- Year built
- 1888
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 36
- Floors
- 8
- Landmark
- Designated
- Amenities
- Central laundry, private storage ($85/month with no waitlist per the 2022 records on file), bike room, package room, smartphone-compatible intercom
- Pets
- Domestic animals permitted with written board approval, per the due-diligence memorandum on file
- Financing
- Maximum not firmly documented in public records — verify with the managing agent at offer stage
- Flip tax
- None; purchasers pay a working-capital contribution equal to one month's maintenance, per the due-diligence memorandum on file
Every recorded sale at this building, 2005–2025
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $910
- Listing discount
- 1.0%
- Recorded sales
- 36
- On record
- 2005–2025
The Wilbraham is one of the best surviving examples of a building type New York invented and then abandoned: the bachelor apartment hotel. In the 1880s, roughly 45 percent of the city's adult men were single, and respectable housing for them barely existed. The Scottish-American jeweler William Moir — whose cast-iron store at Sixth Avenue and 23rd Street was a Ladies' Mile fixture — bought the corner brownstones at 282–284 Fifth Avenue in 1888 for $245,000 and commissioned fellow Scots D. & J. Jardine to build "fireproof" flats for professional men of means. The result, completed in May 1890, was called by the Real Estate Record & Guide "the most elegantly appointed among the bachelor apartment houses in New York City." When the building sold in 1908, The New York Times described it as "one of the first and finest bachelor apartment houses erected in the Fifth Avenue section."
The architecture is the asset the city chose to protect. Eight stories of Philadelphia brick, Belleville brownstone, and cast iron rise to a mansard roof, with monumental rusticated piers, deeply carved capitals, and WILBRAHAM cut into a stone banner over the arched entrance. The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building an individual landmark on June 8, 2004, citing it as "extraordinarily well-detailed" and an outstanding extant example of its type. The original suites had parlors, bedrooms, and private baths — but no kitchens; residents ate in the top-floor dining room, and the building's two-story shopfront housed the society china importers Gilman Collamore & Co. from 1890 to about 1920. Kitchens arrived in the 1934–35 modernization by Emery Roth and D. Everett Waid, after Metropolitan Life took the building in a Depression-era default.
For today's market the proposition is structural: a small, individually landmarked pre-war cooperative — converted in 1989 — at the center of NoMad, a corridor that spent the last fifteen years acquiring the hotel, restaurant, and retail energy the Wilbraham's block had in 1890. Entry pricing sits far below what comparable landmark fabric commands in the Flatiron and Madison Square blocks to the south, and the policy framework is unusually flexible for a co-op of this vintage.
Architecture and unit composition
The Jardines' design alternates thick rough-cut stone blocks with ornamented courses to build the corner piers, and the carved detail — knotted geometrics, medieval faces — rewards close viewing; the original drawings called for six stories, with the seventh floor and the mansard added by amendment during construction in 1889. Inside, the building's roughly three dozen apartments are predominantly studios and one-bedrooms shaped by the original two-room-suite plan: high ceilings, oversized windows on the Fifth Avenue and 30th Street exposures, and pre-war proportion in compact footprints. Combinations exist — including duplexed units on the upper floors — and the penthouse level, enlarged in the 1935 renovation, holds the building's largest residence. Renovation quality varies unit to unit, and the landmark designation means façade and window work runs through LPC review.
Building operations
This is a boutique, lightly staffed cooperative: a live-in superintendent, an elevator-operator service documented in listing records rather than a full doorman line, central laundry, storage, and a bike room. Two commercial units occupy the retail base, continuing the building's original configuration of shops below flats. The operational record on file is candid: the 2020 audited statements showed an operating deficit, the board corrected with a 15 percent maintenance increase in 2021 and then held 2022 to 0.5 percent, reserves stood near $187,000, and the $2.8 million underlying mortgage at 4 percent was scheduled to mature in October 2025 — making the refinancing terms a live diligence question in the current rate environment. The offering-plan amendments, due-diligence memorandum, building questionnaire, and insurance certificates are on file in The Roebling Research Library.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $22,816/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $50
Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available filing classified the facade as Unsafe — conditions requiring corrective action, which under FISP means a protective sidewalk shed and repairs. Review the subsequent filings, the repair status, and the building’s board and financial materials — we pull the repair scope and funding picture for you.
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — the licensed engineer the city requires to sign the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent). Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library.
See the full facade history →Recent sales
Recent transfers at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. Apartment-level facts are independently verified before publishing; sale prices reflect the recorded transfer amount at the NYC Department of Finance.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 21, 2025 | 5F | 1 BA | $485,000 | -2.8% | |
| Sep 26, 2025 | 7D | 1 BA | $480,229 | -3.8% | |
| Jul 15, 2025 | 3F | 1 BR · 1 BA | $507,100 | +2.4% | |
| Dec 31, 2024 | 6E | 1 BR · 1 BA · 960 sf | $850,000 | $885/sf | +0.0% |
| Jul 24, 2024 | 3D | 1 BA | $510,500 | +0.1% | |
| Jun 28, 2024 | 7B | 1 BA | $490,000 | -1.8% | |
| Sep 30, 2022 | 5C | 1 BA | $551,500 | +2.1% | |
| Jan 26, 2022 | 7B | 1 BA | $535,000 | +0.0% |
Market read. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2024): a median $910/sf across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2025. Median listing discount 1.0% 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 1-00832-0039) 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
You are buying a designated landmark. The 2004 individual designation protects the façade and mansard permanently — the guarantee of the building's character and a practical constraint: window replacement and any envelope work require LPC review. Budget approval timelines accordingly.
The policy stack is flexible for a pre-war co-op. Pied-à-terre use, co-purchasing, guarantors, and LLC/trust structures are documented in listing records, sublets run case-by-case through the board, and there is no flip tax — only a one-month working-capital contribution from purchasers. This is a materially wider gate than most pre-war cooperatives. Confirm specifics, including any financing cap, with the managing agent.
Understand the sponsor position. As of the 2022 records on file, the sponsor held 15 of 36 units with 9 sublet. High sponsor concentration can affect some lenders' underwriting and shifts building dynamics; verify the current count and your lender's posture early.
Underwrite the financials, not the romance. The building corrected a deficit with a sharp 2021 maintenance increase, reserves are modest, and the underlying mortgage's October 2025 maturity means the refinanced rate now flows through maintenance. Have your attorney review the current statements — we hold the prior diligence file for comparison.
Service expectations should be calibrated. Elevator-operator service and a live-in super, not a 24-hour doorman and amenity floor. Compact monthly carry is the trade. Run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator before offering.
What to know if you’re selling
Market the landmark, specifically. Jardine brothers, 1890, bachelor-flats history, the Gilman Collamore shopfront, the 2004 individual designation — this is the most documented small building in its blocks, and the NoMad buyer responds to provenance. Use the facts, not adjectives.
Position against NoMad's new-condo pricing. Your buyer is cross-shopping glassy NoMad condos at roughly double the per-foot cost. The pitch is authentic 1890 fabric, protected forever, at co-op pricing — with a policy framework flexible enough for the pied-à-terre and investor-adjacent buyers the neighborhood attracts.
Disclose the financial arc with documents. The 2021 maintenance correction and the mortgage refinancing will surface in any attorney review; sellers who frame them early, with the building's documentation, keep deals on track. We provide the underlying file from the Research Library to serious buyers' counsel.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 284 Fifth Avenue, also evaluate:
- The Grand Madison (225 Fifth Avenue) — pre-war office-to-condo conversion on Madison Square; the scale and prestige step-up
- 260 Fifth Avenue — pre-war loft co-op a block south; the loft-scale alternative
- The Whitman (21 East 26th Street) — boutique pre-war conversion on the park
- 175 Fifth Avenue — the Flatiron Building; the corridor's landmark icon and its conversion-era benchmark
- 45 East 22nd Street — the corridor's contemporary price ceiling
- 88 Lexington Avenue and 94 Lexington Avenue — converted condos east of Madison Square; the condo-mechanics alternative
- The Stanford (45 East 25th Street) — post-war co-op alternative with full staff
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Flatiron — read The Roebling Team Guide to Flatiron.
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.
Considering a move at The Wilbraham?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at The Wilbraham 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.