450 West 23rd Street

Twenty-four feet of frontage, a 51-foot-deep building on a 98.75-foot lot, about 7,244 gross square feet, roughly 50 feet to the roof. Brownstone, Italianate, flat lintels with heavy moulded drip-caps, segmental-arched openings at the upper floors, and a cornice that is the house's best surviving feature. The parlor-floor windows were originally casements opening onto cast-iron balconies; the band course beneath them still marks where the balconies were.

Five apartments in a 7,244-square-foot house means an average of roughly 1,400 gross square feet apiece, and the apartments are not stacked flats. The alteration record describes duplexes and triplexes: a triplex on the fourth and fifth floors and the attic, a cellar-to-first-floor duplex, a first-to-second-floor duplex. Recorded share transfers show both letter designations (A, B, C, D) and older numeric ones (1, 1A, 5), which is the ordinary signature of a small building that has recombined units more than once. The 2025 combination is the latest instance.

The recorded built floor area ratio is 3.06 against a residential maximum of 3.00 in the R7B district. Recorded gross floor area exceeds that simple comparison, which does not by itself establish legal zoning floor area, non-conforming status, unused development rights, or what work would be permitted on a landmarked row house.

A walk-up with no elevator device on file and no doorman. The financial statements carry janitorial services, utilities, water and sewer, insurance, professional fees and real estate taxes — and no management fee, which together with a purchase package addressed to the corporation itself points to a self-administered building. Utilities at the building level are a small number, which suggests apartments are separately metered for most of what they consume; confirm heat, hot water and metering arrangements during diligence.

The house rules on file are the standard form appended to the proprietary lease, and a reader should treat them accordingly: they refer to elevators, a lobby, a garage and doctors' offices, none of which this building has. What is specific and enforceable is the pet resolution — written consent required, two dogs and two cats maximum, pre-March 2004 pets grandfathered — the weekday 8:30-to-5:00 construction window, the 11:00 p.m. quiet hour and the 80 percent floor-covering rule. Exterior alterations, including non-visible work, require LPC review, as do interior projects requiring a DOB permit. Specified maintenance may be exempt; determine the permit type and coordinate LPC, DOB and board approvals for the actual scope.

The published stack is thin, and we will not invent the rest.

Documented: the pet cap, the renovation hours, the $250 application fee, the five-copy package, three personal references, a landlord reference, three years of returns and four months of statements, the consumer-report authorization, and the signed acknowledgement of the lease, by-laws and house rules.

Not confirmed: the flip tax. The 2015 and 2016 income statements carry a Flip taxes line with no collections in either year. Whether a fee applies today, and its rate, base and payer, are not stated in anything on file. Ask.

Not established in the sources reviewed: the financing ceiling, the minimum down payment, post-closing liquidity, sublet seasoning and fees, and pied-à-terre policy. The small shareholder count does not establish these rules or their source in the governing documents. Get it in writing before you offer.

Observed in the record rather than in the rules: trusts have been accepted here — one apartment moved into a shareholder's revocable trust in 2015 and another was purchased in the name of a family trust in 2023. No LLC or corporate purchase appears on this lot. Do not read either fact as a policy; read them as a reason to raise the question early.

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. Median listing discount 5.2% 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 1-00720-0072). 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.

Read the financials as a compilation, not an audit. Management's numbers, unverified, with substantially all disclosures omitted and no reserve study. Ask the board directly what capital work is contemplated over the next five years, what the last assessments were for, and how the roof, boiler and façade are being tracked.

Underwrite the taxes, not the maintenance. Roughly 55 percent of operating expenses in the most recent year on file are real estate taxes, with no abatement and no J-51 left. Assessment increases pass straight through. Compare the true carrying cost against a leveraged, abated building using the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator rather than comparing headline maintenance.

Ask about the combination. The permit to merge Units A and B was issued in February 2025 and the building will be four apartments when it signs off. Find out where that work stands, what it did to share allocations and maintenance, and whether any assessment attached to it.

Expect a real board process and no agent to hide behind. Five collated copies, a $250 fee, a background check, three personal references and an acknowledgement that you have read the lease. Prepare with the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator, and get the financing ceiling and post-closing liquidity requirement in writing before you spend money on an application.

Price the Landmarks constraint into any renovation. Alterations to windows, ironwork and the entrance, other non-visible exterior work, and DOB-permitted interiors require LPC review in the Chelsea Historic District Extension, subject to specified maintenance exemptions. Budget the time as well as the money.

Scarcity is the argument. A duplex or triplex in an 1856 landmarked Chelsea row house, in a building with four or five apartments and no institutional overhead, comes to market a few times a decade. Market against the specific alternative — the district's other small cooperatives and row-house condominiums — not against Chelsea generally.

Put the balance sheet in front of buyers' counsel early. The 2016 compilation reports roughly $300,000 of cash and mortgage debt below $500,000, followed by a $600,000 recorded refinancing in 2022. Supply current statements, debt terms and the capital plan; the historical figures do not establish present reserve adequacy or resolve most diligence questions.

Confirm the flip tax before you calculate net proceeds. The 2015 and 2016 statements carry a Flip taxes line with no collections; whether a fee applies today, and its rate and payer, are not in the documents on file. Get them from the board, then run the whole picture through the Seller Closing Cost Calculator.

Screen for ownership structure early. Trusts have closed here; no entity purchase has. If your buyer needs an LLC, find out whether the board will entertain it before you are in contract.

If you're considering 450 West 23rd Street, also evaluate:

• 429 West 22nd Street — Anderson House, an eight-apartment 1855 row-house cooperative on the same tax block, and the closest like-for-like in the district
• 468 West 23rd Street — Chelsea Gardens, the condominium alternative in an 1857 house a few doors west
• 458 West 20th Street — landmarked row-house cooperative, circa 1845, for buyers who want the oldest fabric in the district
• 333 West 22nd Street — sixteen-residence Greek Revival-era cooperative, a step up in scale with the same character
• 445 West 20th Street — historic row-house condominium conversion inside the same landmarked fabric
• 228 West 21st Street — nine-apartment prewar cooperative of floor-through homes on West 21st Street
• 360 West 22nd Street (London Towne House) — the full-service elevator cooperative comparison for buyers weighing services against character
• London Terrace Towers — the large full-amenity cooperative on the same street
• 344 West 23rd Street (The Cheyney) — boutique condominium alternative nearby
• 365 West 20th Street (Chelsea Court Tower) — prewar elevator cooperative inside the historic district