Nineteen West 46th Street is not the thinnest building in Manhattan. It’s not even the second-thinnest. But at just 12 and one-quarter feet wide, it is perhaps the third-thinnest of the borough’s 47,000 buildings.

A passerby might miss the building entirely if they happened to glance down at their phone for a moment. And that would be a shame.

“It’s an interesting little building,” said Scott Weinberg, a real estate attorney who works nearby. “I deal with buildings all the time in my work. I like walking around the city and seeing things that you wouldn’t think should be there, given all the development that’s going on.”

“Little” is an understatement. It’s so narrow that on a basketball court, it would fit between the free-throw line and the front of the rim, with a foot to spare.

Like all unusual buildings in New York City, 19 West 46th Street has a story behind it. Built in 1865, the brownstone is a lone relic from an era when the block between Fifth and Sixth avenues was entirely residential.

“Mine’s the last man standing,” said Sean Sedaghatpour, whose Great Neck-based Elisheva Realty bought the building in 2021 for $2.65 million.

Sedaghatpour said he does not specialize in skinny buildings. But as it happens, he also owns a 10-foot-wide building at 210 East 52nd Street, possibly the borough’s second-thinnest, according to property records. (The narrowest building, at 75 ½ Bedford Street, is nine and one-half feet wide).

Nineteen West 46th Street was built by a developer who bought one of the last remaining lots on the block and divided it in half, according to the blog Daytonian in Manhattan. He built two matching townhouses at 17 and 19, hoping to maximize profits.

But one twin was demolished in the 1920s to make way for a 10-story office building. That property is now owned by Gary Barnett’s Extell Development, which is planning a 32-story office tower on the corner. It is unclear what Barnett’s plans are for the office building, which was set to be demolished by the previous owner. A spokesperson for Extell did not respond to a request for comment.

On the other side, Jack Elo’s eponymous firm bought the 15-story office building at 21 West 46th Street, which he plans to keep as an office.

The tiny townhouse remains, although the stoop was removed in 1911 when the parlor and ground floors were renovated for commercial use. A variety of businesses have occupied the building, including a perfume store, antiques dealer, and a bartending school. It’s now a Spanish Tapas restaurant.

The upper floors are apartments, and Sedaghatpour said he has no immediate plans to sell the building. An unknown developer swooping in to buy the tiny parcel seems unlikely anyway.

“It’s a very tiny building, so it doesn’t really have any potential except for me buying it or the owner on the other side buying it,” Elo said. “And I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

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Five stories of interest, The New York Times real estate section.

A New Chapter in the Face-Off Between Tenants and Landlords

In New York City, tenants can stay in their rent-stabilized apartments for eternity, unless their building is demolished by the owner. But, things aren’t that black and white. In the nutty world of NYC, a building doesn’t actually have to be torn down to be considered “demolished”.

In many cases these are demolitions with a difference. There are no wrecking balls. Walls do not tumble in clouds of dust. The plans filed with the Department of Buildings do not call for new buildings. Instead, they look like alteration plans that the same owner might have filed for an ordinary condominium conversion of a prewar building. Sometimes entire floors are left intact.

The New York Times is successful in making the issue one of the greedy developer vs. the kind, benevolent tenants, being lucky enough to find one tenant about to be evicted who is an 84-year-old man, in a wheelchair.

Back to Manhattan (and Back to Nature)

When Denise Spatafora gave birth to her two children, Savannah, now 5, and Orion, now almost 3, in the hot tub on the deck of her house in southern Vermont … okay, I didn’t read anymore of this story.

Two Years and a Marriage Later …

Man buys condo, preconstruction, with his wife.

When Mr. Lamstein first saw it, nearly two years ago, it seemed about 95 percent finished. “The market was so busy that if they waited until it was finished and the owner had an open house, it was likely they would be in a bidding war,” Mr. Brennan said.

So Mr. Lamstein signed the contract and paid a 10 percent deposit. He let the Chelsea lease expire so he would not have to break it later, even though his neighbor whose lease had nearly a year left â€” warned him the deal would probably take longer than anticipated.

Two years, and one divorce later, it’s finally finished, at least a year overdue. Here’s my tip: don’t plan on new construction being done on time. Ever.

The Bachelor Pad Still Lives

A bachelor pad is a cultural icon. It has been designed by the architect Frank Gehry for the pages of Playboy and has symbolized an alternative to life as a patriarchal breadwinner for more than half a century. It has earned mythic status. And it has essential ingredients.

The quintessential pad is modern, minimalist and cleaned by a maid. There is leather, wine and art. The views are befitting of a master of the universe, but a remote control can kill the lights, lower the shades and turn on the mood music before a girl can say, “I should really be getting home.”

That may seem like a Hollywood version of a bachelor pad, but it does in fact exist.

What ever happened to the swinging bachelor? Did he ever really exist? Does he exist now? Does he have a phat pad? (If you know of anyone in Boston with a bachelor pad, let me know. Maybe we can do a story about it. I’m not sure if Mr. Brady’s Back Bay condo counts.)

Not Quite a Castle, but It’s Home

If the Ottoman Empire were restored, it would make one New York City landlord very happy.

His tenant, Ertugrul Osman, would become the Ottoman sultan âs the head of a dynasty that ruled from 1299 to 1924, when the Turkish Republic was established. The job would come with a house in Istanbul, the 285-room Dolmabahce Palace, now a museum.

New York law, not to mention noblesse oblige, would require the sultan to surrender his two-bedroom apartment over a restaurant on Lexington Avenue in the 70’s. He has lived there since 1945, and his rent is $350 a month.

That’s awesome. Again, the beauty of rent control!

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