595 West End Avenue

Fifteen stories over roughly 78 feet of West End Avenue frontage, on a 6,230-square-foot lot with about 52,500 square feet of residential area. The elevation reads in three parts. The two-story base is rusticated limestone at the ground with limestone window surrounds and patterned brickwork above; the main entrance carries a stone surround with carved floral detail, a marble-paneled transom over wood-and-glass doors, and flanking light fixtures. Above the entry, the four central windows of the second and third stories sit in double-height limestone surrounds with pilasters carrying molded arches, and bowed metal balconies on scrolled brackets project at the third story.

The eleven-story midsection is scored brown brick with a bandcourse and inset balustrades at the sixth-story sill line and classically detailed balconies at two tenth-story windows. Six bays of windows articulate the facade — the two middle and two end bays paired with six-over-one sash, the remaining two single with eight-over-one. The two-story top section sits above a wide balconied bandcourse; its paired windows are joined vertically by terra-cotta spandrel panels and topped by large arches with decorative tympanums, and the arched center of the parapet carries a cartouche.

Apartment composition reflects the combination program more than the original plan. Alongside surviving prewar one- and two-bedroom layouts, the building holds half-floor and full-floor combined residences on the fourth, fifth, ninth, tenth, twelfth and fourteenth floors and a penthouse level that was substantially renovated in 2016. There is no reliable per-square-foot average in a building with this much internal variation, and comparables must be drawn line by line.

Full staff under a 32BJ collective bargaining agreement, with a resident manager occupying Unit 1C — a unit the condominium purchased from the sponsor on March 6, 2008 and carries on its balance sheet. Central laundry and rentable storage generate modest ancillary income. Labor is the dominant expense: wages, union benefits, payroll taxes and insurance run to roughly 80 percent of operating cost, which is typical of a prewar building with real staff and no amenity program.

Capital posture, from the audited statements on file, deserves a careful read.

The condominium has run two concurrent assessments. A recurring $100,000 annual assessment to replenish reserves was billed across twelve monthly installments in 2024 and 2025, and the board has approved its continuation for 2026. Separately, on September 1, 2023 the condominium imposed a $1,300,000 assessment, allocated by common interest and billed over twelve months, to fund an exterior project and future work. Through December 31, 2025 the exterior program had consumed $886,894 and an elevator modernization consultant $19,750, with $315,074 of the assessment deferred for future major repairs. Exterior spending in the two years was roughly $886,000 combined.

The reserve fund closed 2025 at $655,014, down from $1,192,313 a year earlier — the exterior work is what drew it down. Operations run at a deficiency before assessments in both years: total revenue of about $1.26 million against operating cost of about $1.38 million. The auditors also noted that management has omitted the required supplementary information on future major repairs and replacements, and that the condominium has not commissioned a study of the remaining useful lives of the building's components. In practice that means there is no reserve study to underwrite against, and the elevator modernization now in the consultant stage is the next material capital item.

One further item belongs in any buyer's diligence file. The mortgage on the resident manager's unit, originally $600,000, reset on February 1, 2024 to a rate of 7.75 percent and matures on January 1, 2027 with a balloon of roughly $500,000. The condominium will need to extend, refinance or retire it, and it should be able to explain how.

Ownership form: Condominium. Purchases close through a right-of-first-refusal waiver rather than board approval — no package, no interview, no financing ceiling. On a corridor that is otherwise almost entirely cooperative, that is the building's principal competitive advantage.

Pied-à-terre, subletting, LLC, trust and foreign ownership: All permitted under the standard condominium framework. Confirm any minimum lease term and the waiver-request timeline with the managing agent.

Pets: Permitted under the standard framework; confirm weight and breed rules in the house rules.

Working capital contributions: Purchaser contributes one month's common charges, seller contributes three months' common charges. Model the seller-side contribution into net proceeds.

Sponsor concentration: The sponsor held 16 units and 29.87 percent of common interest at the two most recent year-ends on file. This is the item to raise with your lender before you sign a contract.

Real estate taxes: No abatement of any kind. Underwrite the full unabated bill on the specific unit.

Landmarks and the facade easement: The building is inside the Riverside–West End Historic District, and a private facade conservation easement also encumbers the property. Any exterior alteration — windows in particular, since LPC recorded the originals as intact at designation — is a Landmarks matter and potentially an easement matter as well. Verify what approvals a planned window replacement or through-wall installation requires before you buy on the assumption of doing it.

Recent sales

Recent closings 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. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $1,765/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 0.0% from the last ask.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01250-7504) 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.

Start with the lender, not the apartment. Sponsor ownership of 16 of 54 units and nearly 30 percent of common interest is above the concentration thresholds most agency and portfolio lenders apply. Get a written read on warrantability before you spend money on diligence.

Read both assessments and the exterior scope. A $1.3 million assessment from September 2023 plus a rolling $100,000 reserve assessment is a real monthly number on top of common charges. Ask what remains of the $315,074 deferred balance, what the elevator modernization is scoped and budgeted at, and whether a further assessment is contemplated.

There is no reserve study. The auditors say so explicitly. In a 1923 building with a fifteen-story facade, that is the gap you are underwriting.

Landmarks plus a private facade easement is a double constraint. Confirm the approval path for anything you plan to do to the exterior envelope, including windows, before contract.

The apartment mix is uneven by design. Combined residences and original prewar layouts trade on different math. Do not price off a building average, and walk the specific floor.

The corridor is the other half of the value. West End Avenue between 88th and 89th is quiet, landmarked and almost entirely prewar; Riverside Park is two blocks west and the 1 at 86th Street is three blocks east. Buyers trading from Central Park West or Broadway should spend an evening on the block.

Lead with the structure, not the finishes. Prewar West End Avenue in a condominium is close to unrepeatable on this corridor. That is the argument no cooperative neighbor can answer, and it is worth stating in the first line.

Address the sponsor position before a buyer's lender does. It will surface. Presenting the current sponsor percentage, the condominium's financials and any recent warrantability determination up front converts a deal-killer into a diligence item.

Be precise about assessments. Quote the current common charge, the current assessment installments and their expected end date together. Buyers comparing this building against cooperative maintenance figures need the whole number.

Document the exterior work. The 2024–25 facade program is completed capital spending that a buyer's attorney will credit. Have the scope, the cost and the Landmarks sign-offs ready.

Price the line. Combined half- and full-floor residences here are a different product from the original prewar layouts. Run the Renovation Cost Calculator against your apartment's condition before setting an ask.

If you're considering 595 West End Avenue, also evaluate:

• 599 West End Avenue — the 1924 cooperative immediately north on the same block; the direct like-for-like at cooperative tenure
• 590 West End Avenue — 1915 building directly across the avenue; the prewar alternative opposite
• 601 West End Avenue — 1916 cooperative one block north
• 607 West End Avenue — 1926 cooperative on the corridor
• 617 West End Avenue — 1925 cooperative on the corridor
• 610 West End Avenue — George and Edward Blum prewar cooperative; the corridor's design-led comparable
• 317 West 89th Street — condominium on the same tax block; the closest condominium comparable by geography
• 320 West 89th Street — 1922 cooperative on the same block, same vintage
• 345 West 88th Street — 1915 cooperative on the same block
• 160 Riverside Drive — 1922 Riverside Drive cooperative; the park-facing step across
• 498 West End Avenue — prewar West End Avenue condominium conversion further south; the closest structural analogue on the corridor