323 East 52nd Street (La Maison)

Twenty feet of frontage and just over a hundred feet of depth on an R8B lot produces a specific kind of home: full-floor, front-to-back, with light at two ends and none on the sides. La Maison uses that geometry the way townhouse conversions generally do — the value is concentrated at the bottom and the top, where outdoor space is possible, and the middle floors are simpler floor-throughs.

Brokerage and listing records describe the four homes as a three-bedroom triplex maisonette at the base with its own entry and garden-level outdoor space; two floor-through residences on the middle floors; and a four-bedroom duplex penthouse with a private roof deck. Every residence carries private outdoor space, and every residence carries the exclusive right to one storage bin under license from the condominium. The building is wired as a smart building with a security system and virtual doorman rather than staffed.

Because the structure behind the street wall is new, its systems date from the rebuild rather than from 1899; their current condition needs confirming in recent engineering reports and board materials. The trade-off is that a buyer is underwriting a young building's construction quality rather than an old building's known behaviour, and the sponsor's construction warranty period is now well past.

Four units, one elevator, no staff. Common charges in a building this size fund insurance, the elevator contract, water and sewer, façade and roof reserves, and very little else. The absence of doorman payroll alone does not establish low monthly charges; with a budget this small, an unbudgeted cost could be funded by higher charges, an assessment across four units or borrowing; review the reserve and assessment history.

Governance is where a buyer should spend diligence time. With four units, board control may turn on very few votes (confirm voting rights and common-interest shares in the declaration), and the plan on file gave the sponsor structural priority for a decade from the first closing — including a right of first refusal over sales and leases and a consent right over the board's own exercise of that right. On that later-of term the sponsor's priority runs to about September 2030 even though all four units have conveyed; confirm in writing whether any amendment or release has changed it.

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 (2024) cleared a median $1,646/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. Median listing discount 8.7% 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 1-01345-7503; 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.

Get the right of first refusal answered in writing before you sign. The offering plan on file gives the sponsor a right over sales and leases running to the later of sellout or ten years from the first closing, and subordinates the board's own right to the sponsor's consent in that window. All four units have conveyed, but on the stated term the ten years from the September 2020 first closing run to about September 2030, so sellout alone does not end the right. Ask for the operative clause and any amendment, assignment or release; whether the right is still live, and what notice and waiver a seller needs, is the single most consequential question in this building.

Ask for the last two years of financials and the reserve balance. Four units, one elevator, a young building, a full façade to maintain. There is no scale here to smooth a capital event.

Do not treat PLUTO's 1899 as the building's age. The party walls are from 1899; almost everything else dates to 2015–2019. Inspect it as a recent building, and ask for the closeout documentation and the final certificate of occupancy.

If you're considering La Maison, also evaluate:

• 244 East 52nd Street — small East 52nd Street building a block west, on a different tax block; the nearest same-street comparison
• 216 East 52nd Street — boutique East 52nd Street ownership west of Second Avenue
• 345 East 52nd Street — Beekman-adjacent building on the same street, closer to the river
• 450 East 52nd Street — the landmarked Beekman-end cooperative; the prewar alternative at the river end of the block
• 455 East 51st Street — small Beekman-block building one street south
• 335 East 51st Street — comparable low-density Turtle Bay ownership
• 342 East 53rd Street — boutique Turtle Bay building of similar scale
• 321 East 54th Street — small Sutton-adjacent condominium alternative
• 317 East 50th Street — boutique Turtle Bay conversion with a comparable unit count