- Year built
- 1980
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 39
- Floors
- 5
- Landmark
- No
- Amenities
- Shared rear garden/patio with seating and a grill for shareholders per listing records; central laundry room; bike storage
- Pets
- Permitted with board approval per listing records
- Financing
- 80 percent maximum (20 percent minimum down) per listing records
The West 54th Street blocks between Eighth and Ninth Avenues are where Midtown's residential market gets practical: a five-minute walk puts you at Columbus Circle, the Broadway theaters, Carnegie Hall, or the 57th Street office spine, and the Special Clinton District — the 1974 zoning framework that protects these side streets — keeps the mid-block scale low and the light real. 317 West 54th Street is one of the corridor's small entry-tier cooperatives: 39 units across 5 floors, predominantly studios and one-bedrooms, with a shared rear garden that listing records consistently flag as the building's signature amenity. For buyers priced out of co-op ownership nearly everywhere else in walking distance of the Midtown core, buildings like this one are the actual product.
The cooperative's paper trail is better than its size suggests. The Roebling Research Library holds the full conversion set — offering plan, by-laws, and the proprietary lease with house rules. The plan documents the mechanics precisely: sponsor Lurie Mortgage Corporation acquired the property at the end of 1981 and offered 5,897 shares across 38 units under an eviction plan, with the superintendent's apartment held back unallocated and a single professional suite conveyed under a long-term lease. The proprietary lease runs to December 31, 2084. That is the entire governing framework of the building, on file and readable before you offer — which matters in small self-managed co-ops, where the documents do the work that a large managing agent's compliance department does elsewhere.
The honest caveat is the building's documented physical history, which is thin. City records carry a 1980 construction date; listing records describe the building variously as pre-war and post-war; and the offering plan's references to the city's rehabilitation regulations suggest the 1980 date may mark a substantial renovation of older housing stock rather than new construction. We flag the ambiguity rather than resolve it by guesswork — it has no practical bearing on ownership, but your engineer's inspection should be read with it in mind.
Architecture and unit composition
This is a modest five-story brick building on a roughly 58-foot lot — no architectural pedigree is documented, and we do not invent one. The 39 apartments run small and efficient: studios and one-bedrooms with through-wall air conditioning, several refreshed in recent listing cycles. What the building offers instead of provenance is position — a protected low-rise block in the Special Clinton District, where the zoning itself is the guarantee that the mid-block will not be built into a tower — and the shared garden, a genuine rarity at this price tier in Midtown West.
Building operations
Self-service mechanics: a resident superintendent, no doorman, central laundry, bike storage, and the shareholders' garden. Listing records conflict on whether the building has a passenger elevator — it appears in some amenity feeds as a walk-up and in others as an elevator building — so verify at showing if stairs matter to you. The conversion-era governance documents are on file with us; current financial statements should be requested from the managing agent during diligence, as we do not hold recent statements for this building.
Local Law 97
This building is below the 25,000 sq ft threshold at which LL97 emissions caps apply. No regulatory capital pressure from this law specifically, current or 2030.
See full Local Law 97 analysis →Recent sales
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Recent transfers at this building, sourced from NYC Department of Finance records. Apartment-level detail (line, condition, asking-price context) verified upon consultation request.
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 27, 2021 | 4G | $620,000 |
| Jul 19, 2021 | 1A | $690,000 |
| Aug 20, 2020 | 1B | $525,000 |
| Jan 3, 2020 | 4B | $565,000 |
| Jul 15, 2019 | 1G | $570,000 |
| Jul 24, 2018 | 2A | $700,000 |
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 1-01045-0020) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
The price of admission is the product. Co-op ownership within a ten-minute walk of Columbus Circle, Carnegie Hall, and the theater district, at a five-figure-down-payment scale with 80 percent financing permitted per listing records — that is the entire thesis, and it is a sound one. Run the Co-op Affordability Calculator before touring.
Read the conversion documents — we have them. The offering plan, by-laws, and proprietary lease on file in The Roebling Research Library are the building's constitution. In a 39-unit self-managed cooperative, the documents and the board are the institution; there is no large management apparatus behind them.
The policy stack is thinly documented publicly. Pets require board approval and guarantors appear permitted per listing and brokerage records, but sublet terms, pied-à-terre posture, and any flip tax are not publicly documented. Have these confirmed in writing through the managing agent before you go to contract — and budget conservatively until they are.
No doorman means no doorman. Packages, deliveries, and access run through a superintendent and an intercom. The maintenance savings are real; decide whether the trade suits you.
Verify the building's physical history through your engineer. The 1980 city-records date, the pre-war descriptions in listing records, and the rehabilitation-era offering plan language are an unresolved set. None of it is disqualifying; all of it belongs in your inspection conversation.
What to know if you’re selling
Sell the block and the garden. The Special Clinton District's protected scale, the rear garden, and the walk-to-everything position are the differentiators against the anonymous studio stock east of Eighth Avenue. Market them specifically.
Price to the entry buyer's math. Your buyer pool is financing-sensitive and closing-cost-sensitive. The 80 percent financing allowance widens the pool relative to stricter co-ops nearby — make sure the listing says so. Run the Seller Closing Cost Calculator with any transfer fee confirmed first.
Have the building's paperwork ready early. Small co-ops slow down at the board-package and bank-questionnaire stage. We pre-position the conversion documents from the Research Library and coordinate the questionnaire with the managing agent so financed deals do not stall.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 317 West 54th Street, also evaluate:
- 419 West 55th Street — the closest like-for-like Hell's Kitchen co-op comparison, two blocks north
- 205 West 54th Street (The Albemarle) — the pre-war elevator co-op step-up one block east
- 17 West 54th Street (Rockefeller Apartments) — the landmark co-op alternative across Fifth Avenue's orbit, for buyers stretching toward pedigree
- 457 West 57th Street — large pre-war co-op at the corridor's northwest edge; more units, more services
- The Piano Factory (454 West 46th Street) — Hell's Kitchen's best-known character conversion co-op, deeper into the neighborhood
- 240 Central Park South — the full-service park-front step-up for buyers whose budget grows
The Roebling Team at 317 West 54th Street
The Roebling Team at Compass works Midtown West — from the Billionaires' Row corridor to the entry-tier co-op stock of Hell's Kitchen's protected side streets — as part of our broader Manhattan practice. We publish this building profile because buyers and sellers at 317 West 54th Street deserve building-specific intelligence — conversion documentation, policy framework, and tier-correct comparables — not generic neighborhood commentary.
If you're considering a transaction at 317 West 54th Street, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.