55 East End Avenue (Riverview South)

The building rises fifteen recorded stories in red brick — not the white glazed brick that dominates the Upper East Side's later post-war stock — across roughly 188,500 square feet of residential area. Apartment lines run deep through the alphabet, and floor designations reach sixteen even though the recorded story count is fifteen, a common discrepancy in buildings of this vintage that a buyer will notice when comparing a listing to city records.

The unit mix runs from studios through very large combinations. Original layouts are post-war in proportion — defined entry foyers, real dining space, generous closets — and they renovate well. The consolidation history is worth understanding: DOB alteration filings across the past two decades document combination after combination, including 11C with 11D, 12A with 12N, and 2M with 2N. That is precisely why the audited unit count (173 shareholder apartments plus the superintendent's) sits ten below PLUTO's 183. Combined units in the upper floors and on the river exposures are the building's premium product; the original studios and one-bedrooms are its value tier.

Setback terraces exist on some upper-floor apartments. Sources conflict on whether the building should be described as having balconies — some records say it does, others say expressly that it does not while allowing for terraces. The accurate statement is that terraces exist on a minority of upper units and there is no balconied façade; a buyer should confirm outdoor space unit by unit rather than at the building level.

The building is full-service: 24-hour doorman and concierge, a live-in superintendent, a full staff covered by the Local 32BJ collective bargaining agreement, a fitness center, a furnished roof deck, central laundry, a bike room, and resident storage. The on-site garage occupies the basement.

The garage arrangement is a genuine structural quirk and worth stating plainly. The corporation does not operate the garage; it leases the space to a parking operator under a seventy-year lease that began in January 1980 — a term that runs to 2050. The base rent escalates on a fixed schedule set in 1980 ($12,000 per year for the first fifteen years, rising in steps toward $35,000 in the lease's final decade) plus a real estate tax escalation measured against a 1979/1980 base year. Total garage income to the cooperative ran approximately $129,000 in the most recent year on file, essentially all of it from the tax escalation rather than base rent. In other words, a long-dated lease signed at conversion has left the building collecting well below what the space would command today, and it will continue to do so for another two decades. This is not a defect — it was the deal the sponsor structured in 1980 — but it belongs in any honest reading of the building's income statement.

Operating economics are otherwise conventional for a house of this size. Real estate taxes run above $2 million a year and are the largest single line. Each year the board levies an operating assessment approximately equal to the co-op/condominium real estate tax abatement the building receives, and passes the abatement through to eligible shareholders — a wash for most owners, but one that makes the printed maintenance figure and the actual annual carry two different numbers. Ask for both.

This is where the documents earn their place. Three findings from the audited financial statements on file:

The mortgage was refinanced at the bottom. In October 2020 the cooperative replaced a $8,850,000 loan carrying 5.44 percent with a new $8,850,000 loan at 2.99 percent, interest-only, for a ten-year term maturing in October 2030. Annual mortgage interest fell from roughly $475,000 to roughly $268,000 in a single year. For a building of this size that is a permanent, structural reduction in carrying cost that will hold for another four years, and it is the single most favorable fact in the building's financial profile. A buyer should also understand its corollary: the loan is interest-only, so no principal is being retired, and the full balance comes due in October 2030. That refinancing will happen in a different rate environment.

A $500,000 revolving credit line sits alongside the mortgage, co-terminus with it and undrawn as of the most recent statements on file — useful capital flexibility that the building has not needed to use.

The heavy capital cycle is behind it, and it was paid for. Reserves stood above $1.5 million at the most recent year-end on file. The building funded three substantial projects by assessment rather than by borrowing: a $1,240,000 assessment approved in November 2018 for elevator modernization and hallway renovation, billed over fifteen months; a $720,000 assessment approved in October 2020 for Local Law 11 façade work, billed at $9.00 per share over six months in the first half of 2021 (with a 5 percent discount offered for lump-sum payment); and a further per-share assessment in 2021 to complete the hallway project. Façade and hallway spending of roughly $750,000 flowed through in 2021 alone. A buyer arriving now is buying into a building that has already absorbed and paid for its elevator and façade cycle.

J-51: the building took a single, trivially small J-51 benefit — initiated in 1998 on a $22,400 alteration, a fourteen-year term at a 90 percent abatement rate, worth on the order of $1,900 a year against a tax bill then approaching a million dollars. It appears in the city's records through tax year 2008 and has long since burned off. There is no J-51, no 421-a, and no other property tax exemption running at this building today. Do not underwrite one.

The only live tax benefit is the citywide co-op/condominium property tax abatement, which flows to eligible primary-resident shareholders and is offset, at this building, by the matching annual operating assessment described above.

Cooperative policy at 55 East End Avenue is not published anywhere by the building, and the items below come from the corporation's own management-issued application materials and financial statements on file. Every one of them should be confirmed with the managing agent at offer stage.

Financing: maximum 75 percent. The sales application states it without qualification. Twenty-five percent down is the floor, and in practice a stronger cash position strengthens a package.

Flip tax: none. There is a flat $500 transfer fee charged to the seller, and a $2,500 non-refundable building administrative fee payable to the corporation on purchase. The absence of a percentage flip tax is a real and unusual seller advantage in this corridor — on a seven-figure sale it is the difference between a fixed $500 and a five-figure charge.

Board package and interview. The application requires eight collated, tab-indexed, double-sided copies of a full package: executed contract, purchase application, a documented statement of financial condition with supporting brokerage and bank statements, two years of federal returns with all schedules, four consecutive pay stubs, employer verification, three personal and three professional reference letters per applicant, and a landlord or managing-agent reference. A personal interview follows. The three-and-three reference requirement is at the demanding end of the corridor and is the item that most often delays a package — start collecting letters when you go to contract, not after.

Post-closing liquidity. No specific post-closing liquidity ratio is published. The board reviews the full financial statement rather than applying a stated multiple. Plan to show meaningful reserves after closing regardless.

Entities and non-residents. The application includes a Corporation's Designation of Occupant form and a Subjection to Jurisdiction form for applicants who are not U.S. residents — which tells you that entity purchases with a designated occupant and foreign-national purchases are contemplated, not that they are freely granted. Trust and LLC ownership should be raised with the managing agent before an offer, not after.

Pets are permitted, with a registration form filed at application. The building maintains a written smoking policy on file.

Subletting is permitted with board approval under a separate sublease application and fee schedule. Duration limits and the current fee should be confirmed with the managing agent; they are not published.

Application-stage fees have risen: between the 2021 and 2023 versions of the corporation's own application, the processing fee moved from $500 to $700, the per-applicant credit check from $125 to $150, and the closing fee from $700 to $775. Budget from the current schedule, not a stale one.

Recent sales

Recent transfers 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. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2025): a median $957/sf across 2 sales. The building has traded as recently as 2026. Median listing discount 2.3% 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 1-01589-0041) 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 on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

Run the financing math first. Seventy-five percent is the ceiling and it is stated in the corporation's own document. If you need more, this is not your building.

The reference letters are the long pole. Three personal and three professional letters per applicant, each unique and signed — email is expressly not accepted. Begin at contract.

Read the mortgage note, not just the reserve balance. The 2.99 percent interest-only loan is excellent news through 2030 and a question mark after it. Ask your attorney to model the building's carry against a refinancing at current rates, because that is the risk a shareholder actually owns.

Understand the garage lease. A seventy-year lease from 1980 at fixed escalations means the building's largest commercial asset is producing far below market and will until 2050. It is already reflected in the maintenance you will pay; it is not a hidden upside.

Confirm outdoor space unit by unit. Terraces exist on some upper apartments; there is no balconied façade, and the public sources disagree with each other. Verify against the specific unit.

Price the commute honestly. The Q at Second Avenue reshaped this corridor's connectivity, and the 4/5/6 remain a longer walk west. The M86 crosstown and the East 90th Street ferry fill gaps. Walk it before you decide.

Lead with the absence of a flip tax. On a seven-figure sale, a $500 flat transfer fee instead of a percentage charge is a concrete, quantifiable advantage over nearly every competing co-op on East End Avenue. Say it in the first paragraph.

Document the capital cycle. Elevators modernized, hallways renovated, Local Law 11 façade work completed — all assessed, billed and finished, with reserves above $1.5 million afterward. Buyers underwriting a 1951 building fear exactly those three line items. You can retire the fear with documents.

Market the debt. A 2.99 percent interest-only underlying mortgage running to 2030 is a genuine differentiator in 2026 and it belongs in the offering materials, not buried in the financials.

Be straight about the 75 percent financing cap. It narrows the buyer pool. Better to price and target accordingly than to lose four weeks to a board rejection.

Condition drives clearing price. The corridor's buyer pool is deliberate and family-driven. Renovated apartments clear at premiums; estate condition clears when priced to the renovation math.

If you're considering 55 East End Avenue, also evaluate:

• 45 East End Avenue — the immediate neighbor on the same tax block; the closest like-for-like on the avenue
• 33 East End Avenue — same block, a step south toward the corridor's entrance
• 25 East End Avenue — Cross & Cross pre-war with river outlook; the pre-war alternative at the corridor's southern end
• 1 East End Avenue — the avenue's southern anchor cooperative
• 200 East End Avenue — the corridor's full-blockfront post-war anchor opposite Carl Schurz Park; the closest peer in age, scale and tier
• 180 East End Avenue — post-war full-service co-op further north on the avenue
• 120 East End Avenue — the corridor's stately park-facing limestone pre-war; the prestige step-up
• 130 East End Avenue — Emery Roth pre-war co-op; the same architectural lineage a generation earlier
• 170 East End Avenue — park-facing post-war condominium with balconies; the condo alternative in the corridor
• 20 East End Avenue — new-classical condominium; the corridor's top-tier new-construction alternative