THE CONDO BOOK PROJECT

45 West 81st Street Condominium

45 West 81st Street, Manhattan, NY 10024

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Overview

45 West 81st Street is a 1923 former hotel off Central Park West being converted into 145 condo apartments, most of them studios and one-bedrooms. Its offering plan covers the tenants who stay, a renovation done while people live there, a part-time lobby, a sponsor that can keep control of the board, and a vacant side lot that may be built on.

  • What it is: a steel-frame, brick building finished in 1923 on Block 1195, Lot 5, in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District. The plan calls it a contributing building in the district. A one-story rooftop penthouse addition of about 3,850 sq ft raises it to 16 stories.
  • Size: 145 residential units in the plan's price list, plus a ground-floor community facility unit (planned as medical offices) and a development unit. No parking, no storage units. The Attorney General's database lists 143 residential units. The plan's property report also says 137 renovated vacant units plus 6 occupied ones, which adds up to 143. Check the latest amendment for the current count.
  • Layouts: by our count of Schedule A, 49 studios, 57 one-bedrooms, 32 two-bedrooms, 6 three-bedrooms and one four-bedroom duplex penthouse. Typical homes are small: many studios are 350 to 400 sq ft, and the plan measures from the outside of exterior walls, so usable space is smaller.
  • Offering prices: in the original price list, studios ran from about $657,000 to $1.6 million, one-bedrooms from about $955,000 to $2.3 million, two-bedrooms about $1.9 million to $2.4 million, and three-bedrooms about $2.7 million. Penthouses were about $3.6 million, $4.6 million and $13.6 million for the duplex PHA. Most homes were priced near $2,500 per sq ft. These are asking prices, not sales. Four amendments have been accepted since and a fifth filed, so prices may have changed.
  • Common charges: roughly $280 to $1,240 a month for most homes, and about $6,200 for PHA, under the sponsor's first-year projection. Estimated property taxes are about the same again.
  • Subway: the B and C at 81st Street-Museum of Natural History, about a three-minute walk.

Compare

FigureThis building1720 West End2132 units · 0.8 miaccepted 2024One11 Residences399 units · 1.3 miaccepted 2022
Common ChargesPer Square Foot / Month$1.11Lowest$1.43$2.00
Average Offering PricePer Apartment$1.57MLowest$3.27M$2.46M
Average PricePer Square Foot$2,489In line$2,176$2,918
Property TaxesPer Square Foot / Month$1.14Lowest$1.38$1.78
Average Unit SizeSquare Feet630 SFSmallest1,502 SF843 SF

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Unit mix, closings, budgets, finishes and the team, against 720 West End and One11 Residences, cited to the offering plans. No credit card required.

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How We Got This
  • Comps: the closest Manhattan plans on size, $/SF and launch date, within 2 miles when possible.
  • Figures: each building's own offering plan, filed with the NY Attorney General. Nothing is estimated.
  • Checked: a price list publishes only when its math adds up, and building pages cite the plan pages.
  • Labels: In line is between the comps; Below/Above peers is past both by up to 15%; Lowest/Highest by more.

Closings Pro

Homes closed1% of the homes in Schedule A1 of 145
Closing prices vs. Schedule A1 home: $738,474 at closing against $1,032,575 in Schedule A (p. 72)−28.5%
Average closing price1 home, on their Schedule A square feet$1,842 / SF
Closingsfirst and latest recordedJul 31, 2025

Sales recorded with the Department of Finance (ACRIS) through Aug 31, 2025: deeds, or transfer tax filings for a building on leased land, of $10,000 or more. A home's first sale since the plan was filed is the sponsor's closing; resales aren't counted. Closing prices are compared with the same home's Schedule A price, as first offered; a deed covering more than one home isn't compared. Amendments often change prices before a home closes, and a deed that includes parking or storage counts its full price. ACRIS records a sale weeks after closing, so recent contracts don't appear yet. Every building's sales.

All 1 closings
HomeRecordedClosing priceSchedule ADifference
5GJul 31, 2025$738,474$1,032,575 p. 72−28.5%

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Every home's recorded closing price against its Schedule A price, with the ACRIS document and the plan page.

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Budget

What It Costs to Run

The sponsor's budget expert, FirstService Residential, projects a first-year budget of about $1.26 million (April 2024 to March 2025). Residential owners carry about 93% of it. The biggest lines:

Budget lineApprox. first-year cost
Staff payroll$217,000
Insurance$154,000
Service contracts$137,000
Gas for heat and hot water$134,000
Reserve contribution$115,000
Common-area electricity$105,000
Management fee (sponsor's affiliate)$90,000

The budget sets aside about 10% for capital reserves. The summary page shows "other expenses" as $95,500, but its own note itemizes $55,500, and only $55,500 makes the budget add up. The plan also projects first-year taxes of about $1.36 million for the building, rising to about $1.6 million for the residential units in year two. It warns that taxes may rise further once the renovated building is reassessed. Read more on common charges and why operating costs differ.

Good to know: as a conversion, the sponsor must fund a reserve fund. The plan estimates it at about $4.5 million, about 2% of the total offering price, and says it can never be less than 2%. The sponsor plans to take credit against it for work it already paid for, including about $1.7 million of plumbing and $810,000 of elevator work. At closing you also pay two months' common charges to the working capital fund.

From our research: The Sponsor's Condo-Creation Fee in NYC · NYC Condo Insurance Costs Are Rising · Condo Supplies Cost per Unit, by Size

The Building

Finishes

The finish package is plain and the same across unit types:

  • Kitchens: quartz counters and backsplash, white painted or dark stained cabinets. Appliances are a top-freezer refrigerator (Frigidaire or Beko), an Avanti 24-inch or Amana 30-inch gas range, a GE dishwasher and an LG or Haier over-the-range microwave. Hoods recirculate instead of venting outside.
  • Bathrooms: porcelain vanity tops, grey ceramic tile floors, cream tile showers and American Standard toilets.
  • Floors and ceilings: grey engineered wood over an acoustic underlayment. Ceilings run from about 7'6" at soffits to 8'5" in typical units, and 8'6" to 9' in the penthouses.
  • Heating and cooling: most units get Amana through-wall units (PTACs). A few get LG mini-splits instead. You pay for the electricity that runs them.
  • Hot water: renovated units get their own AO Smith electric water heater. The building's gas boilers serve the existing tenants and common areas.
  • Windows: the existing aluminum double-glazed windows stay. They open about 5 inches. As a historic-district building, it is exempt from the current energy code.

There's no in-unit laundry in the typical units; the plan lists a laundry room only in PHA. Compare with NYC condo finishes since 2010.

Building Condition and Renovation

  • Sold as is. The sponsor says it knows of no material defects. It makes no warranty on the building's condition, and the state's new-home warranty law doesn't apply.
  • Facade: a 2022 facade inspection found the building safe with a repair program. The sponsor is to fix spalled stone, brick, mortar, terra cotta coping and a few windowsills. The next inspection is due in February 2027, at the condo's cost.
  • Systems: new heating and hot-water gas boilers, new unit water heaters, and all three elevators rebuilt with new machines and controls. The existing roof membrane has no warranty, though the new penthouse roof gets a 20-year guarantee.
  • Water and hazards: a small groundwater leak drains to a sump pit in the subcellar, which the architect flags as a special risk. Asbestos pipe wrap found in the cellar has been removed, and no lead paint was observed.
  • Open violations: three elevator violations from 2020 and an energy-grade violation from 2021, which the sponsor says it will cure before the final certificate of occupancy.
  • Construction around you: work may continue for a year or more after the first closing, with hoists, elevator outages and unfinished corridors. Occupied apartments are covered by a tenant protection plan. The plan says the existing tenants' units weren't inspected.

Amenities, Staffing & Transportation

  • Lobby floor: the lobby, a mailroom and a package room.
  • Cellar: a recreation room of about 1,150 sq ft, a gym of about 280 sq ft with two treadmills and a cable machine, and a laundry room with gas dryers.
  • Elevators: two passenger elevators, being modernized, plus a third private elevator for the penthouses and some 15th-floor units.

Good to know: there is no roof deck, pool, parking or storage. The roof and the two second-floor courtyards are for maintenance only. The building has no emergency generator. Amenities may take up to 24 months after the first closing to be ready.

Staffing and Services

Staff will be non-union, a mix of full- and part-time, with first-year payroll of about $217,000. The plan's staff list didn't come through in the text we could read, so we can't give the headcount.

  • Lobby hours: the plan promises an attended lobby on weekdays and 9am to 5pm on weekends. It gives weekday hours as 8am to 10pm in one place and 8am to 10am in two others, so ask which is right.
  • The lobby can lose its attendant. The sponsor can change the hours or drop the attended lobby entirely. The plan says that change wouldn't give buyers a right to back out.

See what a doorman costs in an NYC condo for context.

Transportation

  • Subway: 3 min walk to 81 St-Museum of Natural History B C; 86 St B C, 7 min

Fine Print

What's Specific to It

  • It was a hotel. When the plan was submitted, the building had 11 legal apartments and 196 hotel rooms. The plan says the hotel closed in March 2020 because of the pandemic, so there are no operating financial statements.
  • Some tenants stay, and some units come with them. Six apartments are rent-stabilized and occupied (2B, 2D, 4I, 4K, 4M and 5F). This is a non-eviction plan. If you buy one of those units, you become the tenant's landlord, not the occupant.
  • A low bar to go effective. Because only a few apartments were legally occupied, the sponsor can declare the plan effective once 5 of 8 qualifying tenants sign purchase agreements.
  • The managing agent is the sponsor's affiliate. Property Link Mgmt LLC shares the sponsor's office address. The sponsor is also its own selling agent.
  • A vacant side lot next door, on the same property. A 20-by-102-foot lot on the west side holds the leftover development rights. It may be split off and built on. Some west-side windows would then be lot-line windows that may have to be sealed.

Listing photos of 45 West 81st Street show the rooms. The offering plan, the document the sponsor filed with the New York Attorney General, tells you how the building will be run and what you agree to when you buy. New to these documents? Start with what a condo offering plan is.

Fine Print Worth Knowing

  • Buying a tenant-occupied unit. You take it subject to the lease and the rent laws. You can't evict the tenant for not buying, or to move in yourself. You must register a rent-stabilized unit with the state housing agency, pay common charges and taxes even if rent is lower or unpaid, and deposit two months' common charges with the managing agent.
  • The side lot and Options A and B. Schedule A comes in two versions. Option A assumes the condo keeps and pays for the development unit. Option B assumes the sponsor builds commercial space on the side lot, which shrinks each home's share of the building. If that happens, buyers have no right to back out.
  • Resale limits. You can't list your unit before closing or sell within a year of closing without the sponsor's written approval. The board has a right of first refusal on sales and leases, and leases must be at least a year.
  • Sponsor profit. The sponsor bought the property in December 2021 and expects a profit of about $16 million if every unit sells.
  • Other terms. No smoking anywhere on the property, including terraces. You waive a jury trial and pay the sponsor's legal fee of $3,250 plus other closing fees, and the down payment is 10% plus another 10% later.

Team

  • Sponsor and selling agent: 45 Emmut Properties LLC, principal John Young
  • Managing agent: Property Link Mgmt LLC, an affiliate of the sponsor, on a three-year agreement
  • Architect (property report): Matt Markowitz Architect
  • Budget expert: FirstService Residential New York
  • Sponsor's counsel: Starr Associates

The plan doesn't name an interior designer.

Nearby

FAQ

Are there tenants living at 45 West 81st Street?

Yes. The plan lists six rent-stabilized, occupied apartments. It is a non-eviction plan, so those tenants can stay even if someone else buys their unit.

How much are common charges at 45 West 81st Street?

Under the sponsor's first-year projection, roughly $280 to $1,240 a month for most homes and about $6,200 for the duplex penthouse, with estimated property taxes of a similar size on top.

Does the building have a doorman?

Only part time. The plan promises an attended lobby on weekdays and 9am to 5pm on weekends, and the sponsor can change or remove it.

How many units does the condo have?

The plan's price list has 145 residential units. The Attorney General's database shows 143, and parts of the plan describe 143. Check the latest amendment.

Where this comes from: the building's offering plan (CD220168), filed with the New York Attorney General, including its Schedule A price list, Schedule B first-year budget and the architect's description of property. We read the original plan, not the amendments. Prices are the sponsor's offering prices, not sales. Updated October 2026.