The Arbutus, 639 West End Avenue
639 West End Avenue, New York, NY 10025
Upper West Side
BBL 1012510054 · BIN 1034101
- Year built
- 1927
- Type
- Cooperative
- Landmark
- Designated
Every recorded sale at this building, 2002–2026
Bedroom-by-bedroom medians, the full transfer record, and how units trade against ask.
- 2BR median
- $1.5M
- Recent range
- $530K – $5.7M
- Listing discount
- 3.5%
- Recorded transfers
- 71
West End Avenue is the Upper West Side's quiet luxury spine — a continuous wall of pre-war apartment houses, broad and residential, one block from Riverside Park and one block from the Broadway shopping corridor. 639 West End Avenue, known as The Arbutus, is a characteristic example of the avenue at its best: a 1927 Neo-Renaissance cooperative designed by Gronenberg & Leuchtag, built tall and dignified, and laid out with the generous three-apartments-per-floor plan that defines the most desirable buildings on the street.
Its position inside the Riverside–West End Historic District is part of the value. The designation protects the avenue's continuous early-twentieth-century streetwall, which means the light, the air, and the architectural character around the building are durable — what you buy is what stays. For families and longtime West Siders, The Arbutus offers the central appeal of the avenue: large, gracious, classically proportioned pre-war homes in a full-service building, steps from the park, the river, and the neighborhood's deep bench of schools, markets, and restaurants.
Architecture and unit composition
The Arbutus is a textbook Gronenberg & Leuchtag composition. The firm built widely across the West Side and Upper Manhattan in the 1910s and 1920s, and their hand shows here in the careful Neo-Renaissance detailing: a rusticated limestone base, decorative rope quoins running up the corners, arched window heads at the lower floors, and a scalloped cornice crowning the fifteen-story shaft. A canopied entrance and planted sidewalk frontage give the building the settled, stately presence the avenue is known for.
Inside, the roughly three-per-floor layout yields the through-floor and corner apartments that pre-war buyers prize — homes with separate entry foyers, defined living and dining rooms, hardwood floors, high ceilings, and the deep proportions that newer construction rarely replicates. Of the 63 residences, the larger combinations and high-floor corners carry the building's best light and, on the upper floors, glimpses toward Riverside Park and the Hudson. These are family-scaled homes built for permanence.
Building operations
The Arbutus runs as a full-service cooperative with a 24-hour attended lobby, a live-in superintendent, central laundry, and private storage. The cooperative is well established, with the steady, long-tenured shareholder base typical of an owner-occupied West End Avenue building. As at every cooperative, purchases clear through a board application and personal interview; the building's pre-war operations and historic-district setting reward buyers who present a clean financial package and intend the apartment as a primary home. Prospective purchasers should review the cooperative's current financing, sublet, pied-à-terre, and pet policies directly with the managing agent as part of the board application, as these terms are set by the board and can change.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- Per unit / month range
- —
Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available FISP filing classified the facade as Safe — no repairs were required at that inspection. Facade inspections run on a fixed five-year cycle; future inspection, repair, and any assessment decisions remain building-specific.
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — the licensed engineer the city requires to sign the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent). Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library.
See the full facade history →Management & transfer contacts
- Flip tax
- 2% of sale price
- Sublet policy
- Annual sublet fee $1,000
- Notable fees
- Co-op. Max financing 75%. App processing $725 (sale)/$575 (sublet); credit $150/applicant; move-in/out deposits $500 each; refinance $400/$500; transfer $500-$725. $1M min liability insurance
Recent sales
Recent transfers at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. Apartment-level facts are independently verified before publishing; sale prices reflect the recorded transfer amount at the NYC Department of Finance.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 29, 2026 | 1C | 1 BR · 1 BA · 750 sf | $530,000 | $707/sf | -3.6% |
| Jan 15, 2026 | 3B | 2 BR · 2 BA | $1,420,000 | -2.1% | |
| Dec 17, 2025 | 5B | 2 BR · 2 BA | $1,500,000 | -6.2% | |
| Jul 11, 2025 | 7CD | 3 BR · 2.5 BA | $2,650,000 | -3.6% | |
| Oct 1, 2024 | 5C | 1 BR · 1 BA | $700,000 | -3.4% | |
| Apr 2, 2024 | 2A | 2 BR · 2 BA | $1,850,000 | -7.3% | |
| Mar 28, 2024 | 1D | 2 BR · 1.5 BA | $875,000 | -27.1% | |
| Aug 15, 2023 | 10AB | 4 BR · 4.5 BA | $5,650,000 | off-mkt |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $699/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 2.2% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Other recent transfers
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 15, 2003 | 9D | $915,000 |
| Oct 1, 2002 | 9D | $747,000 |
Full closing history with price-per-square-foot over time, the complete retrade record, and every line that has traded.
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01251-0054) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
This is a pre-war family building, and that should shape the search. The most sought-after homes are the through-floor and corner classics with intact original proportions; if you want scale and light, focus on the higher floors and the corners. Underwrite the purchase as a cooperative transaction — board package, interview, and the building's own financing terms — and confirm the current pet, sublet, and pied-à-terre rules with management while you prepare your application. The reward is location that does not depreciate: one block from Riverside Park, one block from Broadway's markets and restaurants, inside a protected historic district, in a building designed and built to last a century.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the apartment's bones and the building's address. West End Avenue pre-war buyers are specifically hunting for the intact classic layout — the foyer, the separate dining room, the corner light — so a home that has kept or thoughtfully restored those proportions sells on its strengths. From there, the building's story does real work: a 1927 Gronenberg & Leuchtag house with a named identity, a Neo-Renaissance façade, historic-district protection, and full-time staff, one block from the park. Because the larger apartments trade infrequently, a well-prepared classic listing tends to meet demand that has been waiting for it.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering The Arbutus, these nearby Upper West Side pre-war cooperatives form a natural comparison set:
- 645 West End Avenue — pre-war co-op immediately to the north
- 670 West End Avenue — a 1926 George & Edward Blum pre-war co-op
- 685 West End Avenue — pre-war family co-op a few blocks up
- 600 West End Avenue — classic West End Avenue pre-war building
- 285 Riverside Drive — pre-war cooperative facing Riverside Park
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across West End Avenue — read The Roebling Team Guide to West End Avenue.
The full playbook — what goes in the package, how boards read your financials, the interview, and the timeline — plus sample cover, reference, and personal letters you can adapt.
Considering a move at The Arbutus?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at The Arbutus would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.