Chelsea Centro is an attractive, two-building rental apartment complex in Chelsea was erected in 2001 by Rockrose Development, which was headed by Henry, K. Thomas and Frederick Elghanayan.  

It consists of a 17-story building with 231 apartments at 200 West 26th Street and an 11-story building with 125 units at 220 West 26th Street.

Costas Kondylis was the architect. 

It is just to the south of the Fashion Institute of Technology.

BOTTOM LINE

Chelsea Centro is a large, full-service, rental complex that is convenient to art galleries of West Chelsea and the restaurants of the Flatiron District. It has two sundecks and a garage. 

DESCRIPTION

This beige-brick building has a large entrance marquee and a setback above it on the third floor has a large pergola.  Mid-rise setbacks on the building’s wings also have pergolas. The building has many corner windows, many balconies on 26^th Street, a revolving-door entrance, and discrete air-conditioners.

AMENITIES

The building has a fitness center, a double-height lobby, a garage, two laundry facilities, available valet services, a 24-hour doorman, two sundecks and video security. There is very good public transportation on 23^rd Street and Penn Station is only 5 blocks to the north.

APARTMENTS

Apartments have large thermopane windows, individually controlled heating and cooling,  and oak parquet floors. 

Kitchens have Shaker-style glass-paneled cabinetry and high-end, Whirlpool appliances. 

Bathrooms have pedestal sinks.

HISTORY

The Elghanayan brothers split the company in 2009 with Henry Elghanayan keeping the name Rockrose and K. Thomas and Frederick Elghanayan forming a new company, T. F. Cornerstone, which now owns Chelsea Centro. 

Chelsea Centro was the first complex to be financed under a city taxable bond program that gave developers quicker but more expensive financing in return for making units available to people with incomes that are too high to quality for traditional city housing programs even though their incomes are moderate. 

Eighty percent of the units were rented at market rates and the remainder set aside for low- and moderate-income households that earn up to 80 percent of the median income in the New York City area. 

An August 3, 2001 article about the building in The New York Times by Sana Siwolop noted that "The usual cap on income to qualify for such apartments under what are called 80/20 programs is half of the area's median income." 

The city-backed bonds provided Chelsea Centro with more than $74 million in financing, according to the article and Mr. Singleton said that they also helped his company bring the development to market about a year sooner than it might have otherwise.