AKA United Nations, 234 East 46th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 234 East 46th Street by Carter Horsley

This 20-story apartment tower at 234 East 46^th Street between Second and Third Avenues near the United Nations was erected in 1987 and has 95 furnished one-bedroom apartments, all with balconies above the third floor and available for rent for stays of one week or more from their  condominium owners.

The building was designed by SLCE and became part of the AKA family of extended stay rental buildings in the summer of 2015.  Other AKA buildings in the city include AKA Central Park, AKA Sutton Place, AKA Wall Street and AKA Sutton Place.

The building is convenient to the United Nations, and its spacious and attractive park, and Grand Central Terminal and the Midtown Business District. There is good cross-town bus service a few blocks to the north and the south.

The building was purchased in 2014 by a joint venture between Prodigy Network and Korman Communities for $68.5 million with more than $10 million raised in crowdfunded equity, senior financing from the Bank of America and subordinate finding from Emmes & Co.

Bottom Line

A pleasant mid-block high-rise apartment building near the United Nations whose apartments can be rented for as short a time as one week.

Description

The building is setback slightly from the street and has several nice design touches: the rooms with corner balconies also have full-height, narrow corner windows; the top floor is cantilevered over the corner balconies to form a nice top; the first and second floors have oculi (circular windows) flanking the entrance that has a large, black-rimmed projecting vestibule.

The top floor does not have a center balcony to create a more interesting roofline.

Amenities

The building has a doorman, a 24-hour front desk, a roof deck, a courtyard, same-day valet dry cleaning and laundering, complimentary coffee and tea service in the café, housekeeping, complimentary local telephone service, raised sidewalk planters, a rear garden, a sundeck, discrete air-conditioners, a private garden and a fitness center.

Apartments

The top two floors contain 10 penthouse suites.

Apartments have stainless-steel kitchen appliances, granite kitchen countertops and Siematic walnut kitchen cabinetry, crema marfil marble bathrooms with Bulgari bath products, and Samsung HD televisions.