1150 Fifth Avenue

The Fifth Avenue elevation is the formal one — limestone at the base, a canopied entrance, brick above with classical window enframements and a crowning cornice, in the vocabulary Carpenter used up and down the avenue. The East 96th Street elevation carries the length of the building and the service entrance. Inside the Expanded Carnegie Hill Historic District, that exterior is regulated: window replacement, ironwork, entrance work and any façade or parapet work require a Landmarks permit in addition to board approval and Department of Buildings sign-off. Budget the extra approval cycle into any renovation timeline.

The two-wing plan is the organizing fact of the interior. Apartments differ meaningfully by wing, by line and by floor: Park-facing apartments on the Fifth Avenue front carry the reservoir and Central Park view that the building is priced on; 96th Street and rear-facing lines are quieter and materially cheaper. Six-room, two-bath apartments make up the middle of the stock. Seven- and eight-room apartments with three baths sit above them. The 1991 share allocation is a reliable ranking of relative size but an unreliable guide to any specific apartment today — three and a half decades of combinations and reconfigurations have moved walls. Underwrite the apartment you are looking at, not its share count.

The building also carries at least one professional apartment, a separate class of unit under the plan with its own share allocation and its own history — the shares allocated to the professional units were not fully paid in until well after the residential shares. City records assign about 1,000 square feet of the building to commercial use, which is consistent with a small professional presence rather than a retail condition. It has no effect on the residential experience but it does explain the extra units in the DOF count.

1150 Fifth Avenue Owners Corp. runs a full-service building with a 24-hour doorman, a live-in resident manager and a Local 32BJ staff. Labor is the largest controllable line in the budget — wages, union benefits, payroll taxes and workers' compensation together ran roughly $1.3 million in the most recent audited year on file, against total operating costs of about $4.2 million. Real estate tax is the largest line outright, at about $2.0 million, and the corporation retains certiorari counsel on an ongoing basis and has had protests pending across several consecutive tax years.

The capital record on file is legible and recent. A capital assessment of $6.00 per share was imposed in November 2018 and collected over six months beginning February 2019, raising roughly $880,000 to fund the balance of an exterior restoration, an elevator modernization, and other capital work. The financial statements record the elevator modernization at roughly $545,000 and a roof deck rebuild with furniture at roughly $212,000 in the same cycle, plus fitness-center equipment, a resident manager's office, plumbing upgrades and storage equipment. In other words, the two most expensive recurring items in a hundred-year-old masonry building — the façade cycle and the elevators — were addressed within the last decade, and the roof deck and gym that the building markets on were rebuilt at the same time.

The balance-sheet position that follows is reasonable rather than lavish. Reserves stood above $1.0 million at the most recent year-end on file, roughly double the prior year, with about the same again in operating cash. The underlying mortgage was refinanced on December 23, 2020 into a $5,500,000 loan at 2.86 percent that amortizes on a thirty-year schedule and matures January 1, 2036, replacing a $6.5 million loan at 4.59 percent. That is a long runway and a low rate, and it removes refinancing risk from the near-term picture entirely — an increasingly unusual position for a co-op of this size. The estimated balance at maturity is roughly $3.38 million.

Two standing caveats belong in any diligence file. The corporation's governing documents do not require the accumulation of funds for future major repairs, and no reserve study has been performed — a common disclosure in Manhattan cooperatives and the reason the reserve balance and the assessment history matter more than the maintenance figure. And the operating assessment is recurring, not one-time: it exists to be refunded against the New York City cooperative shareholder tax abatement, so read the maintenance and the assessment together when you model carrying cost.

Recent sales

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01602-0001) and verified listing data. Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified by The Roebling Team research desk. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price.

The financial position is the quiet strength. A $5.5 million underlying mortgage at 2.86 percent maturing in 2036, an exterior restoration and an elevator modernization already completed and paid for, and reserves above $1 million. Read the statements — this building shows well on paper.

The recurring operating assessment is not a red flag. It offsets the city tax abatement and is refunded at roughly the same time it is charged. Model maintenance and assessment together rather than treating the assessment as a distress signal.

Sponsor shares are still in the building. Roughly thirteen percent, with some rent-stabilized tenancies attached. That affects inventory flow and board dynamics; ask about it directly.

The policy stack is undocumented in public records. Pets, pied-à-terre, subletting, minimum down payment, washer/dryer — establish every one of these in writing before you sign a contract, not at board-package stage.

Landmarks review applies. Windows, entrance and façade work all require an LPC permit inside the Expanded Carnegie Hill Historic District. Add the approval cycle to any renovation schedule.

Lead with Carpenter and with 1148. The two buildings framing East 96th Street are by the same architect, a year apart, and Carpenter built more of Fifth Avenue than anyone. That is a story no competing listing in the immediate blocks can tell as cleanly.

Lead with the balance sheet. A sub-3-percent underlying mortgage running to 2036, a completed façade cycle and a completed elevator modernization are the three things a sophisticated buyer's attorney will look for. Present them rather than waiting to be asked.

Price to the line and the exposure. Park-front and 96th Street lines are two different markets in one building. An appraiser will not accept a building average and neither will a well-advised buyer.

Disclose the 2 percent flip tax early. It is on the seller. It belongs in the net sheet from the first pricing conversation.

Have the current house rules ready. The June 2021 amendments will surface in diligence. Sellers who produce them up front keep them from becoming price adjustments.

If you're considering 1150 Fifth Avenue, also evaluate:

• 1148 Fifth Avenue — the Carpenter building directly across East 96th Street, a year younger; the single closest peer in architect, era and position
• 1165 Fifth Avenue — Carpenter's neighbouring Carnegie Hill commission; the same classical vocabulary at a different scale
• 1136 Fifth Avenue — Carpenter on the 95th Street block; a direct architect-and-corridor comparison
• 1140 Fifth Avenue — Fifth Avenue prewar cooperative on the same stretch
• 1133 Fifth Avenue — Carnegie Hill Fifth Avenue cooperative in the same rooms-and-service tier
• 1120 Fifth Avenue — Carpenter's Fifth Avenue building three blocks south at East 93rd Street; the scale alternative
• 1125 Fifth Avenue — Fifth Avenue prewar co-op at 94th Street
• 1158 Fifth Avenue — the closest Fifth Avenue building north of 96th; the boundary comparison
• 1107 Fifth Avenue — the Marjorie Merriweather Post building at 92nd; the trophy end of the Carnegie Hill Fifth Avenue tier
• 1150 Park Avenue — the Park Avenue alternative on the same cross street, for buyers weighing view against interior scale