27 West 19th Street (The Emory)

The building occupies a 2,300-square-foot interior lot measuring roughly 25 by 92 feet, with about 20,000 square feet of gross floor area across fifteen stories. That geometry governs everything. There is no corner, no protected side exposure, and no possibility of a wide plan: the residences run front to back, drawing light from West 19th Street on the south and from the rear yard on the north.

The façade is limestone at the base rising into gray glazed brick — a glazed rather than common brick, which reads as a deliberate reference to the district's terra-cotta and cast-iron vocabulary without imitating it. Window openings are punched and regular. There is no curtain wall, no cantilever, and no gesture that would have failed a Landmarks review.

Residences are full-floor and near-full-floor, entered directly from a keyed elevator, with a penthouse at the top and a roof deck that was formally added to the certificate of occupancy in 2018 by a no-work Alteration Type 1 filing. That filing is worth understanding rather than glossing: the deck existed before it was on the certificate, the building legalized it, and a related pergola and raised deck were removed in 2019 to resolve a Department of Buildings violation. The outcome is clean — the roof deck is now on the certificate of occupancy and the violation was cured — but it is the kind of history a buyer's attorney should see documented rather than described.

Four of the seventeen condominium unit lots are storage units, taxed separately and traded separately. Some are held by residents of the building and some are not. If storage matters to you, verify whether the apartment you are buying comes with a storage unit or whether one is separately available; the deed will tell you and the listing may not.

The Emory is a small condominium and it runs like one. The audited financial statements on file for 2020 through 2024 show annual common-charge revenue of roughly $356,000 across thirteen residences, against total operating expenses of roughly $358,000 in 2024. The largest line items are wages, repair and maintenance, utilities, and insurance, in that order. Management is outside and professional; the managing agent's fee is a modest and stable line.

Two operating facts deserve emphasis because they are exactly the kind of thing a buyer will not find in marketing material.

There is no reserve fund. The condominium runs an operating fund only. The auditor flags in an "Other Matter" paragraph that the condominium has not estimated the remaining useful lives or replacement costs of the common property and has therefore not prepared a funding plan for future major repairs. The notes state the board's approach plainly: when funds are needed for major repairs and replacements, the condominium will raise common charges, levy a special assessment, or defer the work. That is a legitimate model for a thirteen-unit building — a funded reserve on this denominator is expensive — but it means capital events are funded through common charges, assessments or deferral rather than reserve draws.

And they have. The board levied a ten-month, $250,000 special assessment beginning February 2022 for capital improvements, repairs and replacements, and a five-month, $125,000 assessment beginning January 2023. The money went where the filings say it went: a Department of Buildings application in August 2022 covers façade repair on floors 4, 5, 9 and 12 and the roof, with a sidewalk shed filed the following month. Exterior restoration is the dominant major-repair expense in the 2023 statements and continues at a much smaller scale in 2024, alongside elevator work, an exhaust fan motor and cooling-tower improvement.

The outcome is documented and it is good. The building filed under the city's periodic façade inspection program as Safe With a Repair and Maintenance Program in Cycle 8 (2019) and, after the assessment-funded work, as Safe in Cycle 9 (filed August 2023). Common charges were increased 2 percent effective January 1, 2023 and were flat from 2023 into 2024. Cash stood at roughly $260,000 at each of the last two year-ends on file, and the fund balance — negative at the end of 2022 and 2023 — returned to positive in 2024 once the unspent assessment was recognized. The statements disclose no pending or threatened litigation.

Read together, this is a building that identified a façade problem, assessed for it, executed it, and cleared its inspection cycle — with no designated reserve left behind, so future capital work could be funded from charges, an assessment or borrowing. Both halves of that sentence are true and both matter.

Ownership form: Condominium. Sales close through the board's right of first refusal rather than through cooperative-style approval. Thirty to forty-five days is a typical closing estimate.

Pets, pied-à-terre, LLC, trust and foreign purchasers: Not documented; confirm in the declaration, bylaws and house rules, including pet weight and breed rules.

Short-term occupancy: Restricted. The resale package on file states that short-term tenancies not permitted under the declaration or by-laws are a violation and are enforced against the unit owner. If a rental strategy is part of your underwriting, read the by-laws on minimum lease term before contract.

Move-in and move-out: A $1,000 deposit payable to the condominium and a certificate of insurance are required in advance, per the resale package on file. The house rules carry an escalating fine schedule beginning with a written warning.

Financing and minimum down: Not documented; confirm in the declaration, bylaws and house rules, and with the lender.

Flip tax: Not documented in public records or in the financial statements on file. Confirm any resale capital contribution with the managing agent before pricing a sale.

Real estate taxes: The assessment roll shows no exemption. Check the specific unit's current tax bill for any abatement, and underwrite from that bill rather than a projection.

Assessments: Two capital assessments were levied in 2022 and 2023 and both concluded. Ask the managing agent in writing whether any assessment is currently in force or contemplated, and get the answer before you go to contract.

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 (2026 to date) cleared a median $1,445/sf (recorded) across 2 sales. Median listing discount 5.1% 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 1-00821-7505; 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.

Read the audited financials before you bid, not after. They are on file with us. The two facts that matter are that the condominium runs no reserve fund and that it assessed twice in two years to fund exterior restoration. Neither is disqualifying in a thirteen-unit building; both should be priced.

Ask what the next capital item is. With no reserve study on file, the board evaluates major repairs annually. Ask the managing agent, in writing, what is on the current-year list and whether any assessment is contemplated.

Underwrite from the current tax bill. The assessment roll shows no exemption; confirm on the apartment's bill that no abatement applies. Run the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator against the actual current bill.

Resolve the staffing question. Listing records describe doorman and concierge service. The audited payroll on file is not consistent with around-the-clock coverage. Confirm the actual staffed hours with the managing agent — this is a lifestyle question and a cost question at once.

Confirm what comes with the apartment. Four of the seventeen unit lots are storage units, separately deeded. Storage is not automatic.

Landmarks governs the exterior. The building sits inside the Ladies' Mile Historic District. Window, HVAC-louver and terrace-structure alterations require an LPC permit; the project’s scope determines whether staff approval or a Certificate of Appropriateness is appropriate. Interior work requiring a DOB permit also requires LPC review. The 2019 removal of a rooftop pergola and raised deck is a live illustration of what happens when rooftop structures get ahead of approvals.

Lead with the plan and the district. A full-floor residence with private elevator entry inside Ladies' Mile is not a loft and should not be marketed as one. The scarcity argument is the strongest one you have and it is true.

Get ahead of the financials. A buyer's attorney will find the "no reserve fund" language and the assessment history in the first hour of diligence. Presenting them alongside the concluded façade work and the Cycle 9 Safe filing is a far better outcome than letting them surface as a surprise.

Present the tax posture plainly. The assessment roll shows no exemption on a 2007 building; confirm it on the apartment's bill and pair it with the carrying-cost analysis rather than leaving it in the fine print.

Same-building comparables are thin. Thirteen residences means pricing runs off floor, exposure, outdoor space and condition rather than off a building average. Line-level analysis wins here.

If you're considering The Emory, also evaluate:

• 16 West 19th Street — 1907 commercial loft converted to condominium in 2007; the loft alternative directly across the street
• 121 West 19th Street — 1903 loft converted to condominium in 2005; the prewar-conversion comparison on the same street
• 130 West 19th Street — 2005 ground-up condominium by GKV Architects; the closest peer by vintage and tenure
• 130 West 20th Street — 2008 ground-up construction by H. Thomas O'Hara Architects; the nearest like-for-like new-development alternative
• 15 West 20th Street — 1906 Neo-Renaissance store-and-loft converted to condominium; boutique scale, prewar structure
• 32 West 18th Street — 1908 Maynicke & Frank loft converted in 2006; the larger conversion one block south
• 29 West 21st Street — James E. Ware & Sons loft, converted to condominium; another Ladies' Mile building with the same Landmarks constraints
• 4 West 21st Street — 2005–2006 Hugh Hardy building operated as a condop; the same vintage under a different ownership structure
• 141 Fifth Avenue — 1897 Beaux-Arts store-and-loft condominium with a corner dome; the landmark-quality alternative at a higher price tier
• 212 Fifth Avenue — 1913 neo-Gothic office tower converted in the mid-2010s; the full-service condominium comparison