$435K Penthouse in Cherokee on UES Hits the Market

Boom! The headline says it all. A $435K two-bedroom penthouse at the top of the Cherokee hit the market yesterday and it’s trending high on StreetEasy. So far, this little gem has been saved by 83 114 users on StreetEasy. The co-op is clearly priced to sell and given the immediate response among our users, chances are it will go fast.

So what’s the catch? Let’s take a look:

Pros

• It’s a penthouse… for $435K!
• It’s a corner unit offering exposures on the north, south and east sides. That means lots of light and cross breezes.
• The apartment is located in the Cherokee, the uber-classic Beaux-Arts Building that spans a full block between East 77th and East 78th Street between York Avenue and the East River on the Upper East Side.
• To put it mildly, the Cherokee is a very, very cool building. It’s the epitome of Beaux-Arts beauty. Think vaulted tiled passageways, planted interior courtyards, windowed, airy stairways. It feels like the Left Bank at the turn-of-the-century. If you relate to Owen Wilson in “Midnight in Paris,” you’ll love this building.
• There are high ceilings. For an old, Beaux-Arts building, nine-foot ceilings is about as good as it gets.
• The bedrooms are of equal size and both have lots of closet space.
• The kitchen has a floor-to-ceiling window, which lets in lots of light and ups the whole Parisian lifestyle feel.
• The building rules are pretty generous – pets are allowed, you can sublet as much as you want and parents can buy for kids and pied-a-terres are a-ok.

Cons

• It’s a walk-up…a six-floor walk-up. Game-changer?
• It is far from the subway. We’re talking over half a mile from the 6 at 77th Street and nearly three-quarters of a mile from the express stop at 86th Street. The combo of the hike from the subway and the hike up to your apartment is not to be discounted.
• The listing description is clear: “Both the bathroom and kitchen require renovation.”
• The listing is virtually staged, so it’s beauty could be misleading. There is an open house on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., so there’s your chance to collect empirical evidence.
• For the price of the unit, the maintenance fees are high at $1,602/month.

Summary

Come on, people. Really. The price is hard to get over. The neighborhood’s median sale price is $1,227,500, which is more than 180 percent higher than the asking price of this co-op. The building’s supremely unique stylings are an added bonus. Yes, the double whammy of the distance to the subway and the sixth-floor walk-up spell S-C-H-E-L-P, but the combo of the price and the building make this co-op a real find in our book.

See more pictures below:

There’s room for a real dining room table and chairs.

Related:

• What is a Pied-à-Terre?
• What is a Classic Six?
• What is a Pre-War Apartment Building?