Building facts (reconciled)
Three separate public sources give three different unit counts for this one building. The building’s own site and StreetEasy report 407 units. RealtyHop, drawing on the same public-records feed Compass uses, reports 414 total units, 409 of them residential. Habitat magazine, in a 2020 interview with the board president, put the figure at 415. None of the four cross-references the others.
| Metric | Value | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 25-40 Shore Boulevard, Astoria, NY 11102 | — |
| Built | 1989 | PropertyShark, RealtyHop |
| Stories | 23 | StreetEasy, RealtyHop |
| Unit count (disputed) | 407, or 409 residential of 414 total, or 415 | See discrepancy note above; unresolved by any single source |
| Building square footage | 407,200 sq ft | PropertyShark |
| Lot square footage | 153,357 sq ft | Compass |
| Zoning district | R6 (residential land use R4) | Compass |
| School district | NYC Geographic District 30 | Homes.com, Compass |
| Hurricane evacuation zone | Zone 5 (self-reported as current) | StreetEasy; verify at the NYC Hurricane Evacuation Zone Finder |
The discrepancy matters beyond trivia: reserve-fund math and board voting weight are both calculated per unit, so a buyer comparing “cost per unit” figures across sources without knowing which count they used is comparing numbers built on different denominators.
Is Shore Towers a co-op or a condo? It’s a condominium: ownership is a deed to the unit plus a share of common elements, and board approval works differently from a co-op board’s interview process.
Current availability and pricing
Live listings, checked in July 2026: on the sale side, a studio (#8N) at $695,000, a 2-bedroom (#5E) at $799,000, and a 3-bedroom penthouse-tier unit (#23F) at $3,299,999, all shown as in contract or under active offer on StreetEasy. Separately, a 2-bedroom penthouse unit, #PH18D, is listed at $988,000 with an open house scheduled, per Homes.com. On the rental side, a 1-bedroom lists for $2,700 to $3,250 a month and 2- and 3-bedroom rentals run $4,250 to $5,200. Listings turn over quickly at this price point, so treat exact unit numbers as illustrative of the current range rather than a guarantee of availability.
What it actually costs to own here
Monthly HOA fees range from $405 to $665, averaging around $491, covering grounds care and pool service, per Homes.com’s public-records compilation. Building-wide, annual property taxes range from $2,036 to $33,198 (assessed values from $17,300 to $327,000), a spread wide enough that the number on any specific unit’s assessment needs checking individually.
| Unit type | Recent/current asking price range | Monthly HOA | Approx. combined monthly carrying cost* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | $545,000 to $695,000 | $405 to $491 | roughly $575 to $700 |
| 1-bedroom | $655,000 to $755,000 | $491 to $580 | roughly $775 to $950 |
| 2-bedroom | $660,000 to $988,000 | $580 to $665 | roughly $1,050 to $1,650 |
| 3-bedroom | $1,300,000 to $3,300,000 | $665 (top of range) | roughly $2,500 and up |
*The combined figure adds the HOA fee to a rough monthly tax estimate scaled from the building’s published annual tax range. It is a planning estimate, not the specific unit’s confirmed tax bill; pull the current assessment for the exact apartment before making an offer.
Does Shore Towers have in-unit laundry? No. Units don’t have in-unit washer/dryer hookups; residents use a shared laundry room, renovated in 2020, plus a drop-off laundry service some listings mention.
Price trend and negotiation leverage
Six recent closings, all with published asking and sold prices, show a pattern buyers can use.
| Date | Unit | Beds | List price | Sold price | % spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04/23/26 | #1O | 2 | $700,000 | $660,000 | -5.71% |
| 03/30/26 | #2F | 2 | $750,000 | $755,000 | +0.67% |
| 03/26/26 | #1A | 2 | $739,000 | $710,000 | -3.92% |
| 12/30/25 | #2E | 2 | $749,999 | $720,000 | -4.00% |
| 10/10/25 | #3G | 2 | $700,000 | $660,000 | -5.71% |
| 03/28/25 | #14N | 1 | $739,000 | $705,000 | -4.60% |
Source: StreetEasy closing records. Five of the six closings sold below asking, with only one exceeding it, by less than 1%. For a 2-bedroom specifically, a buyer opening at 4 to 6% under ask is negotiating inside the range the building’s own recent history supports.
Amenities that matter
Two amenities separate this building from a standard doorman building: a heated indoor pool with a skylight and river views, and outdoor tennis and pickleball courts, both confirmed on the building’s current listing data. The rest (doorman, gym, bike storage, garage parking) is standard for the price point and doesn’t distinguish the building from comparable Astoria waterfront condos.
Board policies and financing rules
According to a policy table Compass dates November 4, 2025, and which should be re-verified with the listing broker: minimum down payment is 10%, there is no flip tax, subletting is allowed, pied-a-terre ownership is allowed, and guarantors, parental purchases, co-purchasing, and gifted down payments are all permitted. One restriction stands out: Compass’s policy table lists in-unit washer/dryer as not allowed, a rule buried in a policy grid on only one of the sources reviewed.
Is there a flip tax at Shore Towers? No, the building’s published policy table lists no flip tax, though buyers should confirm this with the offering plan or the listing broker since policies change.
Flood risk and storm resilience
Shore Towers sits inside Hurricane Evacuation Zone 5, per StreetEasy’s building data; verify this against the live NYC Hurricane Evacuation Zone Finder before a storm, since zone maps are periodically revised. Separately, preliminary FEMA flood maps placed the Hallets Cove strip of Astoria, where the building sits directly on the East River, inside flood Zone AE, an area with a 1% annual chance of a serious flood, per Queens Chronicle coverage of that update. Evacuation zones and flood insurance zones are two different systems and shouldn’t be conflated when budgeting for insurance.
The building has already been tested once. During Superstorm Sandy, the building “was compromised but not destroyed,” Chona Raskin, the condo board’s president at the time, told Habitat magazine in 2020. The board spent about $1 million on a seawall and waterproofed the stairwells, driveways, and parking lot. That single data point does more to describe real flood exposure than a bare zone label does.
Is Shore Towers in a flood zone? Preliminary FEMA mapping places this stretch of the Astoria waterfront in Zone AE, the standard 1%-annual-chance flood zone; check the FEMA Flood Map Service Center for the parcel-specific determination before closing.
Getting around: subway, shuttle, and ferry
The building runs a free shuttle to the Astoria Boulevard N/W subway station every 15 minutes, and from there it’s roughly 20 minutes to Grand Central, per Homes.com. The NYC Ferry’s Astoria stop is about a 12-minute walk and reaches the Upper East Side in under 5 minutes, though ferry schedules thin out seasonally and on weekends, worth checking directly with NYC Ferry before counting on it as a primary commute. Car-free living here works on a weekday 9-to-5 schedule built around the shuttle; it gets noticeably harder for irregular hours, when the walk to the station becomes the fallback.
How far is Shore Towers from the subway? About a 20-minute walk to the Astoria Boulevard N/W station, or roughly 5 minutes by the building’s free shuttle, which runs every 15 minutes.
Building history and capital improvements
The building opened in 1989 as one of the first luxury towers on the Queens side of the East River near the RFK Bridge. Its laundry room was renovated in 2020, and the elevators, facade, and balconies have since been restored, alongside the post-Sandy seawall and a $235,000 LED lighting retrofit that Raskin says now saves the building about $40,000 a year, per the same 2020 Habitat interview.
Who Shore Towers fits, and who it doesn’t
It fits a buyer who wants East River views and full-service amenities at a below-Manhattan price point, doesn’t need in-unit laundry, and is comfortable with a shuttle-dependent commute. It’s a weaker fit for anyone who wants a quiet, low-turnover board: Yelp reviews describe recurring “politics” on the Board of Managers and long-tenured incumbents with little turnover, an independent complaint no brokerage source raises. Marketing copy across multiple listing sites calls the pool “resort-style,” but at least one resident review describes it as small and consistently crowded with children, worth weighing before it factors into a decision. There’s also a live conflict worth flagging: StreetEasy markets the building as pet-friendly, while Apartments.com’s listing for the same address states pets are not allowed; confirm current policy directly with building management rather than trust either page.
Common mistakes when evaluating this building
- Treating AVM value estimates as sale guidance. The $397,000 to $1.3 million “estimated value” ranges are software outputs, not comparable sales; use the closings table above instead.
- Assuming “resort-style” matches lived experience. Marketing language and resident reviews of the pool disagree.
- Skipping the board-approval and financing-policy timeline. Confirming the current down-payment and guarantor rules with the listing broker before making an offer avoids a late surprise.
- Ignoring which unit-count figure a cost comparison used. A “cost per unit” statistic pulled from one source and compared against another built on a different count (407 vs. 409/414 vs. 415) isn’t a real comparison.
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