255 West 84th Street (The Alameda)

The building runs 134 feet along West 84th Street on a 14,000-square-foot corner lot, with roughly 134,000 square feet of residential floor area — a generous ratio that shows up in the apartments. Layouts run from three rooms to nine, with high ceilings, entry foyers, decorative fireplaces, crown moldings and parquet floors surviving in many lines, per management-sourced records. The line letters recorded in share transfers run A through F on the residential floors, with ground-floor apartments designated GRA, GRC and GRF; recorded combinations such as 7C/8C, 9B/9C and 2A/2E show that the larger apartments in the building are frequently assembled rather than original.

The Broadway elevation carries the retail. The 84th Street elevation carries the residential entrance under a canopy, up a short flight of steps. The west facade, facing a gated service alleyway, is undesigned brick. Windows and storefronts have been replaced and the roof cornice removed — all of which now falls under Landmarks jurisdiction for any future work, since the 2012 designation.

The cooperative employs a union staff under the Building Service 32BJ collective bargaining agreement, with an attended lobby and a live-in resident manager. Wages and union benefits were the largest single operating line in the most recent audited statements on file. Laundry, storage and bicycle storage are in the basement. Management is a large third-party firm; the board is controlled by resident shareholders and has been since the sponsor surrendered control in November 1991.

The condominium layer is thin but real: the cooperative pays common charges to The Alameda Condominium — roughly $177,000 in the most recent year on file, plus a supplemental common-charge assessment of about $22,000 that year — and its share of condominium-level major repairs flows through as capitalized building improvements.

The J-51 exemption is gone. Department of Finance records show a benefit initiated in 1990–91 on both condominium tax lots with a 34-year exemption term, tied to the rehabilitation performed around the conversion. The city's historical J-51 file carries it through fiscal 2018. Current exemption records show the residential unit's exemption at roughly $77,000 in fiscal 2021, stepping down through fiscal 2022, 2023 and 2024 to about $16,000 in fiscal 2025, and to zero in fiscal 2026 — the standard end-of-term phase-out, now complete. The commercial unit's parallel benefit ran the same course.

That matters because real estate taxes were already the dominant expense here before the last steps of the burn-off. In the most recent audited year on file, real estate taxes ran about $1.54 million against maintenance revenue of about $2.87 million, and the following year's budget forecast raised the tax line again. A buyer comparing this building's maintenance per share against a non-J-51 peer is comparing two different tax regimes; a buyer comparing it against its own history from five or ten years ago is comparing against a subsidy that no longer exists. Ask for the current tax bill, not last year's.

Underlying mortgage. The audited statements on file describe a $6,000,000 mortgage held by Valley National Bank, interest only at 3.7 percent, monthly payments of $18,500, with a stated maturity of November 1, 2025, alongside an undrawn $500,000 line of credit with the same lender and a mortgage covenant requiring a minimum $100,000 reserve account. ACRIS then records a further Valley National Bank mortgage and consolidation in June 2021, which supersedes those stated terms. The current principal balance, rate and maturity should be obtained from the managing agent — this is a building where the underlying debt has been refinanced more than once and where an interest-only structure means no principal has been amortized away.

Assessments and capital work. The board imposed a $1,000,000 capital assessment in 2019 — $15.75 per share, payable over twenty-four months from October 2019 — on top of a recurring operating assessment of roughly $4 per share per year. Capitalized work in that period included an exterior restoration campaign, a laundry room project, an elevator upgrade, electrical and lighting upgrades, basement flooring and plumbing, and a superintendent's unit renovation. Reserves stood near $900,000 at the most recent year-end on file, down from about $1.67 million the year before as that work was funded. The cooperative's governing documents do not require reserve accumulation and no reserve study has been performed, which the auditors note.

The transactional stack here is unusually well documented for a co-op and unusually restrictive in two places. Financing is capped at 75 percent. Pied-à-terre purchases are not permitted — this is a primary-residence building, and that eliminates a meaningful slice of the buyer pool at every price point. Subletting is capped at two years in any five, with a sublet fee of 15 percent of annual maintenance in year one and 20 percent in year two. The flip tax is 1.5 percent of gross sale price or $3.00 per share, whichever is greater, paid by the seller. Short-term rentals are prohibited. The board takes a summer recess in July and August, which should be built into any contract timeline.

Post-closing liquidity requirements, debt-to-income thresholds and the board's posture on co-purchase and guarantors are not published. They are set by the board and applied case by case, and they are the single most common reason a financially qualified buyer is rejected. Get them from the managing agent before you sign a contract, not after.

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 (2025): a median $1,483/sf across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2026. Median listing discount 2.3% 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 1-01232-7501) 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 on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

Understand that you are buying shares, not a condominium unit. The RM building class in city records describes the tax lot. The Residential Unit of the condominium is owned by a cooperative corporation, and you will buy shares, sign a proprietary lease, assemble a board package and sit for an interview. Underwrite this as a co-op purchase in every respect. Run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator before offering.

Price the taxes forward, not backward. The J-51 exemption reached zero in fiscal 2026. Ask for the current tax bill and the current year's budget, and model maintenance from those, not from a listing's stated figure that may predate the final step-down.

Get the underlying mortgage terms in writing. The debt is interest only and has been refinanced. Principal balance, rate and maturity all belong in your diligence file, because an interest-only underlying note with a near-term maturity is a future maintenance increase in waiting.

Confirm the assessment status. The 2019 capital assessment ran twenty-four months; recurring operating assessments have been layered on top of maintenance in multiple years. Ask what is currently being billed and what the board has authorized but not yet imposed.

No pied-à-terre. If this is a second home, this is not your building. Confirm the current policy with the managing agent, but plan on primary occupancy.

Lead with the room count and the light. Prewar proportions, foyers and fireplaces are what this building sells; buyers who want new-construction finishes are shopping elsewhere, and the ones who want the layouts will pay for condition.

Have the answer to the tax question ready. Every serious buyer's attorney will ask about the J-51 expiry and the underlying mortgage. Assemble the current tax bill, the current budget and the most recent audited financials before you list. A prepared answer converts a red flag into a neutral fact.

Budget the flip tax honestly. 1.5 percent of gross price, or $3.00 per share if that is greater, comes out of your proceeds. Model it with the Seller Closing Cost Calculator.

Time the board. The July–August recess can add two months to a closing timeline. Contracts signed in June should be planned around it.

If you're considering 255 West 84th Street, also evaluate:

• 225 West 83rd Street (The Bromley) — the full-service condominium two blocks south on a different tax block; the condominium alternative in the same catchment
• 215 West 84th Street — the immediate prewar neighbor on the same street
• 300 West 83rd Street — another Ajello Renaissance Revival house nearby
• 310 West 85th Street — Ajello, two blocks north; a close like-for-like in age and register
• 498 West End Avenue — the West End Avenue condominium on the 83rd Street block; a different tax block despite the proximity
• 480 West End Avenue — prewar West End Avenue cooperative at 83rd Street
• 505 West End Avenue — Ajello on West End Avenue at 84th Street, directly west
• 150 West 82nd Street (The Marlow) — a recently converted Upper West Side apartment house; the new-conversion comparison
• 2730 Broadway — Ajello's Broadway-corner cooperative uptown; the closest structural analogue for a Broadway building with retail at the base
• 160 Riverside Drive — Ajello on Riverside Drive; the park-facing step across