A studio in a Beatles-inspired NYC co-op asks $425K

By the time Dr. Scott Keller walked through the whimsical lobby of 215 E. 24th St. in 2007, he already knew he was home.

The longtime chiropractor and part-time musician had spent two years searching for an apartment.

But the moment he stepped into the foyer — with its faux street lamps, Tudor timbers and a wrought-iron patio set evoking a Liverpool, England lane — he felt a rush of déjà vu.

“I knew that this place was for me. I knew it was mine, and I knew I’d been there before,” Keller, 59, told The Post. “There are no mistakes in the universe. Everything has some kind of synchronistic divine plan.”

And he was right. After purchasing the more than 450-square-foot studio for $330,000, his mom told him they went to a party there with friends when he was a teenager.

Now, nearly two decades later, Keller is parting ways with his beloved home at the Penny Lane co-op in Manhattan’s Kips Bay.

Listed for $425,000, the third-floor studio offers floor-to-ceiling windows, a Juliet balcony with city views, hardwood and tile floors and a ceiling fan. But it’s the building’s character that’s driving the buzz.

Once home to the J.M. Horton Ice Cream Factory, the red brick building was converted into apartments in the mid-1970s by Beatles-obsessed developers. The Beatles, of course, were famously from Liverpool.

The lobby was designed to mimic a quaint English streetscape, inspired by the Liverpool neighborhood referenced in the song “Penny Lane.”

“It has this curious, cool lobby that recalls the kind of Tudor architecture of Liverpool,” listing representative Giulia Prestia of Century 21 Realty First told The Post. “It harkens back to a New York City that we don’t really see anymore.”

“And it has been maintained that way ever since,” she said.

The co-op’s interior plays up the theme with decorative facades, mock storefronts and a stylized streetscape that some visitors have compared to a scene from “Willy Wonka.”

“Some people love it, some people hate it,” Prestia said. “But it’s very cool.”

The building’s past as a factory lends itself to some unusually lofty layouts. Though Keller’s studio is a single-level unit, other apartments in the 179-unit building are duplexes or even triplexes, and some have generous proportions.

“Because it was a former ice cream factory … some of the units have extraordinarily tall ceilings,” Prestia said. “That’s not common, especially in neighborhoods like … Kips Bay.”

The co-op also features a 24-hour doorman, a live-in superintendent, laundry on every floor, and an expansive landscaped roof deck that once served as tennis courts and now offers views of the Empire State and Chrysler buildings. There’s also bike storage, a recycling program that caught Keller’s attention early on, and one of New York City’s first organized composting systems that predated the green boom.

“Back in the day, I mean in 2007, it was a big deal,” he said.

The building once had even more overt Beatles references.

The neighboring parking garage — once part of the Penny Lane complex — featured murals of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Abbey Road,” and 1950s icons like Marilyn Monroe and James Dean.

“The developers were such Beatles fanatics that they had this mural commissioned,” Prestia said. “When they renovated it, they painted right over it, which is such a huge loss.”

For Keller, who plays Beatles covers with his band and frequently performed at venues across New York and the Hamptons, the building was more than a home.

“It’s sad because I love it. It’s my baby,” he said. “I’ve accomplished a great deal of success while I was living there, in my career and in my music career.”

He added that the staff contributed to the home’s magic.

“The people that work there on the staff have an energy and a joy about them,” Keller said. “That is part of the feeling you get when you walk through the foyer.”

Keller had long split his time between New York and Florida, but recently made the move permanent.

Renting the unit, he said, never felt like an option.

“The idea of renting it to other people, taking my space is making me crazy,” he said. “And I don’t want to rent it, so I just have to emotionally detach from it.”

Still, Prestia thinks the apartment will strike the right chord with someone new.

“To find something at that price point in New York City is really quite rare,” she said. “It’s a great step up for someone who might be living with roommates and wants to make a move to owning.”