306 West 104th Street

Sugarman & Berger designed widely across 1920s Manhattan, and 306 West 104th is a refined, restrained example of their pre-war residential work: a masonry façade of brick over a limestone and terra-cotta base, detailed in the Colonial Revival idiom that defined the era's upper-middle-class apartment houses. The building is served by two elevators — generous for its size — and laid out four-to-a-floor, which gives most apartments light on more than one exposure.

The 36 residences are classic pre-war: one-, two-, and three-bedroom homes with the higher ceilings, separate kitchens, and defined rooms that buyers come to this stretch of the West Side to find. Many have been individually renovated over the years; the building permits in-unit washer/dryers with board approval, a meaningful convenience in a pre-war house of this vintage.

306 West 104th is a non-doorman cooperative run by a live-in resident manager, with a central laundry room, bike room, and private storage. The shared, furnished residents' garden is the building's social anchor and its most-cited amenity — a quiet outdoor room of the kind that small pre-war buildings on these blocks occasionally have and larger buildings almost never do.

The board's terms are notably accommodating for a pre-war co-op: financing is permitted up to 80% of the purchase price — higher than most pre-war buildings allow — and the building is pet-friendly. The flip tax is structured as the lower of 10% of the seller's gross profit or 7% of the sale price, paid at closing; it is a meaningful number, and one sellers should model early.

With only 36 apartments, 306 West 104th trades quietly — typically a small handful of sales in an active year. Pricing reflects the boutique pre-war profile and the northern-Riverside location: per-square-foot numbers sit below the prime West End Avenue stock to the south, which is precisely the value the building offers. Larger renovated two- and three-bedrooms command the building's top pricing. Our /sales record is generated directly from the building's tax lot and reflects recorded transfers as they post; in a building this small, individual results vary widely with floor, exposure, and condition.

The 80% financing policy is the headline for buyers — it is unusually permissive for a pre-war co-op and meaningfully lowers the cash barrier to entry. Still, expect a full board package and interview; this is a hands-on building that vets its buyers.

Two practical points. First, model the flip tax (lower of 10% of gross profit or 7% of price) into any long-term hold, since it affects eventual resale economics. Second, this is a non-doorman building — weigh that against the lower carrying costs and the garden. The location trades a few blocks of distance from the prime UWS core for a quieter, leafier setting steps from Riverside Park, with the 1 train at 103rd Street and Broadway's markets and restaurants close by.

Pre-war detail, the residents' garden, the four-per-floor layout, and the 80% financing policy are your strongest selling points — together they widen the buyer pool well beyond a typical pre-war co-op. Renovated kitchens and baths, and intact original detail, both command premiums with this building's audience.

Price to the building's own history and the comparable northern-Riverside pre-war co-ops, not to the doorman buildings on West End and Riverside proper. A 36-unit building generates sparse comparable data, so accurate day-one positioning is essential. We bring the building's transaction history and the live comparable set to every listing.

If you're considering 306 West 104th Street, these nearby Upper West Side cooperatives form the natural comparison set:

• 280 West End Avenue area peers on West End — pre-war West End Avenue cooperative
• 300 West End Avenue — pre-war West End co-op to the south
• 310 West End Avenue — West End Avenue pre-war peer
• 2780 Broadway — northern Upper West Side cooperative nearby
• 600 West End Avenue — larger West End Avenue pre-war co-op

The Roebling Team at Compass specializes in the Upper West Side, West End Avenue, Riverside Drive, and the broader park-facing Manhattan market. We publish this profile because buyers and sellers in a boutique pre-war building deserve building-specific intelligence — the real financing and flip-tax terms, the role of the garden, and where pricing sits against the surrounding West Side stock.

If you're considering a purchase or sale at 306 West 104th, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.