Belnord Apartments | |
New York City Landmark No. 0289
| |
 The Belnord | |
 | |
| Location | 225 W. 86th St. Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°47′18″N 73°58′34″W / 40.78833°N 73.97611°W |
| Area | 2 acres (0.81 ha) |
| Built | 1908 |
| Architect | Weekes, H. Hobart |
| Architectural style | Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals, Italian Renaissance |
| NRHP reference No. | 80002670[1] |
| NYCL No. | 0289 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | April 23, 1980 |
| Designated NYCL | September 20, 1966 |
The Belnord is a condominium building at 225 West 86th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The 13-story structure was designed by Hiss and Weekes in the Italian Renaissance Revival style and occupies the full block between Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue, and 86th and 87th Streets. It was built between 1908 and 1909 by a syndicate of investors as a rental apartment building. The Belnord is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[2]
The building occupies a nearly rectangular site and has a limestone and brick facade, which is divided horizontally into three sections. On 86th Street, a pair of arches at the center of the facade lead to an internal courtyard with a garden, driveway, and entrances to the apartments. The Belnord contains six entrances, each of which lead to a different set of apartments, and originally had a mechanical plant in the basement, as well as amenities such as horse stables and storage rooms. The building originally had 175 apartments, which were designed in the Louis XVI style. The apartments generally had multiple rooms and faced both the courtyard and the street. By the 1940s, the building had 225 units; this was further increased to 231 condominium units by the late 2010s. The design of the apartments dates to a 2010s renovation by Robert A. M. Stern.
A group of investors acquired the site from the Hoyt family in 1908 and developed the Belnord there. When the building was completed in October 1909, it was characterized as the United States' largest apartment building. The Belnord was sold multiple times in the 1920s before being acquired by the City Bank-Farmers Trust Company in 1935. The bank sold the building in 1945, and the Belnord fell into disrepair during the next several decades. Between the 1970s and 1990s, the tenants were involved in multiple disputes with then-owner Lillian Seril, and many residents refused to pay rent because of the Belnord's poor condition. Property Markets Group and Gary Barnett bought the Belnord in 1994, and Barnett spent over $100 million on renovations. Barnett's Extell Development Company sold the apartments in 2015 to the HFZ Capital Group, which converted many apartments to condominium units starting in 2017.
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ Bradley Frandsen; Joan R. Olshansky & Elizabeth Spencer-Ralph (October 1979). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Belnord Apartments". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2011. See also: "Accompanying three photos". Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2011.