By Gus Saltonstall
An Upper West Side residential building was purchased recently by a real estate developer for $42 million, as first reported by The Commercial Observer and as shown in the city register.
The 15-story building at 698 West End Avenue, between West 93rd and 94th streets, has 90 units. The new owner of the UWS building is Benchmark Real Estate Group, which bought the property from Heller Realty.
Jordan Vogel, the co-founder of Benchmark Real Estate, told Crain’s New York that it plans to completely renovate the building and add amenities to make it a “premiere luxury rental” on the Upper West Side.
“New York City rarely offers entry points like this for such high quality real estate and we are excited to be buying when most others aren’t,” Vogel added to Crain’s.
Benchmark Real Estate, which owns properties across the United States, owns two other buildings on the Upper West Side at 166 West 75th Street and 250 West 85th Street. It is not the first time Benchmark has done business with Heller Realty in the neighborhood.
Benchmark purchased the 15-story residential property at 250 West 85th Street, on the corner of Broadway, from Heller Realty in September 2025.
The building at 698 West End Avenue was constructed in 1925 and has a doorman, along with a live-in super.
It is unclear at this time how quickly Benchmark Real Estate Group will begin making renovations within the building.
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I live in 250 West 85th and Benchmark is ruining the building. They are tearing out pre-war details, added horrible carpet (think cheap casino) in the hallways which now makes smells linger, and have jacked the rent. This is just classic private equity turning something nice into something hallow.
Bargain. That is only 400k a unit.