Skip to Content
CityRealty Logo
Many residences at the newly-opened condo 611 West 56th Street have direct elevator access (Corcoran) Many residences at the newly-opened condo 611 West 56th Street have direct elevator access (Corcoran)
In many elevator buildings, it is common practice for residents to get on the elevator, press a button for their floor, and walk a few feet to their front door. Some, though, have gone one step further with the elevator opening directly into the apartment.

This feature is described in listings as a key-locked elevator for its mechanism: Residents get on an elevator that serves all units; but rather than pressing a floor button, they insert the key that corresponds to their specific floor. Then, and only then, the elevator takes them to that floor. It also works in reverse: When residents of homes with key-locked elevators are having friends or service professionals up, they can send the elevator down, call it up from their floor, and send their guests directly up.
Safety is often the first question among people who are unfamiliar with this feature, but the elevator keys only access the unit they correspond to. Moreover, the elevator physically will not move unless a key is inserted, which offers another barrier in buildings that might not have door staff. An unduplicatable elevator key is the most frequent point of access, but some tech-savvy buildings have begun to use key cards, key pads with unique codes, and even fingerprint access.

In this article:

The Campbell, 148 Chambers Street
The Campbell, 148 Chambers Street Tribeca
611 West 56th Street
611 West 56th Street Midtown West
338 Berry Street
338 Berry Street Williamsburg
82 University Place
82 University Place Greenwich Village
52 Park Avenue
52 Park Avenue Murray Hill
It should also be noted that some listings use "private" and "key-locked" to refer to the elevators as if the terms were interchangeable, but they in fact refer to two separate things. Private elevators are typically located apart from the main building elevator, service one unit (usually the penthouse), and only include buttons for the lobby, the apartment, and any amenity space in between. Key-locked elevators, though, serve all units in the building, but residents' keys only provide access to their apartments and nowhere else.
142-West 19th-Street-01 142 Flatiron, #3 (Compass)
Historically, apartments reached via key-locked elevator have been most frequently found in industrial loft buildings that have been converted to residences with only one or two units per floor. However, a number of new developments – including 142Flatiron, Novum W26 in Chelsea, and 611 West 56th Street in Midtown – have begun to incorporate direct elevator entry.


338 Berry Street, #4E (Corcoran Group)

164 Bank Street, #3A (Compass)

26 Beaver Street, #4 (Sothebys International Realty)

473 Hicks Street, #4 (Douglas Elliman Real Estate)

125 Central Park North, #PH4 (Brown Harris Stevens Residential Sales LLC)

52 Park Avenue, #8 (Avenue 8 Inc)

Novum W26, #3 (Compass)

650 East 6th Street, #3 (Douglas Elliman Real Estate)
Would you like to tour any of these properties?
Just complete the info below.
  1. Select which properties are of interest to you:

Or call us at (212) 755-5544

2061 Broadway, #4 (Brown Harris Stevens Residential Sales LLC)

330 East 57th Street, #3 (Brown Harris Stevens Residential Sales LLC)

26 Beaver Street, #15thFloor (Sothebys International Realty)

14 Clinton Street, #6A (Real New York)

300 West 18th Street, #2 (Compass)

611 West 56th Street, #21B (Corcoran Group)

253 East 7th Street, #5 (Serhant LLC)

82 University Place, #4 (Compass)

490 Lorimer Street, #PH (Douglas Elliman Real Estate)

142Flatiron, #2 (Compass)

The Campbell, #5 (Douglas Elliman Real Estate)

390 West Broadway, #3 (Douglas Elliman Real Estate)

160 Avenue of the Americas, #5thFloor (Sothebys International Realty)

36 West 15th Street, #4 (Compass)

158 Franklin Street, #3 (Serhant LLC)

The Julliard Building, #6B (Corcoran Group)
Would you like to tour any of these properties?
Just complete the info below.
  1. Select which properties are of interest to you:

Or call us at (212) 755-5544
Would you like to tour any of these properties?