952 Columbus Avenue (Ivy Park)
952 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY 10025
Manhattan Valley, Upper West Side
BBL 1018617501 · BIN 1090341
- Year built
- 2015
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 14
- Floors
- 7
- Landmark
- No
- Amenities
- Virtual doorman (there is no staffed lobby), hands-on superintendent, fitness room, bicycle storage, private storage, a landscaped courtyard entrance on West 107th Street, and a roof garden and residents' rooftop lounge of roughly 1,000 square feet
Every recorded sale at this building, 2017–2023
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $1,272
- Listing discount
- 0.4%
- Recorded sales
- 20
- On record
- 2017–2023
Manhattan Valley has almost no new condominium inventory. The zoning is the reason: this stretch of Columbus Avenue sits in an R8B contextual district, which caps residential floor area at a ratio of 4.0 and effectively rules out the tower-scale development that reshaped Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue further south. What gets built here instead is small, and it gets built on the handful of sites where an institution or a family decides to sell or to partner.
Ivy Park is one of those. The Pentecostal Church of God, International owned this corner and occupied a one-story building on it. In 2015 the congregation sold the roughly 5,000-square-foot site to Borough Equities for $6.5 million, per contemporaneous press coverage, and the redevelopment put a seven-story, fourteen-unit condominium above a new ground-floor sanctuary that the congregation kept as its own condominium unit. The Department of Finance exemption roll confirms the arrangement: lot 1101 carries a religious-and-charitable exemption in the congregation's name, and lots 1102 through 1115 — the apartments — are fully taxable.
That last clause is the sentence a buyer needs. This building has no 421-a exemption. It never did. There is no partial exemption phasing out, no burn-off year to price, and no post-burn-off tax cliff waiting for a future owner. The seven-figure exempt total that PLUTO reports against the billing lot belongs entirely to the church's community-facility unit and confers nothing on the residences. Because 421-a is close to automatic on new Manhattan condominiums of this vintage, and because the exemption number in the public data looks large, this is precisely the building where an automated valuation or a fast diligence pass produces the wrong answer — either by assuming an abatement that does not exist, or by assuming a tax increase that will never arrive. The residences have been taxed at full assessment from the beginning, which means the taxes shown on any current listing are the taxes, permanently, subject only to ordinary assessment growth.
The rest of the case is straightforward. Fourteen apartments, an average unit larger than most new-construction product on the Upper West Side, floor-to-ceiling glass, central air, a washer/dryer and a wine refrigerator in every apartment, terraces on a number of lines, and a rooftop garden and lounge — three blocks from the 1 train at 110th Street, four from Central Park, and inside the Manhattan Valley price band rather than the Upper West Side one.
Architecture and unit composition
The building reads as a contemporary corner infill: seven stories and about 72 feet to the roof, holding the Columbus Avenue street wall and turning the corner onto West 107th Street, where the residential entrance sits behind a planted courtyard rather than on the avenue. The R8B envelope did the massing — the building is built to a floor-area ratio of roughly 4.02 against a residential maximum of 4.0, meaning it is fully built out with no development right left over. Lawrence Pinner, RA, of Pinner Architecture carried the new-building application and is the credited designer.
Fourteen apartments over seven residential-and-community floors means roughly two to three per floor, and unit sizes that run large by new-construction standards — PLUTO's residential area divided across the fourteen recorded units works out near 1,070 square feet, and the sales-launch material described an average closer to 1,150. The published mix at launch ran one-bedrooms, two-bedroom two-baths and three-bedroom two-baths. Every apartment has a washer/dryer and central air, windows run floor to ceiling, and several lines carry private outdoor space.
Two points of caution on square footage and storage. First, the two available area figures do not reconcile, and in a fourteen-unit building that difference is material to a price-per-foot analysis; measure or take the offering plan's schedule. Second, marketing at launch described deeded storage with each apartment, but the recorded condominium schedule contains only fifteen lots — the fourteen residences and the church unit. Whatever storage exists is a limited common element or an assigned license, not a separately deeded condominium unit that transfers on its own. Confirm what conveys with any specific apartment.
Building operations
This is a boutique building run as one: a virtual doorman system rather than a staffed lobby, a hands-on superintendent, and a small common-charge base spread across fourteen apartments. Amenities are a fitness room, bicycle storage, private storage, the courtyard entry and the rooftop garden and lounge. The trade-off is explicit — you are buying a package with in-unit laundry and outdoor space that a pre-war co-op in this neighborhood cannot offer, and giving up the twenty-four-hour front desk and the staff depth that a 140-unit building funds easily.
Two operational items belong in a buyer's diligence file.
The façade. The building's first Local Law 11 cycle, filed October 10, 2023, came back SWARMP rather than SAFE. A SWARMP finding on a building six years old is not a crisis — it typically reflects sealant, flashing or panel-joint conditions rather than structural masonry — but it does mean scheduled remedial work with a deadline, funded by fourteen apartments rather than by two hundred. Ask for the engineer's report, the scope, the cost, and how it was or will be funded.
The mixed-use structure. The ground floor is an active house of worship owned by a tax-exempt congregation, holding one of the fifteen condominium units. Practically, this affects three things a buyer should ask about directly: the allocation of common charges between the residential and community-facility units and how building expenses are shared; the schedule of services and any amplified-sound or assembly use, which is a quality-of-life question on the lower residential floors; and lender treatment, since some conforming lenders scrutinize the commercial-and-community-facility percentage of a condominium's floor area, and PLUTO puts it above a quarter of the building. Your mortgage broker should confirm project eligibility early rather than at underwriting.
Policy framework
Condominium ownership, with the ordinary consequences. There is no board package and no interview; the board's remedy on a resale is a right of first refusal. Purchases through an LLC or a trust, pied-à-terre ownership, foreign purchase and subletting are all permitted under the standard framework — confirm the minimum lease term and any leasing cap with the managing agent, because in a fourteen-unit building a leasing cap can bind quickly.
No flip tax or resale capital contribution is documented in the public record. In a 2017 sponsor condominium, a working-capital contribution at first closing is standard and a resale contribution is not; confirm both against the offering plan.
Local Law 97
This building is below the 25,000 sq ft threshold at which LL97 emissions caps apply. No regulatory capital pressure from this law specifically, current or 2030.
See full Local Law 97 analysis →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
Ivy Park prices on dollars per square foot, and it sits in the gap between two markets. New-construction condominiums on the Upper West Side proper — Broadway and below 96th Street — trade well above it. Manhattan Valley's prewar co-op stock, much of it converted in the 1980s, trades well below it on a per-room basis but offers no in-unit laundry, no central air, no terraces and no rooftop amenity. This building is the small pocket of new-construction condominium product between them, and its pricing reflects that scarcity more than it reflects finish level.
Within the building, three variables move price: floor and light, given the corner exposure and floor-to-ceiling glazing; private outdoor space, which only some lines carry; and the current tax and common-charge load, which — for the reasons set out above — is stable rather than scheduled to jump. Buyers underwriting against comparable 2015-to-2018 Manhattan condominiums should strip the 421-a assumption out of their model entirely before comparing carrying costs. Run the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator on the actual tax bill.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 17, 2023 | 6A | 3 BR · 2 BA · 1,275 sf | $1,660,000 | $1,302/sf | -5.1% |
| Sep 30, 2021 | 2ASponsor Sale | 1 BR · 1 BA · 712 sf | $730,000 | $1,025/sf | -18.8% |
| Jul 30, 2021 | 3C | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,283 sf | $1,560,000 | $1,216/sf | -2.2% |
| Mar 18, 2021 | 4C | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,283 sf | $1,530,000 | $1,193/sf | -5.8% |
| Jan 29, 2021 | 6B | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,308 sf | $1,520,000 | $1,162/sf | +0.0% |
| Nov 8, 2019 | 2BSponsor Sale | 1 BR · 1 BA · 815 sf | $935,000 | $1,147/sf | -6.0% |
| Jul 20, 2018 | 2CSponsor Sale | 984 sf | $1,175,000 | $1,194/sf | off-mkt |
| Aug 28, 2017 | 6BSponsor Sale | 2 BR · 1,308 sf | $1,680,112 | $1,284/sf | -4.0% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2023) cleared a median $1,272/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 0.4% 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 1-01861-7501) 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
There is no abatement, and that is good news. Confirm it yourself against the Department of Finance record for your specific unit lot. What you see on the tax line is what you get, without the step-ups that a 421-a building delivers in years eleven through twenty-five.
Get the façade file. A SWARMP finding on the first cycle in a fourteen-unit building means a real per-unit cost. Ask for the report, the remediation plan, the reserve balance and any assessment history before you sign.
Check lender eligibility before you shop, not after. Commercial and community-facility area is a meaningful share of this building, and unit concentration matters in a fourteen-unit condominium. A conforming lender will look at both.
Ask what conveys. Storage was marketed with the apartments but is not separately deeded. Get it in writing in the contract.
Spend a Sunday morning on the block. The ground floor is a working sanctuary. For many buyers this is a non-issue or a positive; for a light sleeper on the second floor it is worth knowing in advance.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the tax story. "No 421-a, no burn-off, no future tax cliff" is a genuine differentiator against every other new-construction condominium a buyer is looking at, and almost no seller in this cohort can say it. Put the actual tax bill in the package.
Sell the specification. In-unit washer/dryer, central air, floor-to-ceiling glass, wine refrigerator, private outdoor space and a roof lounge — none of that exists in the prewar co-ops this apartment competes with on price.
Get ahead of the façade question. If the SWARMP remediation is complete, document it. If it is not, disclose the plan and the funding. Buyers' attorneys will find the filing.
Verify your square footage before you set a price. The two published area figures for this building disagree, and a per-foot ask built on the wrong one will not survive an appraisal.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 952 Columbus Avenue, also evaluate:
- 545 West 110th Street — full-service new-construction condominium a few blocks north; the amenity-and-doorman step up
- 600 Amsterdam Avenue (Chester Court) — 1925 prewar co-op in the same submarket; the per-room alternative
- 530 Amsterdam Avenue — 1931 co-op nearby, altered in 1989
- The Cleburne (2745 Broadway) — 1912 prewar co-op on Broadway to the north
- The Armstead (2721 Broadway) — 1925 prewar co-op at a similar latitude
- The Manchester (255 West 108th Street) — 1910 full-floor prewar co-op one block north
- 160 West 95th Street — 1914 prewar co-op to the south
- 12 West 96th Street — 1930 co-op converted in 1970; the larger-scale prewar option
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Upper West Side — read The Roebling Team Guide to Upper West Side.
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 Ivy Park?
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 Ivy Park 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.