-floor residences over three commercial floors. GLUCK+ carried the design and the filings. The job signed off and the final certificate of occupancy issued in June 2021.
What makes that possible is a zoning and preservation accident. The lot sits in R8B, which is restrictive, but the built floor-area ratio of 4.32 against a residential FAR of 4.00 means the existing structure already held slightly more bulk than new construction could put back. And critically, the lot carries no landmark status. The Chelsea Historic District and its Extension sit several blocks north and west; this block has no LPC record at all. A vertical enlargement of this kind inside a designated district would have required a Certificate of Appropriateness and, in all likelihood, would not have happened.
The four residences are each a full floor with private keyed elevator access, and each carries private outdoor space — a patio at the second floor and balcony-and-terrace combinations above, with the penthouse residence taking a 474-square-foot terrace. Each also carries a dedicated cellar storage room as a limited common element, which the recorded schedule confirms unit by unit. At 1,625 square feet for the typical plate and 1,927 for the penthouse duplex, these are large apartments by Chelsea standards without being trophy scale.
The structural fact that most affects a buyer sits below the apartments. Three of the seven condominium units are commercial, they were designated "Not For Sale" in the offering plan, and they were conveyed as a single block in November 2021 to an entity affiliated with the developer, whose offices occupy the space. Together those three units hold 37.5964 percent of the common interest, with the largest — the basement-and-first-floor unit — holding 26.4724 percent on its own. Four residential owners hold the remaining 62.4036 percent. That is a workable structure and a perfectly ordinary one for a small mixed-use conversion, but it means a single owner controls more than a third of the condominium's voting interest and sits in the building every working day. The declaration and by-laws set the terms.
Architecture and unit composition
The elevation is 25 feet wide on a mid-block interior lot, which governs everything. There is no corner, no protected exposure on either flank, and light comes from the front and the rear only. The conversion's response was to go up and to go out onto the roof: the enlargement added stories, and nearly every residence gained terrace or balcony space carved from the setbacks. The result is a building that reads as contemporary infill on a street of prewar walk-ups and small apartment houses.
Inside, the plan is disciplined. One residence per floor, entered directly from a keyed elevator, at 1,625 square feet on the typical plate — two bedrooms, two and a half baths, with a windowed home office in the marketed layouts — and 1,927 square feet at the top, where the penthouse residence spans the fifth floor and the penthouse level with three bedrooms and three and a half baths. Because the plates are full-floor and the lot is narrow, the sleeping and entertaining wings sit front and rear rather than side by side, and the circulation runs the length of the building. That is worth walking rather than reading on a floor plan.
The lower three floors are commercial: retail at the street with the developer's offices behind and below. The offering plan's Schedule B places Unit 1R across the basement and first floor with a light well and rear yard, Unit 1F in the basement, and Unit 2F on the first floor.
Building operations
There is no staff and there is no amenity program, and the offering plan's projections make that explicit: the first full operating year projected building-wide common charges in the high five figures across all seven units, against projected real estate taxes more than half again as large. That ratio is the correct way to think about carrying cost here. In this building the tax bill, not the common charge, is the number that moves.
The practical consequence is that a buyer's diligence should concentrate on capital rather than on operations. A four-residence condominium has essentially no cushion: any envelope, roof or elevator expense arrives as an assessment split four ways, or seven ways with the commercial owner, depending on what the by-laws say. Ask for the reserve balance, the assessment history since the 2021 closings, and the cost-allocation provisions between the residential and commercial components in writing.
Two further items. The building is six stories and therefore carries no Facade Inspection Safety Program obligation, which means there is no periodic public façade record to consult — the burden of establishing envelope condition falls on diligence. And the conversion is recent enough that the sponsor's construction warranties and the building's first capital cycle are both live questions worth asking about directly.
Policy framework
Ownership form: Condominium. Purchases close through a board right of first refusal rather than a cooperative approval, which produces a faster and more predictable timetable — 30 to 45 days is typical.
Pied-à-terre, subletting, LLC, trust and foreign ownership: All permitted under the standard condominium framework. Ownership records show residences held both in individual names and in a single-purpose entity, so the structure is used in practice. Minimum lease terms and any sublet fee should be confirmed with the managing agent.
Pets and house rules: Not documented in the portion of the plan on file. Request the house rules with the declaration and by-laws.
Flip tax: Not documented in the portion of the plan on file. Confirm any resale capital contribution before pricing a sale.
Occupancy classification: R-2, established by the certificate of occupancy issued June 24, 2021. No artist-certification restriction applies in this zoning district.
Real estate taxes: No J-51, no 421 exemption, no abatement of any kind. Underwrite the full unabated bill on the specific unit, then apply the co-op/condo abatement only if the buyer will occupy the unit as a primary residence.
Local Law 97
This building is below the 25,000 sq ft threshold at which LL97 emissions caps apply. No regulatory capital pressure from this law specifically, current or 2030.
See full Local Law 97 analysis →Recent sales
The sponsor conveyed all four residences between June 3 and July 1, 2021, to four separate and unrelated buyers — three in individual names, one in a single-purpose entity. The three commercial units followed as a block that November. No sponsor entity remains in title on any residential lot, and the building has been fully owner-held since 2021.
Four residences produce no building average worth quoting. Pricing has to be built line by line, and the meaningful distinctions inside the building are the amount and usability of outdoor space — a ground-level patio at the second floor versus terraces above — and the penthouse duplex's extra bedroom and floor. The correct comparable set is the small group of boutique Chelsea conversions and small new-construction condominiums with full-floor plates above 1,500 square feet, not the prewar cooperatives that dominate the surrounding blocks, whose policies, financing rules and buyer pools are structurally different. The absence of any tax abatement is the largest single variable between a headline price and the true monthly number. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 1, 2021 | 5Sponsor Sale | 3 BR · 2.5 BA · 1,625 sf | $3,875,000 | $2,385/sf | -0.6% |
| Jun 16, 2021 | 3Sponsor Sale | 2 BR · 2.5 BA · 1,625 sf | $3,450,000 | $2,123/sf | -9.2% |
| Jun 15, 2021 | 4Sponsor Sale | 3 BR · 2.5 BA · 1,625 sf | $3,845,000 | $2,366/sf | -2.5% |
| Jun 3, 2021 | PHSponsor Sale | 3 BR · 3.5 BA · 1,927 sf | $5,000,000 | $2,595/sf | +0.0% |
| Jun 3, 2021 | 6Sponsor Sale | 1,927 sf | $5,614,125 | $2,913/sf | off-mkt |
Market read. Most recent trades (2021) cleared a median $2,385/sf across 5 sales. Median listing discount 1.6% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
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 1-00765-7501) 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 commercial provisions in the by-laws first. Three of seven condominium units are commercial, all held since 2021 by an entity affiliated with the developer, together holding 37.5964 percent of the common interest. Cost allocation, capital-assessment allocation and voting rights between the residential and commercial components are the provisions that matter most in a building this size.
Underwrite full taxes from day one. No J-51, no 421 exemption, no abatement. The offering plan itself projected taxes larger than common charges. There is no burn-off schedule to model.
Four owners means no cushion. Any capital expense arrives as an assessment across a four-unit residential denominator. Get the reserve balance and the assessment history in writing.
There is no public façade record. Six stories puts the building outside the Facade Inspection Safety Program, so the periodic inspection reports that exist for taller buildings do not exist here.
PLUTO's floor count is wrong, and its year built is unresolved. The Department of Buildings and the 2021 certificate of occupancy record six stories; PLUTO says five. On vintage, PLUTO says 1920 and the developer's materials imply a turn-of-the-century origin; nothing in the public record settles it.
Test the exposures. Twenty-five feet wide on a mid-block interior lot means light front and rear only. Establish which windows are lot-line windows and what the adjoining lots could support.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the full floor and the private elevator. One residence per floor, entered from a keyed elevator, with private outdoor space and a dedicated storage room, on a 25-foot Chelsea lot. Very little competing inventory is configured that way.
Sell the outdoor space specifically. Patio, balcony and terrace square footage differ materially unit to unit, and the recorded schedule documents them precisely. Use the numbers.
Be direct about the tax posture. Full unabated taxes, presented at the outset with True Monthly Carrying Cost analysis, rather than surfaced in diligence.
Same-building comparables do not exist. Four residences, one sellout window in 2021. Pricing has to come from the surrounding boutique-conversion set.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 246 West 16th Street, also evaluate:
- 147 West 15th Street — 1923 loft converted to cooperative one block south; the tenure alternative at comparable scale
- 131 West 16th Street — 1918 building converted to condominium in 1988; the same street, prewar conversion economics
- 126 West 16th Street — condominium built around an 1886 church on the same street; the adaptive-reuse alternative
- 113 West 17th Street — 1911 warehouse converted to condominium; comparable loft plates one block north
- 201 West 17th Street — loft building converted to condominium in 2000; the larger-denominator conversion nearby
- 121 West 19th Street — 1903 loft conversion; comparable vintage and plate at a different scale
- 130 West 16th Street — 1927 cooperative on the same street; the prewar co-op alternative
- 111 West 16th Street — circa-1925 prewar cooperative; a very different policy and financing framework
- 155 West 15th Street — 1940 cooperative; the postwar-adjacent alternative in the same immediate geography
- 100 West 15th Street — loft building converted to cooperative ownership; the co-op comparison on loft plates
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Chelsea — read The Roebling Team Guide to Chelsea.
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.
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