325 West 45th Street (The Whitby)

Roth massed the building in three wings across a 175-foot frontage, which buys an unusual amount of light and corner exposure for a mid-block parcel; the beige brick is trimmed with bandcourses and crowned by a cornice that holds the streetwall against the theater marquees below. Inside, the roughly 217 apartments are predominantly studios and one-bedrooms — many with the proportions, beamed ceilings, and casement-era details of the apartment-hotel original — along with combined units assembled from the Depression-era subdivisions. Kitchens were retrofitted into hotel-era plans over decades, so layouts and renovation quality vary line to line more than in a conventional pre-war co-op; pricing tracks that variance closely. The roof deck is the building's signature amenity, with open views across the Midtown skyline.

Full-service at modest scale: 24-hour doorman, live-in superintendent, central laundry, storage, and the landscaped roof deck. The cooperative is run by a shareholder board under the 1987 plan's proprietary lease and by-laws; a number of rent-regulated tenancies from the non-eviction conversion survived into the co-op era, a normal feature of buildings converted on this timeline that has wound down over the decades. Policy specifics — pets, sublets, pied-à-terre terms, financing maximums, and the flip tax — are documented in listing records but should be verified against current board policy during diligence.

Recent sales

Recent transfers 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. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2021): a median $1,055/sf (recorded) across 2 sales. The building has traded as recently as 2026. Median listing discount 2.2% 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 1-01036-0014). 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.

• Doris Day and Betty Grable — both lived at the Whitby in its apartment-hotel era, per the building histories assembled around its press-covered 90th anniversary
• Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman — the bandleaders shared quarters at the Whitby in the late 1920s; the 1928 instrumental "Room 1411," which they recorded together, is named for their suite
• The building's century-long association with working Broadway performers was profiled by The New York Times in 1988, during the conversion, and again at the building's 90th anniversary in 2014

Buy the location with clear eyes. This is the Theater District: stage doors, marquees, tourist flow, and Ninth Avenue's restaurant economy are the daily texture. For industry buyers and committed Midtown urbanists it is the entire point; for quiet-seekers it is the wrong block. Spend an evening on the street before offering.

The unit mix is the market. Studios and one-bedrooms dominate, but the mix alone does not establish unusual liquidity or current scarcity of combined units; check dated sales and listings. Line-level comparables matter; hotel-era plans vary more than the floor count suggests.

Underwrite renovation honestly. Many units trade in estate or dated condition. Pre-war hotel plans reward smart renovation, but kitchens and electrical capacity deserve scrutiny. Run the Renovation Cost Calculator before bidding on an unrenovated line.

Prepare a conventional co-op package. The board framework is documented as moderate — financing in the 75–80 percent range per listing records, pets and pieds-à-terre permitted with approval — but verify every term at offer stage. Run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator before you offer.

Review the financials for the basics. A 1924 building carries 1924-building capital obligations — facade cycles, roof, elevators, plumbing risers. Your attorney should review the co-op's recent financial statements and assessment history; we frame the questions from the conversion documents on file.

Sell the story — it's real and it's documented. Emery Roth, 1924, a century of Broadway tenancy, "Room 1411," and a New York Times anniversary profile: no other building in the Theater District has this narrative. Use it with precision; the buyer pool for this location responds to provenance.

Price to condition and line, not to the building average. The spread between renovated and original units is wide, and the studio-heavy mix means small absolute price differences move percentage returns meaningfully. Same-line history is the anchor.

Target the natural buyer pools. Industry professionals, pied-à-terre buyers with Midtown lives, and value-driven first-time buyers priced out of the Village and Chelsea. Reaching those groups may help buyers evaluate the listing but does not guarantee the fastest sale; we run the building's comp set against active inventory before setting the ask.

If you're considering 325 West 45th Street, also evaluate:

• 357 West 55th Street (The Pembroke) — fellow pre-war Midtown West co-op with a similar value thesis ten blocks north
• The Camelot, 301 West 45th Street — the corner condo neighbor; the no-board alternative on the same block
• The Piano Factory, 454 West 46th Street — character loft-style co-op one block north; the conversion-era peer
• 419 West 55th Street (Loft 55) — condo-style living in the same corridor for buyers avoiding board interviews
• 350 West 50th Street (Two Worldwide Plaza) — the full-amenity condo step-up in the neighborhood
• The Armory, 529 West 42nd Street — converted co-op stock toward the river; the deeper-value alternative
• 635 West 42nd Street (The Atelier) — high-amenity condo pricing tier for comparison shopping
• Manhattan Plaza, 400 West 43rd Street — the performing-arts rental complex; context for the neighborhood's theater-housing ecosystem rather than a purchase alternative