- Year built
- 1925
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 114
- Floors
- 15
- Landmark
- Designated
- Pets
- Cats and dogs permitted per listing records
- Financing
- 75 percent maximum per listing records
Upper Riverside Drive between 105th Street and Columbia is one of the densest concentrations of first-rate pre-war apartment architecture in Manhattan, and 395 Riverside Drive holds a specific place in that story: it is the last known commission of Gaetan Ajello, per the city's 2017 historic-district designation record. Ajello built his career on exactly this corridor — designing for the Paterno organization, B. Crystal & Son, and other Italian-American developer dynasties — and the Matincote, erected for developer Joseph Golding alongside its twin at 390 Riverside one block south, is the closing statement of that practice. For buyers who care about provenance, this is the genuine article: park-front Ajello, protected since 2017 inside the Morningside Heights Historic District.
The siting is the structural asset. The building occupies the southeast corner at West 112th Street with a gently chamfered frontage that follows the curve of the Drive, so its west-facing lines look across Riverside Park to the Hudson — an outlook that cannot be built out. The entrance sequence is classic Ajello: a carved terra-cotta portal on 112th Street beneath a light court, opening to a leaded-glass-windowed lobby scaled like a private house, with a railed staircase and the elevators — one bank per wing — deliberately hidden from the front door.
The ownership history carries one of the corridor's stranger press footnotes. In April 1933, The New York Times devoted two articles to an incident in the lobby: a resident count and big-game hunter shot a neighbor's chow at the front door after a running dispute over the unmuzzled dog, and the ensuing court date drew character witnesses including the artist Howard Chandler Christy. It is the kind of episode — fully documented in the Times archive — that reminds buyers this stretch of the Drive has been home to outsized personalities for a century.
The cooperative itself dates to the early-1980s conversion wave: the offering plan on file in The Roebling Research Library was first offered March 1, 1982 as an eviction plan under the rules of that era, covering 117 apartments and 75,111 shares, with Jamal Estates as sponsor. Today the building trades as one of Morningside Heights' established full-service co-ops — Columbia-anchored demand, park-front light, and pre-war scale at pricing well inside the equivalent product below 96th Street.
Architecture and unit composition
The building rises 15 stories in limestone and beige brick over a roughly 14,250-square-foot corner lot, with about 152,000 square feet of residential area — large, classically planned apartments rather than carved-up stock. The mix runs from one-bedrooms through large three-bedroom lines, many with defined entry foyers, windowed kitchens, and formal dining rooms; listing records document one-bedroom lines with 35-foot living rooms and three-bedroom lines with 24-foot dining rooms. West-facing units carry the park-and-Hudson outlook; upper floors clear the treeline. The built density — city records show the parcel built to roughly 10.7 FAR against a 6.02 residential allowance — is itself a moat: nothing like this envelope could be built on the Drive today, and the 2017 historic-district designation protects the facade and streetscape around it.
Building operations
Full-service at the corridor's standard: full-time doorman, live-in superintendent, renovated fitness center, central laundry, caged storage, and bike room per listing and management-sourced records. The two-wing layout means low neighbor counts per elevator landing. The policy stack documented in listing records — 75 percent financing, pets permitted, pieds-à-terre permitted — is more flexible than the white-glove co-ops further down the Drive, consistent with the building's academic and professional shareholder base; sublet terms and any flip tax should be confirmed with the managing agent during diligence.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- Per unit / month range
- —
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 30, 2026 | 7C | $883,000 |
| Oct 8, 2025 | 7F | $1,136,000 |
| May 13, 2025 | 9F | $1,048,000 |
| Nov 29, 2024 | 9D | $695,000 |
| Dec 6, 2024 | 11B | $1,846,250 |
| Jun 27, 2024 | 10E | $742,500 |
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 1-01894-0067) 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
You are buying the corridor's closing argument. Last documented Ajello commission, park-front siting, historic-district protection since 2017 — the provenance is real and specific, and it supports value through cycles in a way generic pre-war stock does not.
Columbia anchors the market. Faculty, physicians, and university-affiliated buyers give this micro-market unusually stable demand, and the 1 train at 110th and 116th Streets carries the commute. Buyers should also price the geography honestly: this is a Morningside Heights address, roughly 20 blocks north of the 96th Street pricing seam.
The policy framework is comparatively accommodating. 75 percent financing and a documented openness to pieds-à-terre put this co-op on the flexible end of pre-war boards. Confirm current sublet and flip-tax terms — they are not firmly documented publicly — and run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator before offering.
Historic-district mechanics apply. Anything touching windows, facade, or roofline runs through LPC. Interior renovations are conventional, but pre-war systems in a 1925 building reward a careful engineering review — the offering plan on file with us is the starting document.
Pick the line for light. The chamfered west frontage and the corner geometry make line selection unusually consequential here: park-front west lines and high south corners carry the premium; interior and light-court exposures price differently. Same-line history matters more than building averages.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with Ajello and the park. The designation record's "last known commission" finding is a marketing fact most owners on this corridor cannot claim. Pair it with the protected park outlook and the domestic-scale lobby — buyers respond to specifics, not adjectives.
Position against downtown-corridor pricing. Your buyer is comparing against 96th-to-86th Street pre-war stock at materially higher per-square-foot numbers. The pitch is identical architecture, identical park, earlier price point.
Condition transparency wins with this buyer pool. The academic and professional demand base is deliberate and diligence-driven. Renovated kitchens and restored pre-war detail clear at premiums; estate condition clears when priced to the renovation math — run the Renovation Cost Calculator against your asking strategy.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 395 Riverside Drive, also evaluate:
- 390 Riverside Drive — the building's twin, one block south at 111th Street; same architect, same developer, lighter facade
- 325 Riverside Drive (The Sherwood) — Ajello at 105th Street; the closest like-for-like park-front co-op
- 340 Riverside Drive — Sugarman & Berger at 106th Street, developed by the same Joseph Golding organization
- 310 Riverside Drive (The Master Apartments) — the corridor's Art Deco landmark alternative
- The Paterno (440 Riverside Drive) and The Colosseum (435 Riverside Drive) — the famous curved-facade pair framing 116th Street; the corridor's trophy pre-wars
- 404 Riverside Drive — neighboring pre-war co-op at 113th Street
- 222 Riverside Drive — the lower-corridor comparison near 94th Street, for buyers weighing the 96th Street pricing seam
The Roebling Team at The Matincote
The Roebling Team at Compass works the Upper West Side and the upper Riverside Drive corridor — Morningside Heights included — as a core practice area. We publish this building profile because buyers and sellers on this corridor deserve building-specific intelligence — conversion documentation, policy framework, and architect-level comparables — not generic neighborhood commentary.
If you're considering a transaction at 395 Riverside Drive, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.