905 West End Avenue
905 West End Avenue, New York, NY 10025
Upper West Side
BBL 1018917502 · BIN 1057215
- Year built
- 1916
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 53
- Floors
- 13
- Landmark
- Designated
- Amenities
- Attended lobby, laundry room, and a roof terrace and garden added by the condominium in 2018 under a Department of Buildings alteration application
Every recorded sale at this building, 2009–2026
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $1,223
- Listing discount
- 3.2%
- Recorded sales
- 56
- On record
- 2009–2026
Two facts define this building, and they pull in opposite directions. The first is the architecture: this is a Gaetano Ajello apartment house from 1916, on the West End Avenue corner blocks that Ajello did more than any other architect to shape. The second is the ownership structure: it is a 2009 non-eviction condominium conversion in which the sponsor kept the right to rent rather than sell, and a meaningful minority of the units has never been sold to an individual owner. A buyer here is buying prewar West End Avenue architecture inside a building that still behaves, in part, like a rental.
Ajello was the architect of choice for the Italian-American developer families building the Upper West Side in the 1910s, and he produced roughly thirty apartment houses in twenty years, nearly all of them on West End Avenue, Riverside Drive and in Morningside Heights. 905 sits in a group of his buildings along this stretch of the avenue. LPC designation records describe it as Renaissance Revival in brick with limestone, thirteen stories, with later alterations — which is a fair description of a building whose base and lobby have been reworked more than once.
The conversion came in 2008 and 2009. The sponsor filed with the Department of Buildings in May 2008 to convert the rental apartments to condominium units; the declaration was recorded in July 2009 and the first closings followed immediately. The plan on file is explicit about what the building was at that moment: of 54 residential units offered, ten were rent controlled, twenty-three were rent stabilized, eight were decontrolled and renting at market, twelve were vacant, and one was the resident manager's. In other words, thirty-three of fifty-four homes were occupied by tenants who could not be displaced and who were under no obligation to buy.
That is the origin of the building's defining structural feature, and it is still legible in the record seventeen years later. The plan reserved to the sponsor the unconditional right to rent rather than sell as units became available, and stated plainly that there was no commitment to sell more than the fifteen percent required to declare the plan effective. The sponsor was not obliged to produce a majority-owner-occupied building, and it did not.
Landmark designation arrived afterward. The Riverside–West End Historic District Extension II was designated in June 2015, six years after the condominium was declared. Every document generated by the conversion predates the designation, which means a buyer reading the offering plan will find nothing in it about Certificates of Appropriateness — and will still need one for exterior work today.
Architecture and unit composition
The building carries roughly 102,000 square feet of residential area across thirteen stories on a lot of about 11,600 square feet, with a 115-foot frontage. That is a generous plate for a prewar building, and it produces the layouts prewar West End Avenue is bought for: entry galleries, separated entertaining and sleeping wings, and rooms with proportions that new construction does not reproduce at the same price. Listing records describe roughly a dozen distinct configurations, from classic-six layouts to four-bedroom residences, generally between about 1,600 and 2,300 square feet.
The corner siting at West 104th Street gives the building two full street elevations, so a significant share of the residences carry corner exposures and cross-ventilation rather than a single orientation. Upper floors on the west side pick up open outlooks toward Riverside Park.
The 2018 combination of two apartments — filed with DOB together with the merger of their tax lots — is the reason the offering plan's 54 units and the current roll's 53 do not agree. That is a documented, ordinary reconciliation, not a data error, and it is the kind of discrepancy that automated valuation models handle badly.
Building operations
905 West End Avenue runs as a staffed prewar building rather than an amenity building. The first-year operating budget in the plan on file carries a resident manager, porter and doorman payroll, an elevator maintenance and consulting contract, roof-tank maintenance, standpipe testing, boiler cleaning and water treatment, and a contract-operated laundry in the cellar. The programme today is the same in kind: attended lobby, laundry room, and — added by the condominium in 2018 under a Department of Buildings alteration application — a roof terrace and garden.
The capital record since conversion is active and, on the whole, reassuring. The sponsor renovated the lobby and public hallways on floors one through thirteen in 2008 and carried out facade cleaning and roof system replacement the same year. Facade work recurs through the following decade: minor repairs in 2010, further work in 2013, and sidewalk sheds in 2013, 2015 and 2016 for remedial repairs. The heating plant was upgraded in stages — the gas portion of the dual-fuel burner activated in 2014, a new chimney liner and boiler breeching in 2015. Structural upgrades to the roof were filed in 2017, ahead of the 2018 roof terrace.
Two operational cautions follow. First, the recurring facade cycle in a thirteen-story masonry building is the dominant long-run capital cost, and since 2015 it runs through LPC review as well as DOB. Second, the building's expense base is spread across a unit count of which a meaningful share is investor-held; read the current audited financial statements, the reserve position, and any live or recently concluded assessment rather than relying on the common charge alone.
Ownership structure — the fact to underwrite
Of the 53 residential unit lots, 40 have been individually deeded at least once; 13 have never transferred to an individual buyer in the recorded chain. On a single day in November 2020, nine unit lots transferred together in one bulk transaction at per-unit consideration far below the individual resale range in the building — the pattern of a portfolio disposition of tenanted or otherwise encumbered inventory rather than a series of retail sales.
None of this makes the building a rental wrapper. Individual apartments have been bought and sold by separate owners continuously since 2009, including resales recorded in 2023, 2025 and 2026, and the condominium is a functioning for-sale building. But a buyer should understand what the mix means in practice:
- Board composition and voting are influenced by whoever holds the unsold and bulk-acquired units.
- Common charge collection and reserve funding depend on a smaller set of owner-occupants than a 53-unit count implies.
- Rental density inside the building is higher than in a fully sold prewar condominium of the same size, which affects wear on common elements, elevator traffic and, for some buyers, the character of the building.
- Financing on individual units can be sensitive to owner-occupancy and concentration ratios; a lender may ask for them, and the answer here is not the default one.
Ask the managing agent for the current count of sponsor-held and bulk-held units, the owner-occupancy percentage, and the concentration of ownership by any single entity, before contract. This is the single most useful question at 905 West End Avenue.
Policy framework
Ownership form: Condominium. Purchases close through the Condominium Board's right of first refusal rather than cooperative board approval, which normally produces a shorter, more predictable timeline. The right of first refusal in the plan on file applies to leasing as well as sale.
Pets: Permitted. The house rules in the plan on file allow dogs, cats, birds and other common household pets that do not create a nuisance, health hazard or unsanitary condition, subject to Condominium Board consent and to the owner indemnifying the condominium. Confirm any weight or breed rules adopted since.
Subletting, pied-à-terre, LLC and trust purchasers: The standard condominium framework applies, subject to the Board's right of first refusal on lease. Minimum lease terms should be confirmed with the managing agent.
Rent-regulated tenancies: Some units in the building have been occupied since before the conversion by tenants protected under the rent laws. A buyer purchasing a tenant-occupied unit, or evaluating the building's income profile, needs the current regulatory status of that specific unit in writing.
Flip tax: None appears in the plan on file. Confirm whether any resale capital contribution has since been adopted.
Landmark constraint: The lot has been inside the Riverside–West End Historic District Extension II since 2015. Window replacement, facade work, storefront changes and rooftop equipment require LPC review, and material exterior work requires a Certificate of Appropriateness.
Real estate taxes: No abatement. Underwrite the full unabated bill on the specific unit lot.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- Per unit / month range
- —
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
See full Local Law 97 analysis — emissions history, scenarios, methodology →Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available filing classified the facade as SWARMP — Safe With A Repair and Maintenance Program: the engineer identified conditions requiring monitoring or repair before the next inspection cycle. The scope, timeline, and how the building funds the work are building-specific — we review the filings and board materials for you.
How to read this, and where it comes from
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. City record last verified September 2026.
Recent sales
905 West End Avenue trades as prewar Upper West Side condominium product in a corridor dominated by cooperatives — which is its principal commercial advantage. Buyers who want prewar layouts on West End Avenue without a cooperative board interview, without a financing ceiling, and with the ability to buy in a trust or an entity have a short list to choose from, and this building is on it. That scarcity supports pricing relative to the surrounding co-op stock, where the same square footage is generally cheaper but comes with approval risk and tighter policy.
Working against that are the two facts above: a portion of the building is investor-held rental, and there is no tax abatement to soften the monthly number. The right comparable set is the small group of converted prewar condominiums on West End Avenue and Riverside Drive, not the neighboring prewar cooperatives, whose economics and buyer pools differ structurally. Within the building, corner residences with two exposures and upper floors with park outlooks carry the clearest premium, and condition varies widely because the residences were finished by different owners across a seventeen-year sellout.
Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 28, 2026 | 104 | 2 BR · 1,636 sf | $2,125,000 | $1,299/sf | -5.6% |
| Feb 25, 2026 | 54 | 3 BR · 2 BA · 1,636 sf | $1,875,000 | $1,146/sf | +0.0% |
| Dec 4, 2025 | G1 | 3 BR · 2 BA · 1,719 sf | $1,995,000 | $1,161/sf | -4.8% |
| Jan 27, 2025 | 21 | 4 BR · 3 BA · 2,290 sf | $3,085,000 | $1,347/sf | -5.8% |
| Sep 14, 2023 | 141 | 4 BR · 3 BA · 2,290 sf | $3,025,000 | $1,321/sf | off-mkt |
| May 9, 2023 | 52 | 4 BR · 3 BA · 2,165 sf | $3,000,037 | $1,386/sf | -3.1% |
| Sep 30, 2021 | 44 | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,636 sf | $1,830,000 | $1,119/sf | -8.3% |
| May 11, 2021 | 102 | 4 BR · 3 BA · 2,165 sf | $2,900,000 | $1,339/sf | -12.1% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $1,223/sf across 2 sales. Median listing discount 3.2% 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.
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 1-01891-7502) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
Ask for the owner-occupancy and sponsor-held counts in writing. Thirteen of fifty-three unit lots have never been individually deeded, and nine more moved in a single bulk transaction in 2020. Your lender may ask; you should ask first.
Read the offering plan and the current financials together. The plan on file establishes the structure — non-eviction conversion, sponsor rental rights, house rules, the resident manager's unit. The audited statements establish where the building actually stands on reserves, assessments and the facade cycle.
Reconcile the unit count. The plan offered 54 residential units; the Finance roll carries 53. The 2018 apartment combination explains it. Any analysis that treats the gap as an error will be wrong in both directions.
Price the landmark constraint. Designation arrived in 2015, after the conversion. Nothing in the conversion documents anticipates it, but every exterior project now runs through LPC.
If the unit is tenanted, get the regulatory status before contract. Rent-controlled and rent-stabilized tenancies from the 2009 conversion still exist in this building.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 905 West End Avenue, also evaluate:
- 885 West End Avenue — a Gaetano Ajello building on the same stretch of the avenue; the closest architectural sibling
- 895 West End Avenue — the third of the Ajello group nearby; same architect, same vintage, different tenure
- 915 West End Avenue — immediately north on the same block; the adjacent prewar alternative
- 890 West End Avenue — directly across the avenue; comparable prewar scale
- 871 West End Avenue — prewar West End Avenue building a few blocks south
- 845 West End Avenue — the same corridor at a slightly different vintage and service level
- 801 West End Avenue — larger prewar building on the avenue below 100th Street
- 600 West End Avenue — the mid-avenue prewar benchmark
- 11 Riverside Drive — the Riverside Drive alternative for buyers weighing park frontage against avenue frontage
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across West End Avenue — read The Roebling Team Guide to West End Avenue.
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent.
Considering a move at 905 West End Avenue?
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 905 West End Avenue 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.