Riverside Towers (263 West End Avenue)
263 West End Avenue, New York, NY 10023
Upper West Side
BBL 1011840010 · BIN 1030987
- Year built
- 1929
- Type
- Cooperative
Every recorded sale at this building, 2003–2026
Bedroom-by-bedroom medians, the full transfer record, and how units trade against ask.
- 1BR median
- $749K
- Recent range
- $580K – $4.9M
- Listing discount
- 1.9%
- Recorded transfers
- 150
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A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at Riverside Towers 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.
263 West End Avenue, known as Riverside Towers, has one of the most unusual back-stories of any building on the avenue. The structure rose in 1929 — originally conceived as the Hudson Towers — but ran into a long sequence of misfortune. Construction stalled, plans to repurpose the unfinished shell fell through, and for years the building stood vacant and incomplete, passing through foreclosures while never being occupied. By the 1940s it was a well-known curiosity of the Upper West Side: a tall, finished-looking tower that no one had ever lived in. It was finally brought to completion and opened as a cooperative in 1947, with the new name Riverside Towers.
That history explains the building's distinctive profile — a 22-story setback tower, taller than most of its West End Avenue contemporaries, with a handsome base of alternating limestone and masonry and a series of upper-floor setbacks that create private terraces. It reads as a hybrid of the late-1920s massing it was designed for and the moment in which it was actually finished and sold.
Today Riverside Towers is a genuinely full-service co-op: a 24-hour doorman and a live-in resident manager, a landscaped roof deck with panoramic city and river views, a residents' lounge, a bike room, central laundry, and large private storage rooms in the basement that come with apartments. For buyers it offers real height, terrace inventory, and amenity depth at the southern end of West End Avenue — one block from the 72nd Street express station and steps from Riverside Park, with Lincoln Center, the Museum of Natural History, and the Trader Joe's, Fairway, and Citarella markets all close by.
Architecture and unit composition
The 125 apartments occupy a setback tower of 22 stories — substantial height for West End Avenue. The setbacks produce a meaningful number of terraced apartments on the upper floors, an unusual amenity for a building of this era and a primary value driver within the building.
The mix runs from studios and one-bedrooms to larger four-bedroom layouts on the upper floors. Apartments combine elements of pre-war planning (the building's bones date to 1929) with the practical finishes of its 1940s completion. Higher floors capture open western exposures toward the Hudson and Riverside Park; lower and interior lines are more sheltered. Layouts, ceiling heights, and terrace configurations vary line to line and floor to floor — worth confirming apartment by apartment.
Building operations
Riverside Towers operates as a full-service cooperative with a 24-hour doorman and a live-in resident manager. The amenity roster — landscaped roof deck, residents' lounge, bike room, central laundry, and large private basement storage — is deep for the avenue, and the storage rooms in particular are a sought-after feature. The cooperative's policies are notably accommodating: up to 75% financing is permitted with a 40% minimum down payment, and the building allows pied-à-terres, co-purchasing, and guarantors. One dog per unit is permitted with board approval. Subletting is permitted four out of every five years after two years of ownership — a liberal posture by Manhattan co-op standards. A 2% flip tax applies and is paid by the buyer at closing. The 22-story, 125-unit scale supports stable staffing and the building-wide capital planning appropriate to a structure of its age and height, including ongoing facade and terrace-related maintenance under the city's periodic inspection requirements.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $40,850/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $27
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
See full Local Law 97 analysis — emissions history, scenarios, methodology →Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available FISP filing classified the facade as Safe — no repairs were required at that inspection. Facade inspections run on a fixed five-year cycle; future inspection, repair, and any assessment decisions remain building-specific.
How to read this, and where it comes from
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — the licensed engineer the city requires to sign the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent).
Penalties shown are amounts DOB assessed against filings on record across 2005–10 to 2025–30. 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 record last verified September 2026.
Management & transfer contacts
- Flip tax
- 2.0% of purchase price, payable by purchaser
- Sublet policy
- Allowed
- Pied-à-terre
- Allowed
- Notable fees
- Max financing 75%
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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 24, 2026 | 4G | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,335 sf | $1,688,000 | $1,264/sf | -0.7% |
| Jun 4, 2026 | 9E | 1 BR · 1 BA | $740,000 | -3.3% | |
| May 5, 2025 | 12E | 1 BR · 1 BA | $625,000 | -3.8% | |
| Apr 14, 2025 | 4AB | 4 BR · 3.5 BA · 2,150 sf | $3,400,000 | $1,581/sf | -14.9% |
| Mar 20, 2025 | 13F | 1 BR · 1 BA | $780,000 | -1.9% | |
| Aug 6, 2024 | 18AB | 4 BR · 3 BA | $4,900,000 | -1.9% | |
| Jul 10, 2024 | 16E | 1 BR · 1.5 BA | $1,100,000 | +10.6% | |
| Jun 26, 2024 | 14C | 1 BR · 1 BA · 900 sf | $849,000 | $943/sf | +0.0% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $1,337/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 1.9% 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.
Other recent transfers
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 13, 2006 | 5E | $280,000 |
| Nov 28, 2005 | 18D | $675,000 |
| May 26, 2005 | 9F | $365,000 |
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 1-01184-0010) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
Terraces, height, and the roof deck are the differentiators. The upper-floor setbacks produce private outdoor space and open views that are scarce on West End Avenue, and the landscaped common roof deck adds river-and-city outlooks for the whole building.
The policies are buyer-friendly. Up to 75% financing, permitted pied-à-terres, co-purchasing and guarantors, and a four-of-five-years sublet allowance make this an unusually flexible co-op; budget for the 2% flip tax, which the buyer pays.
Storage and bike room are real conveniences. Large private basement storage rooms come with apartments — a feature worth confirming at the unit level.
Diligence terrace apartments carefully. Waterproofing, terrace maintenance responsibility, and any related building projects are worth specific review.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the terrace, the height, and the roof deck. These are the building's scarcest, most marketable attributes; the unusual Hudson-Towers-to-Riverside-Towers history adds narrative interest.
Highlight the flexible policies. The financing allowance, pied-à-terre and co-purchasing permissions, and liberal sublet rule widen the buyer pool meaningfully.
Price at the apartment level. Terrace presence, floor altitude, exposure, and condition matter far more than building-wide averages.
Closing timelines are co-op standard — generally 6–10 weeks from signed contract to closing.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 263 West End Avenue, also evaluate:
- 277 West End Avenue — nearby West End Avenue pre-war co-op
- 300 Riverside Drive — nearby park-facing pre-war co-op
- 400 West End Avenue — West End Avenue pre-war co-op
- 525 West End Avenue — Schwartz & Gross pre-war West End Avenue co-op
- 340 Riverside Drive — pre-war Riverside Drive co-op near the park
- 100 Riverside Drive — pre-war park-facing co-op on the Drive
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across West End Avenue — read The Roebling Team Guide to West End Avenue.
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.
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