952 Columbus Avenue (Ivy Park)

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 — recorded gross floor area is roughly 4.02 times the lot area against a residential maximum of 4.0, a simple comparison that does not establish legal zoning floor area or permitted future work. Lawrence Pinner, RA, of Pinner Architecture carried the new-building application and is the credited designer.

Fourteen apartments over seven residential-and-community floors do not establish a floor-by-floor layout. PLUTO’s residential area divided by fourteen yields about 1,070 square feet, while sales-launch material described an average closer to 1,150; neither establishes the actual apartment’s measured interior area or a ranking against new construction. 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.

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. Compare in-unit laundry, outdoor rights, staffing schedules and costs with specific prewar and larger-building alternatives; neither era nor apartment count establishes which amenities exist or how easily staffing is funded.

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.

Condominium ownership: there is no co-op board interview; purchases run through the condominium's application and right of first refusal process. Confirm the rules on LLC or trust purchases, pied-à-terre ownership and subletting, including 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.

Recent sales

Recent closings at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. 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 (2023) cleared a median $1,272/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 0.4% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01861-7501; each condominium apartment is its own tax lot). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. 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.

The roll shows no 421-a exemption. Confirm it yourself against the Department of Finance record for your specific unit lot, and check its tax bill for any abatement. There are no scheduled 421-a step-ups, but the bill still changes with assessments and rates.

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.

Lead with the tax story. "No 421-a, no burn-off" sets the building apart from new-construction condominiums still receiving 421-a; future bills still change with assessments and rates. 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. Verify these features and outdoor rights in the actual apartment, and compare them with the documented amenities of specific prewar alternatives.

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, so reconcile their measurement scopes and obtain support for the apartment’s area before calculating an asking price; neither source alone predicts an appraisal result.

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