393 West End Avenue

The building presents as a full-block-corner masonry mass on the southeast corner of West End Avenue and 79th Street, in brick, cast stone, stone and terra cotta over a limestone base. The ornamental concentration is at the entrance and the crown; the shaft is disciplined and largely unadorned, which is characteristic of West End Avenue's 1920s elevator-apartment idiom and of Goldner & Goldner's commercial work in it.

Interiors were reworked by CetraRuddy against the retained prewar shell. The delivered apartments hold the original proportions — the ceiling heights, the window rhythm, the separation between entertaining and sleeping space that a 1927 plan produces almost automatically — while carrying contemporary kitchens, baths, and in-unit laundry that a 1927 plan never anticipated. Layouts span one-bedroom residences at roughly 990 to 1,000 square feet through 1,200- to 1,800-square-foot two- and three-bedrooms, 2,700-square-foot four-bedroom configurations, and penthouse-level inventory at the top of the building.

The unit-line structure is worth understanding before pricing anything here. Because the conversion recombined a 114-unit prewar roster into 75 residences, the lines are not uniform floor to floor. Some lines run the full height of the building; others exist only on a range of floors, or disappear entirely where two former apartments were joined. Recorded transfers show lines A through H on lower and middle floors, thinning toward A, B and C at the top, plus a penthouse. The practical effect is that building-average pricing is a poor guide at 393 West End Avenue and line-and-floor comparables are the only reliable anchor.

Amenity space runs to approximately 4,000 square feet and is unusually programmed for a conversion of this size: a Great Room, a club room available to residents for private events, a fitness center, a teen lounge and a separate children's playroom, and a lounge configured with a gaming station and enclosed nooks for remote work — a post-2020 amenity brief rather than a 2015 one. The landscaped interior courtyard, a bike room, a pet spa and a resident laundry room occupy the lower level, and there is a common roof deck.

The building runs as a full-service condominium with a 24-hour attended lobby and a live-in resident manager. That staffing level is a meaningful differentiator against the boutique conversions elsewhere on the Upper West Side, several of which operate on part-time attendance, and it is the correct comparison point when weighing common charges against smaller buildings in the same price band.

Because the property sits within the West End–Collegiate Historic District Extension, every exterior alteration — façade, windows, roof-level construction, storefront — requires Landmarks Preservation Commission approval. For buyers this cuts two ways. It protects the elevation permanently, and it lengthens and raises the cost of any future façade cycle. The building's Local Law 11 status and the condition of the recently restored envelope should be reviewed for any transaction; a conversion-era restoration means the near-term façade risk is low, but the review obligation is permanent.

Recently converted buildings also carry a specific diligence item that ground-up new construction does not: the sponsor's obligations under the offering plan, the state of the reserve fund at handover, and the point at which unit owners took control of the board. Those items are documented in the plan and in the condominium's financial statements, and both should be pulled before contract.

Pets: Permitted.

Pied-à-terre: Permitted. This is one of the building's structural advantages over the surrounding prewar cooperative stock, where primary-residence requirements are the norm.

Subletting: Permitted, under the standard condominium framework — the board exercises a right of first refusal on a proposed sale or lease rather than approving or rejecting a purchaser. Confirm any minimum lease term with the managing agent.

LLC, trust and foreign ownership: Permitted.

Financing: No cooperative-style financing ceiling or minimum-down requirement. Financing terms are between the purchaser and the lender.

Flip tax: No traditional flip tax is documented. A working capital contribution of approximately two months' common charges applies; confirm the current amount, and specifically whether it is charged again on resale, with the managing agent.

In-unit washer/dryer: Permitted and installed.

Property tax abatement: The NYC Co-op/Condo Property Tax Abatement requires the apartment to be the owner's primary residence. Purchases held in an LLC, or used as a pied-à-terre, forfeit it. Listing records at 393 West End Avenue show a substantially higher monthly tax figure for non-primary owners, and the difference is large enough to change a carrying-cost model materially. Run it against the specific unit before offer.

Recent sales

Recent closings at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. 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 (2026) cleared a median $1,716/sf across 3 sales. Median listing discount 0.6% 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 1-01186-7501) 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.

You are buying prewar structure with condominium flexibility, and that combination carries a premium. It is also the whole reason to be here. If you do not need the condominium ownership form, the surrounding West End Avenue cooperative stock will deliver comparable prewar proportion at a materially lower price per square foot.

Price the line, not the building. The recombined plan means adjacent unit lines can differ substantially in layout, light and exposure. Building averages are misleading here to an unusual degree.

Model the tax abatement question first. If the purchase is going into an LLC, or the apartment will not be a primary residence, the property tax line changes meaningfully. That belongs in the underwriting before the offer, not after the contract.

Pull the conversion documents. The offering plan, the sponsor's completed and outstanding obligations, the reserve fund position, board turnover, and the current budget are the diligence items specific to a recent conversion. All of them exist; ask for all of them.

Understand the resale evidence. The 2023–2024 sponsor cohort has begun reselling below original purchase price. That is knowable before you bid, and it should shape what you bid.

Lead with scarcity, and be specific about it. Prewar West End Avenue delivered as condominium is a closed category. The 2019 conversion-law change is the reason, and it is a concrete, verifiable point that a well-informed buyer will respect.

The landmark designation is an asset in the marketing. The West End–Collegiate Historic District Extension protects the elevation and the streetscape permanently. Say so.

Price against resale comparables, not against your purchase price. Sellers from the sponsor cohort who anchor to their 2022–2024 contract price are the ones sitting through long marketing periods and large reductions. The evidence at this building is unambiguous on that.

The service level supports the ask. A 24-hour attended lobby, a live-in resident manager, and roughly 4,000 square feet of programmed amenity space is a genuinely full-service package, and it distinguishes the building from the smaller Upper West Side conversions that compete on prewar character alone.

If you're considering 393 West End Avenue, also evaluate:

• The Apthorp (2207 Broadway) — Clinton & Russell 1908; the Upper West Side's other great prewar-rental-to-condominium conversion, at far greater scale
• The Belnord (225 West 86th Street) — 1908 Italian Renaissance Revival courtyard building converted to condominium, with a remaining rent-stabilized rental component
• 150 West 82nd Street (The Marlow) — George F. Pelham 1926, converted by BKSK Architects; the boutique version of the same prewar-conversion thesis
• 378 West End Avenue — COOKFOX Architects tower behind a restored 1915 building; the new-construction condominium alternative directly across the avenue
• 375 West End Avenue — Schwartz & Gross prewar cooperative on the adjacent corner; the co-op comparison at nearly identical location
• 300 West End Avenue — Schwartz & Gross prewar cooperative converted from rental in 1961; classic West End Avenue co-op economics
• 400 West End Avenue (The Wexford) — Margon & Holder cooperative; full shareholder ownership one block north
• 411 West End Avenue — George F. Pelham cooperative; the same architect's West End Avenue work in co-op form
• 425 West End Avenue — turn-of-the-century Renaissance Revival cooperative, converted 1979
• 207 West 79th Street — Morris Adjmi Architects boutique condominium on the same cross street; contemporary rather than prewar