500 West 22nd Street (Park House Chelsea)

The lot is a corner of 3,827 square feet with roughly 49 feet on West 22nd Street. The exposures that matter are north to West 22nd and west to Tenth Avenue and Clement Clarke Moore Park — an outlook that is protected in practice by the park itself rather than by any recorded easement. The east and south walls are lot-line conditions, and the floor plans annexed to the Second Amendment expressly mark lot-line windows in both penthouse residences. Lot-line windows can be lost to construction on the adjoining lot without recourse. Any buyer at the top of this building should identify precisely which openings are lot-line windows and what the adjoining parcels can support.

The façade combines retained and new brickwork. The architect's addendum on file deletes an earlier paragraph describing existing face brick to remain above grade, while preserving the description of a glazed terracotta band demarcating the transition between existing face brick and new glazed face brick. Department of Buildings records for the site carry both the 2016 new-building application and a January 2018 alteration application proposing an increase from four to eight stories; the architect's status-of-construction schedule identifies the new-building job as the operative filing. The practical reading is that the filings describe earlier masonry retained in the wall rather than a clean tabula rasa; confirm what was built with the sponsor's construction documents at diligence.

Interior specification per the description of property on file: wood, stone slab and stone tile flooring; ceramic tile in the baths; stone slab kitchen counters; Dornbracht fittings, Toto water closets and Wetstyle lavatories throughout. Three separate gas meters serve the building — one for the residences and domestic hot water, one for the rooftop packaged HVAC unit, and one for the emergency generator.

The commercial unit of 3,565 square feet carries a 9.6 percent general common interest and no residential common interest, so the retail tenant does not share residential operating expenses. Retail entrances face both streets.

Park House is a ten-residence condominium with an attended lobby and a short amenity list. The operating question is arithmetic: a full-time concierge across ten residences is expensive per unit, and the Lobby Usage Fee arrangement offsets only one-eleventh of the partial-service portion of that cost. Common charges should be read per square foot against the current operating budget and against the actual staffing schedule, not against the amenity roster.

The building is young enough that its reserve baseline is still forming. Ask for the current audited financial statements, the reserve position, the assessment history since the first closings, and whether the sponsor retains any unsold inventory or the commercial unit.

Ownership form: Condominium. Purchases close through a right-of-first-refusal waiver rather than a cooperative-style board approval; 30 to 45 days is a typical closing timeline.

Pied-à-terre, subletting, LLC, trust and foreign ownership: Not documented; confirm in the declaration, bylaws and house rules, including minimum lease terms.

Pets: Not documented in the records reviewed. Confirm the house rules with the managing agent before contract.

Lobby Usage Fee: An adjacent building owner has a contractual right to use the residential lobby and pays one-eleventh of the concierge expense attributable to partial services; residential unit owners bear ten-elevenths. Projected at approximately $650.79 per month in the first year of condominium operation.

Flip tax: Not documented. Confirm any resale capital contribution with the managing agent.

Real estate taxes: No abatement. Underwrite full unabated taxes on the specific unit against the current bill, and run True Monthly Carrying Cost analysis on the actual number rather than a projected schedule.

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 $2,142/sf (floor-adjusted) across 2 sales. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 3.4% 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 1-00693-7505; 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.

Read the lobby arrangement. An adjacent building owner shares the residential lobby under the by-laws and pays a defined share of the concierge cost. Understand who comes through the door and what the fee covers.

Identify the lot-line windows. The penthouse plans on file mark them. Establish what can be built on the adjoining lots before you pay for the view.

Underwrite full taxes from day one. There is no 421-a and no other building-wide benefit. The one exemption on the roll is personal to an existing owner and does not transfer.

Ask about the sellout and any remaining sponsor inventory. The plan went effective on two of ten units in December 2021; that history shapes the comparable set and the board's early finances.

Confirm the pet policy in writing. It is not documented in the public or plan records reviewed.

Test the park outlook. Clement Clarke Moore Park protects the western exposure in practice, but confirm which windows in a specific residence actually face it.

Lead with the corner and the material. A brick, park-facing corner by Selldorf Architects in West Chelsea is the argument no glass tower on the same block can copy.

Price against the low-rise boutique set. The right comparables are the ten-to-forty-unit architect-signed buildings on the side streets, not the High Line towers with full amenity programs.

Be direct about the tax posture. Buyers will check. Presenting the unabated number up front alongside carrying-cost analysis produces better outcomes than a diligence surprise.

Same-building comparables are thin, and the lines differ sharply. Support pricing with the wider West Chelsea boutique set and with line-specific analysis rather than a building average.

If you're considering Park House, also evaluate:

• 520 West 19th Street — Selldorf Architects, 2018; the closest architectural peer in the same corridor
• 200 Eleventh Avenue — Selldorf Architects, 2010; the firm's earlier West Chelsea condominium, with the en-suite sky garage
• 508 West 24th Street — Cary Tamarkin, 2014; the masonry-and-steel boutique alternative two blocks north
• 503 West 24th Street — Peter Marino, 2018; the small, high-specification new-construction peer
• 245 Tenth Avenue — Della Valle Bernheimer, 2010; the boutique Tenth Avenue condominium at lower price
• 231 Tenth Avenue — 2004; the earlier-generation Tenth Avenue boutique building
• 500 West 21st Street — Kohn Pedersen Fox, 2013; the immediate block neighbor and the most direct locational comparable
• 555 West 22nd Street — 2022; masonry-clad contemporary tower on the same street, at greater scale
• 525 West 22nd Street — late-19th-century warehouse loft conversion; the same street, entirely different economics
• 515 West 23rd Street — Neil M. Denari, 2011; the High Line glass counterpoint
• One High Line (500 West 18th Street) — Bjarke Ingels Group, 2024; the full-amenity trophy alternative at a higher tier