255 West 98th Street
255 West 98th Street, New York, NY 10025
BBL 1018700005 · BIN 1056394
- Year built
- 1913
- Type
- Cooperative
- Landmark status
- Not an individual landmark; in the Riverside-West End Historic District Extension II
- NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission records, updated February 2026
Every recorded sale at this building, 2005–2026
Bedroom-by-bedroom medians, the full transfer record, and how units trade against ask.
- 3BR median, 2025–2026
- $1.8M
- 3 qualifying sales
- Recent range
- $1.4M – $1.8M
- Listing discount
- -4.0%
- Recorded transfers
- 25
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 255 West 98th Street would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.
255 West 98th Street is a 1913 Renaissance Revival cooperative by Gaetano Ajello — the Italian-born architect who became one of the most prolific and accomplished apartment-house designers of the Upper West Side, responsible for a long run of richly detailed pre-war buildings along Broadway, West End Avenue, and Riverside Drive. It is a characteristic example: a ten-story masonry building with a restored Gilded Age lobby of original marble, tile, and luminescent stained glass, sited on a quiet block between Broadway and West End Avenue.
Converted to a cooperative in 1984, it operates as a boutique, owner-occupant building of 34 apartments. The location is the kind of upper-90s pocket that combines value with convenience: a short walk from Riverside Park, a block from the Broadway shopping spine and the 1/2/3 trains at 96th Street, and within easy reach of the West End Avenue and Riverside Drive residential blocks.
For buyers, 255 West 98th Street offers an Ajello-designed pre-war co-op with a genuinely beautiful lobby and generous layouts with pricing to be compared against matched sales on the 70s and 80s blocks. For sellers, the architect's name, the restored lobby, and the boutique scale are the story.
Architecture and unit composition
255 West 98th Street is a ten-story Renaissance Revival apartment house in Ajello's signature manner — a confident masonry composition with a defined base, a restrained shaft, and ornamental detail concentrated where it reads from the street. The headline interior feature is the lobby, restored to display its original Gilded Age marble, decorative tile, and stained glass — an unusually intact period entrance for a building of this scale.
With 34 residences across roughly 45,300 square feet, gross area divided by unit count averages well over 1,300 square feet, but includes shared space. Verify the actual measurements of its one-, two-, and three-bedroom homes with entry foyers, separate dining rooms, high ceilings, hardwood floors, and plaster walls. Many apartments have been renovated since the 1984 conversion.
Building operations
The building runs as a well-kept boutique cooperative with a resident superintendent, central laundry, and private storage, managed for owner-occupant stability. As a 34-unit co-op, monthly maintenance covers building staff, heat and hot water, the unit's share of real estate taxes, and the ongoing upkeep of the pre-war façade, the restored lobby, and building systems.
Governance is by a board of directors that reviews purchase applications and conducts interviews; buyers should expect a standard co-op board package and a financing review. Pet, sublet, renovation, and pied-à-terre policies are set by the board and house rules. Boutique upper-West-Side co-ops of this vintage typically maintain conservative, primary-residence-oriented underwriting.
Monthly carrying charges in recent sales
- Maintenance, per room
- $401 per room a monthMedian of 4 recorded sales since October 2023Source: recorded sales, refreshed October 2026
Maintenance as recorded with each sale. A co-op's maintenance already covers the building's real estate taxes and the building's own mortgage, if it has one; add your own loan payment for the monthly outlay. A summary of recorded sales, not a current bill; charges change.
Building staffing and amenities
- Live-in superintendent
- YesSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Elevator
- YesSource: NYC Department of City Planning records (PLUTO)
- Amenities noted
- Storage, laundry roomSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
Staffing and amenities as our building profile and recent listing records describe them. A feature not listed is not confirmed absent. Outdoor space, parking and some facilities can belong to particular apartments or to a separate owner; confirm access for the specific apartment.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $3,852/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $9
- Modeled exposure split equally across 34 units (the residential count on the city's lot record). Not an assessed amount; co-op shareholders are typically charged by share allocation.
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City data last refreshed October 2026.
See full Local Law 97 analysis — emissions history, scenarios, methodology →Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available filing classified the facade as SWARMP — Safe With A Repair and Maintenance Program: the inspector (QEWI) identified conditions requiring monitoring or repair, with repairs due by the deadline stated in the filing. The scope, timeline, and how the building funds the work are building-specific — we review the filings and board materials for you.
How to read this, and where it comes from
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — a licensed professional engineer or registered architect who meets DOB’s FISP qualifications and signs 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 data last refreshed October 2026.
Recent sales
Recent transfers 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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 27, 2026 | 4B | 3 BR · 2 BA | $1,800,000 | +4.3% | |
| Sep 15, 2025 | 5A | 3 BR · 3 BA | $1,785,437 | +5.0% | |
| Jun 5, 2025 | 3A | 2 BR · 2 BA | $1,400,000 | -12.5% | |
| Apr 22, 2025 | 3B | 3 BR · 3 BA | $1,709,068 | +3.6% | |
| Oct 27, 2022 | 4C | 1 BR · 1 BA | $500,000 | -16.5% | |
| Mar 14, 2022 | 8C | 3 BR · 2 BA · 1,200 sf | $1,485,000 | $1,238/sf | +6.1% |
| Oct 21, 2021 | 9D | 1 BR · 1 BA | $719,000 | +0.0% | |
| Sep 27, 2021 | 7AD | 4 BR · 2.5 BA · 2,225 sf | $2,227,500 | $1,001/sf | -10.0% |
Market read. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2022): a median $1,238/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2026. Median listing discount 3.1% 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 1-01870-0005). 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 on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.
What would your apartment rent for?
Enter your apartment and I'll send you what it would rent for, from comparable closed leases at 255 West 98th Street and nearby.
At the recent median sale of $1.75M (4 transfers in the past 24 months, since October 31, 2024), a buyer putting 25% down would pay about $32,023 to close, or 1.8% of the price.
- Mansion tax: $17,473
- No mortgage recording tax or title insurance on a co-op purchase
- Attorneys, lender, building fees and filings: $14,550
Assumes a resale (the seller pays transfer taxes), a $4,500 attorney fee and a mortgage on the rest.
Keep up with 255 West 98th Street and its market
The Roebling Report, monthly: Manhattan sales data and analysis, including buildings like 255 West 98th Street. Unsubscribe anytime.
We’ll use your email for The Roebling Report and note your interest in this building. See our privacy policy.
What to know if you’re buying
Plan for a pre-war co-op purchase: board package, financials, references, and an interview. Maintenance covers heat, hot water, staff, and the building's share of taxes; ask for recent financials, the reserve position, and any assessment or capital-project history, since a 1913 building carries periodic façade and systems work.
The buying argument is value plus character. You are acquiring a generously sized, Ajello-designed pre-war apartment with a beautiful restored lobby, a short walk from Riverside Park and the Broadway subway and shopping corridor, with pricing to be tested against matched mid-West-Side sales. Confirm the building's financing cap, sublet stance, and pet policy against the current house rules — the actual rules and costs matter to a purchase but do not guarantee long-term value.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the architecture and the lobby: a named Gaetano Ajello pre-war building with an intact Gilded Age entrance of marble, tile, and stained glass, and generous layouts on a quiet block near Riverside Park.
Price against the upper-West-Side pre-war cooperative set, with renovated and larger homes positioned at the top of the building's range. Check actual competing inventory and dated transfers before judging scarcity; a complete board package and current financials support diligence without guaranteeing closing timing.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 255 West 98th Street, also evaluate these nearby Upper West Side cooperatives:
- 305 West 98th Street — pre-war cooperative on the same block
- 275 West 96th Street — nearby comparison a few blocks south; confirm era and ownership in its own records
- 250 West 94th Street — pre-war building nearby
- 150 West 95th Street — pre-war cooperative to the south
- 305 West 104th Street — pre-war upper-West-Side peer
More Upper West Side buildings
- 255 West 108th Street (The Manchester) — 1910 co-op by Neville & Bagge
- 255 West 84th Street (The Alameda) — 1914 condop by Gaetano Ajello
- 255 West 90th Street — 1909 co-op by Neville & Bagge
- 255 West End Avenue — 1916 co-op
- Claremont Condominium (255 West 85th Street) — condominium
- The Augusta, 255 West 92nd Street — 1897 condominium
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, transit, and pricing across Upper West Side — read The Roebling Team Guide to Upper West Side.
The full playbook — what goes in the package, how boards read your financials, the interview, and the timeline — plus sample cover, reference, and personal letters you can adapt.
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. Where this page compares one building or neighborhood to another, that is our analysis of the recorded record — it names the measure, the period and the sample it rests on, and it is an observation about medians rather than a prediction about any particular apartment.
Considering a move at 255 West 98th Street?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
646.939.7375 · c.cohen@compass.com