Current rents and availability
Base rent spans roughly $5,890 for a studio to $10,870 for a two-bedroom, per a national rental listing aggregator’s pricing pull for the building. A separate aggregator recently listed a premium two-bedroom near $9,500 a month, and placed the building at about 85% of the surrounding metro’s average asking rent, an unusual data point for a building marketed as luxury. None of these figures include fees; see the fees section below for what gets added on top.
| Unit type | Price range (base rent) | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | ~$5,890 | No separate bedroom | Rent. |
| 1 Bedroom, standard | ~$6,350 | Entry finish tier | Rent. |
| 1 Bedroom, renovated | ~$8,200 to $9,900 | Terrace or park view pushes toward the top | Rent., ApartmentList |
| 2 Bedroom | ~$9,500 to $10,870 | Corner and renovated units sit at the high end | Rent., ApartmentList |
The renovated tier consistently prices several thousand dollars above the standard tier at the same bedroom count, which makes the finish distinction in the next section a bigger price lever than square footage alone.
Building facts, resolved
1 Union Square South sits at the southwest corner of 14th Street and Fourth Avenue, at the edge of Union Square Park, in Manhattan’s Flatiron/Union Square district. Related Companies developed the 27-story rental tower and its 240 units. New York City Department of Finance tax assessment records, aggregated by PropertyShark, list the building as completed in 1998, with an average unit size of 871 square feet across the studio-to-two-bedroom mix.
Is 1 Union Square South a condo or a rental building?It is a rental building, not a condominium. All 240 units are leased directly through the building’s own rental office rather than sold individually.
Renovated vs. standard units: the finish gap that moves price
Not every unit carries the same finish package, and no listing headline makes the boundary obvious. According to the property’s own published unit specifications, a subset of apartments, generally upper-floor and recently turned-over units, have gone through a renovation program that replaces the kitchen and bathroom and updates the flooring; the rest retain the original 1998-era finish.
| Feature area | Standard unit | Renovated unit |
|---|---|---|
| Flooring | Original hardwood | White oak, bleached, wide-plank engineered flooring |
| Kitchen cabinetry | Builder-grade cabinetry | Scavolini cabinetry with integrated paneled appliances |
| Kitchen counters/sink | Laminate or stone-look counters | Quartz Caesarstone counters, Silgranit sink |
| Kitchen appliances | Standard stainless steel | Bosch appliances |
| Bathroom | Standard tile, no heated floor | Heated floors, rain-style shower head |
| Windows/shades | Manual blinds | Motorized window shades |
| Climate control | Building-standard HVAC | Central air HVAC unit |
Someone touring a listed “renovated” unit and a listed “standard” unit at the same bedroom count should expect a meaningfully different kitchen and bathroom, not just paint and carpet differences. Confirm renovation status against the specific unit letter before signing, since building-wide marketing language doesn’t separate the two tiers.
Are all the apartments renovated?No. Renovation status varies by unit and floor; ask the leasing office to confirm whether a specific unit has gone through the finish upgrade before you commit to a lease.
Amenities and services
A full-time doorman and concierge staff the lobby, and the building offers a fitness center, a rooftop terrace with grill stations overlooking Union Square Park, a full-service garage, and a community garden. Pets are allowed. In-unit washer/dryers appear in some but not all layouts, tied loosely to the same renovation tier described above rather than distributed evenly across the building.
Location, transit, and noise by exposure
The N, Q, R, 4, 5, and 6 trains stop at Union Square, roughly a tenth of a mile from the entrance on Broadway. Related Companies commissioned Metronome for the north façade, a public art installation built with the Public Art Fund and the Municipal Art Society at a cost of $4.2 million, created by artists Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel and dedicated on October 26, 1999. Its 15-digit LED clock was renamed the Climate Clock in September 2020 and now counts down toward a climate-threshold date instead of simply displaying the time, a genuinely unusual identifying feature rather than a generic “iconic building” claim.
Units facing Fourth Avenue and 14th Street sit above one of the busier vehicle and foot-traffic intersections downtown; units facing the park or the building’s interior are quieter. Corner units, whatever their exposure, run cooler in winter and warmer in summer than mid-building units, a mechanical side effect of extra exterior wall surface.
Which side of the building is quietest?Park-facing and interior-facing units are quieter than units directly over Fourth Avenue and 14th Street, where traffic and pedestrian volume are highest.
Broker fees and what base rent doesn’t include
Units here are listed directly through the building’s rental office, not through an outside brokerage. Under the NYC Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses Act, effective June 11, 2025, a landlord’s agent, including an in-house leasing office, cannot charge a prospective tenant a fee for that agent’s own services. Background- and credit-check fees remain separately allowed under state tenant-protection law. A renter who independently hires their own broker to help search still owes that broker’s fee, since that renter did the hiring.
Do I need a broker, and will I owe a fee?No broker is required to apply directly through the building’s rental office, and current city law bars that office from charging you a fee for its own leasing services; you would only owe a fee if you separately hired your own broker.
Who this building suits
This building suits a renter who wants a full-service doorman building directly on Union Square Park and is willing to verify renovation status unit by unit. It suits someone comfortable trading some street noise for that location. It is a weaker fit for anyone whose top priority is a quiet block.
How it compares with nearby doorman buildings
Three nearby doorman rentals come up repeatedly in comparisons for this stretch of Flatiron and Gramercy Park: 60 West 23rd Street, 55 West 25th Street, and 290 Third Avenue. An independent building database lists 60 West 23rd Street at 20 floors and 431 units, describes 55 West 25th Street as a larger doorman tower with several hundred units and a gym, and lists 290 Third Avenue as a doorman building with a gym and laundry facilities but no garage.
| Building | Position vs. 1 Union Square South | Notable trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| 60 West 23rd Street | Larger building, 431 units vs. 240 | No direct park frontage |
| 55 West 25th Street | Larger, several hundred units | No direct park frontage; farther from the Union Square transit hub |
| 290 Third Avenue | Smaller, boutique-scale | No on-site garage listed |
1 Union Square South is the only one of the four with a garage and direct Union Square Park frontage together, a trade-off worth weighing against its Fourth Avenue traffic exposure.
How does it compare to other Union Square doorman buildings?It is smaller than the two largest nearby comparables and is the only one of the three with both a garage and direct park frontage.
Comments