500 West 25th Street (The Emerson)

The site is a corner parcel assembled from 253 and 255 Tenth Avenue and tied together by a zoning-lot declaration recorded in January 2016. A four-story walk-up with stores stood on it until shortly before construction. PLUTO reports a 1,463-square-foot lot for the condominium billing lot, which is roughly half the 39-by-75-foot parcel Department of Finance records carry for the predecessor lot — the PLUTO land figure should not be relied on for this building.

Above a double-height commercial unit addressed 255 Tenth Avenue, the residential stack runs one home to a floor. Department of Finance records size the seven floor-through residences identically at approximately 2,375 square feet, but equal recorded area does not establish identical layouts; compare current plans, condition, floor level, terrace and exposure. The penthouse is the exception at roughly 5,115 square feet across the top two levels, with twelve-foot ceilings and a private roof deck.

The eastern elevation is glazed with bronze detailing. The street elevations are Alabama limestone in a piered grid. The cantilever at the upper floors creates the covered loggias that shelter the terraces below, and it is the source of the building's silhouette from the High Line. The architect's project record reports a New York City green property certification for the building.

Buyers should test exposures carefully. This is a narrow corner site in a district that continues to develop, and the light that reaches the interior of a 2,375-square-foot floor plate depends on the eastern glass wall and on whatever gets built nearby.

The Emerson is a nine-unit condominium, and its operating profile should be read that way rather than against full-service Chelsea towers. Staffing, storage licensing and bicycle provision are not documented in the public record reviewed for this page, and no offering plan for the building was located in either the Compass Offering Plan Library or The Roebling Research Library. Any buyer should ask the managing agent for the current operating budget, the reserve position, the staffing arrangement and the sponsor's remaining interest before contract.

Two filings are on record. A 2022 alteration application proposed changing the roof use to a private accessory terrace, and a 2024 filing covered interior renovation of the ground-floor commercial space; completion of both needs confirming. The commercial unit is separately owned and has traded twice since the condominium was declared; its use and its share of common expenses are worth reading in the declaration, because on a building with only eight residences the commercial unit's allocation is a material share of the whole.

Ownership form: Condominium. Resales close through a right of first refusal rather than a board approval. Thirty to forty-five days is a typical closing estimate.

Pets, pied-à-terre, subletting, LLC, trust and foreign ownership: The standard condominium framework applies. Specific house rules — pet limits, minimum sublease terms, any resale capital contribution — are not documented in public records for this building. Because no offering plan was located, these should be confirmed in writing with the managing agent at offer stage rather than assumed.

Flip tax / transfer fee: Not documented. Confirm with the managing agent.

Real estate taxes: No abatement of any kind appears on any unit lot in the FY2026 or FY2027 assessment rolls. Underwrite full unabated taxes on the specific unit from day one, and run True Monthly Carrying Cost analysis against the current bill 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 (2026 to date) cleared a median $1,779/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. Median listing discount 4.1% 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 1-00696-7504; 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.

Distinguish the recorded date milestones. City data says 2018. The certificate-of-occupancy record shows the first temporary certificate issued in October 2020 and the final certificate in April 2022. These are different administrative and occupancy milestones; consult the original construction records and the model's date definition before treating one date as erroneous.

It is not landmarked. Despite the architect's own description, the lot sits outside the West Chelsea Historic District. There is no Certificate of Appropriateness requirement, which matters for façade work, window replacement and terrace alterations.

Underwrite full taxes. There is no 421-a, no J-51, no 485-x. Nothing steps up later because nothing was ever abated.

Ask for the documents. No offering plan for this building was found in either library. The policy stack, the common-charge allocation between the eight residences and the commercial unit, and the reserve position all live in documents you will have to request.

Understand the commercial unit. A separately owned, double-height retail space at the base of a nine-unit condominium is a meaningful governance and expense variable. Read the declaration on voting and common-charge allocation.

Lead with the plate, not the amenity list. One 2,375-square-foot home per floor, private elevator landing, limestone and bronze, terraces under the cantilever. That is the product. A boutique building does not win on amenities and should not try to.

Be direct about the tax posture. Buyers cross-shopping abated new construction elsewhere in Chelsea will find the difference themselves. Presenting the full unabated number alongside True Monthly Carrying Cost analysis produces better outcomes than letting it surface late.

Price against boutique High Line inventory, not against the towers. The right comparable set is the small group of low-unit-count West Chelsea condominiums on and around the park, whose economics and buyer pool differ sharply from the large full-service buildings a few blocks west.

Check the available same-building comparables. The building has eight residences and a reported sellout within four months; assess subsequent resale volume separately and compare floor, terrace, layout and condition.

If you're considering The Emerson, also evaluate:

• 245 Tenth Avenue — the immediate neighbor on the same block, a 20-residence Tenth Avenue condominium; the closest peer by address and the most direct comparable set
• 503 West 24th Street (The Getty Residences) — Peter Marino's ultra-boutique condominium on the same block, at a materially higher price tier
• 508 West 24th Street — small-plate Cary Tamarkin condominium a few doors west; the closest match on unit count and full-floor configuration
• 520 West 28th Street — Zaha Hadid Architects on the High Line; the architecturally driven alternative at larger scale
• 551 West 21st Street — Foster + Partners condominium in the same district; full-service, larger, higher tier
• 100 Eleventh Avenue — Jean Nouvel's curtain-wall tower; the opposite material argument in the same neighborhood
• One High Line (500 West 18th Street) — the large full-service High Line alternative with a hotel-grade amenity program
• 527 West 27th Street (Jardim) — twin cast-concrete buildings around a planted courtyard two blocks north; close in vintage, different in scale
• 500 West 22nd Street (Park House Chelsea) — Selldorf Architects; ten residences plus a ground-floor commercial unit, and the closest structural analog to The Emerson in the district
• 505 West 19th Street — Thomas Juul-Hansen's paired High Line buildings; boutique, design-led, higher price tier