720 West End Avenue

The Roth exterior is the argument. Renaissance Revival massing, a rusticated stone base carrying the retained marquee, brick shaft, and a restored crown — the details that Landmarks review protected and that the conversion team spent its façade budget on. The rooftop addition, executed above the original parapet line, produced the duplex penthouses; Penthouse 17C, the top of the offering at roughly $12 million, carries a Boffi kitchen and approximately 1,900 square feet of private outdoor space, and was described by the sales team as the apartment where the two eras of the building meet.

Inside, the residences are new construction in every practical sense. The interior architecture is Thomas Juul-Hansen's, and it reads as a deliberately restrained modern idiom laid into prewar proportions rather than a period reproduction: white oak floors, kitchens with bronze-toned cabinetry and stone counters, spa-format primary baths. The mix runs one through five bedrooms across roughly 640 square feet at the small end to the 2,700-plus-square-foot penthouse duplexes, with townhouse-style duplexes at the base of the building and private terraces on the upper and penthouse tiers. In-unit washer/dryer is standard — which, on this avenue, is itself a differentiator.

720 West End Avenue is a full-service condominium with attended lobby service and a resident superintendent. The amenity floor is the operational story: roughly 30,000 square feet is a large service footprint for a 131-unit building, and it carries a correspondingly large share of the common-charge budget. Prospective buyers should read the current operating budget rather than the launch-era projections in the offering plan — amenity-heavy conversions frequently reforecast staffing and utilities in the first two to three years after the sponsor turns over the board.

The building also sits inside a designated historic district, which means façade and window work is subject to Landmarks review. That is a normal cost of the address rather than a defect, but it should be assumed in any long-run capital planning: Local Law 11 cycles at a landmarked prewar building run longer and cost more than at an unregulated one.

Tax abatement status is not firmly documented in public records for this conversion, and the annual tax figures reported in listing records vary widely between units in a way that is typical of a newly created condominium whose lots are still being assessed. Do not underwrite off a listing tax number here — pull the current DOF bill for the specific unit and run it through a carrying-cost model.

Recent sales

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01243-7505) 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.

You are buying new construction, not a prewar apartment. The façade is 1927; the apartment is 2024. Buyers who want plaster detail, deep prewar layouts and original hardware should be looking at the co-ops up and down the avenue instead. Buyers who want a Roth address without a 1927 kitchen and a co-op board are in exactly the right building.

The condominium form is the value proposition. Pied-à-terre use, LLC and trust ownership, foreign purchase, and financing flexibility are all available here and effectively unavailable at 675, 685, 755 and their peers. If any of those matter, the comparison set is very short.

Underwrite the taxes yourself. New condominium lots are assessed unevenly in the first years. Pull the current bill on the specific unit.

Read the current operating budget, not the projected one. A 30,000-square-foot amenity program has to be staffed and heated. Ask for the most recent audited statement and the current year's budget, and ask specifically about reserve funding and any completed or planned Landmarks-reviewed façade work.

The location is genuinely well served. The 96th Street station (1, 2, 3) is one block east; Riverside Park is one block west. This is one of the better transit-and-park positions on the Upper West Side.

Your competition is the sponsor. While unsold inventory remains, a resale is priced against a live sponsor list with a marketing budget behind it. Position accordingly — usually that means leaning on something the sponsor cannot offer: a specific finished condition, a line with better light, or immediate availability.

Lead with the Roth authorship and the condominium form together. Either one alone is unremarkable on the Upper West Side. The combination is rare.

Price by line, not by building average. The spread from base to penthouse here is roughly two to one per square foot. Building averages will mislead in both directions.

If you're considering 720 West End Avenue, also evaluate:

• The Terra Cotta — 780 West End Avenue — a George & Edward Blum prewar building converted to condominium in 1988; the closest tenure comparable on the avenue
• 685 West End Avenue — Sugarman & Berger prewar cooperative; the co-op alternative a few blocks south
• 755 West End Avenue — Rosario Candela cooperative converted from rental in 1984; classic prewar West End layouts
• 790 West End Avenue — another Candela cooperative in the immediate blocks north
• 801 West End Avenue — Neville & Bagge cooperative converted in 1980; the 99th Street corner
• 675 West End Avenue — George F. Pelham prewar co-op converted in 1986
• 2505 Broadway — ODA new-construction condominium in the low 90s; the ground-up alternative in the same submarket
• The San Remo and The Eldorado — Roth's Central Park West towers, for buyers whose priority is the architect rather than the neighborhood
• 200 Amsterdam Avenue — Elkus Manfredi new-construction condominium; the amenity-heavy Lincoln Square comparison