1212 Fifth Avenue
1212 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10029
Upper Carnegie Hill, Upper East Side
BBL 1016077502 · BIN 1051490
- Year built
- 1925
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 55
- Floors
- 16
- Landmark
- No
- Pets
- Permitted. The house rules on file allow orderly domestic pets — dogs, cats, caged birds, aquarium fish — subject to the board's or managing agent's written consent, which is revocable, and cap a unit at two pets without further board consent
Every recorded sale at this building, 2011–2026
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $1,839
- Listing discount
- 0.0%
- Recorded sales
- 84
- On record
- 2011–2026
For most of its life this was not a for-sale building at all. Mount Sinai owned it, and it ran as staff and faculty housing at the top of the Fifth Avenue wall, four blocks north of the hospital campus. In September 2009 the hospital's real estate affiliate sold it for $42 million to an entity of the Durst Organization's residential arm, and the entire character of the address changed. That single transaction is the reason there is a condominium here to write about.
What followed was a gut conversion rather than a paper one. The 2009 alteration application on file with the Department of Buildings proposed reducing 72 apartments to a smaller number of larger ones, and the work that followed touched the whole building: façade restoration and repointing, a rebuilt lobby, new heating and air conditioning, new plumbing and electrical risers, new casement windows, modernized elevators, and a new roof. SLCE Architects carried the conversion as executive architect; S. Russell Groves designed the residence interiors. The offering plan was filed August 12, 2011 and declared effective December 31, 2011, and the condominium declaration was recorded that December as NYC condominium no. 2278.
The bones underneath are 1925 and they are good ones. George and Edward Blum designed the building — brothers trained at the École des Beaux-Arts who produced a distinctive body of Manhattan apartment houses, and whose work is now collected and studied rather than merely inhabited. The plan they left behind is the reason the conversion could produce full-width, light-on-two-sides homes: north and south wings, two residences per floor in each, direct park frontage across the whole Fifth Avenue elevation.
The structural fact a buyer should register first is where the building sits. At 102nd Street, 1212 Fifth is north of every historic district on the Upper East Side and north of the price gravity that comes with them. It carries the park view without the Carnegie Hill address, and it prices accordingly. That gap is the building's entire investment argument, in both directions: it is why the per-foot number is lower than a comparable prewar conversion in the 80s, and it is why the comparable set has to be built carefully rather than borrowed from ten blocks south.
The second fact is the tax posture, and it is the one most often assumed wrong. A 2009-to-2011 rental-to-condominium gut renovation is exactly the profile that historically drew a J-51 exemption and abatement. This one did not. There is no exemption of any kind on the residential unit lots, and there never has been since the condominium was created.
Architecture and unit composition
The building occupies a 10,092-square-foot corner lot with roughly 101 feet on Fifth Avenue and 100 feet on East 102nd Street, and carries about 96,980 gross square feet, of which roughly 94,472 is residential and 2,508 is the two professional units at the base. Its floor-area ratio as built is 9.61 against a residential FAR of 7.52 for the R9 district — the building is substantially over what current zoning would permit, which is normal for a 1925 structure and worth knowing if anyone ever contemplates enlargement.
The elevation is a prewar masonry composition: limestone base, brick above, punched casement windows, and a plain cornice line. The conversion replaced the windows with new casements rather than substituting a modern sash, which is the reason the façade still reads as of its period. Inside, the wings each carry two homes per floor with keyed elevator access, so the effective density is four residences to a landing on the typical floor. Terraces exist at the 16th-floor roof, appurtenant to the penthouse and to Unit 16 South; the roof is otherwise closed to residents by house rule.
Homes were marketed from one to five bedrooms. The conversion's design premise was preservation of the prewar plan logic — restored plaster ceilings and moldings, solid wood floors, fireplaces in select residences — with the kitchens and baths redone outright. Buyers walking a specific line should ask which of the original details survived in that unit, since the work was done residence by residence and the answer is not uniform.
Building operations
The building runs full-service: 24-hour concierge, a live-in resident manager, and a staff covered by the collective bargaining agreement with SEIU Local 32BJ. Amenity space is modest by new-development standards and generous for a 57-unit prewar conversion — a fitness center of more than 2,600 square feet with separate cardio and training studios and a yoga room, a children's playroom, and a residents' lounge that can be booked for private events. There is common laundry and paid storage.
The condominium owns the resident manager's residence outright. It purchased Unit 2D from the declarant in 2015 and financed the purchase with a $1,395,000 bank mortgage recorded December 17, 2015 — a ten-year term at a fixed 4.19 percent, monthly principal and interest of $7,558, maturing in January 2026 with a balloon payment of approximately $1,003,900. That balloon has now come due. Any buyer should ask the managing agent directly how it was resolved: refinanced, paid from reserves, or funded by assessment. The answer materially changes the building's near-term financial picture and it will not appear in any listing.
The capital record is well documented. The board approved a $1,000,000 assessment payable over eighteen months beginning July 1, 2019 to fund a façade and parapet program, and paused collection for four months in 2020. The work itself ran to $1,426,350 — a base contract of $664,985 plus $712,938 in change orders — and was paid out across 2019, 2020 and a final installment in March 2021, with Howard L. Zimmerman Architects overseeing. Reserves stood at $717,699 at the end of 2020, down from $1,252,427 a year earlier, which is what paying for a seven-figure façade job out of pocket looks like on a balance sheet. Common charge income ran $1,633,869 in both 2019 and 2020, with a 2 percent increase taken in February 2018 and none planned for 2021.
One further item belongs on the record because the audited statements expressly permit its disclosure. The board pursued construction claims against the sponsor arising from issues its engineers identified after the conversion, and settled them: the sponsor paid $775,000 to the board and waived roughly $160,000 in claimed reimbursements, with a mutual release and no admission of liability. Buyers should read the settlement in context — it is a normal outcome for a large conversion, it was resolved on terms favorable to the condominium, and the sellout was complete with no declarant-held units by the end of 2020. But it is a fact of the building's history and it is better learned here than in diligence.
Policy framework
Ownership form: Condominium. Transfers proceed by board right of first refusal rather than cooperative approval, though the managing agent runs a full purchase application and package — expect a more document-heavy process than the condominium form implies.
Pets: Permitted. Orderly domestic pets with the board's or managing agent's written consent, revocable at their discretion, and a limit of two pets per unit without further consent. Pets travel in designated elevators and must be carried or leashed in common areas.
Subletting: Permitted under Article 7 of the by-laws. Transient occupancy — any arrangement compensating the owner for occupancy of under 30 days in the owner's absence — is prohibited outright, with a $5,000 fine for a first violation and $10,000 for each after.
Smoking: Banned in every common area. Since September 1, 2018, banned in all leased residential units and on their terraces and balconies, with the prohibition required in every new lease.
House rules of note: At least 80 percent of the floor area of each residence, excluding kitchens, pantries, baths, closets and foyers, must be carpeted or covered in equally effective noise-reducing material. Construction and repair work is restricted to weekdays, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Barbecuing is prohibited except in areas the board designates. The board levies fines on an escalating schedule from $250 to $1,000 for general rule violations.
Financing and minimum down: Not documented in the records reviewed. Confirm with the managing agent.
Flip tax: Not documented in the records reviewed. Confirm any resale capital contribution with the managing agent before pricing a sale.
Real estate taxes — no abatement. No exemption of any kind appears on the residential unit lots (1101 through 1157) in the Department of Finance exemption records for fiscal years 2021 through 2027. The property's only J-51 benefit was taken on the pre-conversion lot in 1981 — a twelve-year exemption with a 90 percent abatement — and it ran through tax year 1992 and burned off. The 2009-to-2011 conversion produced no J-51 and no other exemption. Residences have been taxed at full assessment since the first closing. Underwrite the actual current bill on the specific unit, not a projection.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $19,604/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $31
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
See full Local Law 97 analysis — emissions history, scenarios, methodology →Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available FISP filing classified the facade as Safe — no repairs were required at that inspection. Facade inspections run on a fixed five-year cycle; future inspection, repair, and any assessment decisions remain building-specific.
How to read this, and where it comes from
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — the licensed engineer the city requires to sign the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent).
Penalties shown are amounts DOB assessed against filings on record across 2005–10 to 2020–25. The FISP dataset does not record whether they were paid, contested or remain open, so treat the figure as history rather than a current balance and confirm the building’s standing with the managing agent.
Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
Recent sales
1212 Fifth Avenue trades as a prewar park-front condominium at the northern end of the Fifth Avenue corridor, and the corridor is the variable that matters most in pricing it. The building offers what most of Fifth Avenue offers — direct Central Park frontage, a 1925 masonry apartment house, full staffing — in a location above the historic-district belt, and the per-square-foot band reflects that positioning rather than the band set by the 80s and low 90s.
The right comparable set is narrow and should be built from three groups: park-front condominiums along upper Fifth, converted prewar rentals of similar vintage on the Upper East Side, and the small stock of newer condominium inventory in Carnegie Hill. Cooperative comparables are not usable here — the policy stack, the financing rules and the buyer pool are structurally different, and a per-room co-op number does not translate.
Two adjustments should be made explicitly in any analysis. First, the absence of an abatement means the headline price and the true monthly cost diverge less than they do at abated new construction, but they also start higher than buyers coming from abated inventory expect; run the carrying-cost math on the actual bill. Second, park-facing and rear-facing lines in this building are genuinely different products, and the corner exposures on the 102nd Street flank behave differently again. Line-level analysis beats a building average. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
Recent closings at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 31, 2024 | 7B | 4 BR · 4 BA · 2,750 sf | $4,960,000 | $1,804/sf | -0.7% |
| Sep 20, 2023 | 16S | 3 BR · 3.5 BA · 3,045 sf | $6,850,000 | $2,250/sf | -4.3% |
| May 11, 2023 | 5B | 3 BR · 3 BA · 1,804 sf | $3,300,000 | $1,829/sf | off-mkt |
| Nov 14, 2022 | 4C | 1 BR · 1 BA · 809 sf | $999,000 | $1,235/sf | off-mkt |
| Aug 25, 2022 | 9B | 3 BR · 3 BA · 1,804 sf | $3,800,000 | $2,106/sf | -2.4% |
| Dec 31, 2021 | 15C | 1 BR · 1 BA · 809 sf | $998,000 | $1,234/sf | off-mkt |
| Aug 13, 2021 | 6BC | 4 BR · 4 BA · 2,748 sf | $5,510,000 | $2,005/sf | -13.8% |
| Jul 20, 2021 | 12BC | 4 BR · 4.5 BA · 2,800 sf | $6,175,000 | $2,205/sf | -3.1% |
Market read. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2024): a median $1,839/sf across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2026. Median listing discount 0.0% from the last ask.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Full closing history with price-per-square-foot over time, the complete retrade record, and every line that has traded.
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01607-7502) 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; square footage from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.
What to know if you’re buying
Disregard the PLUTO unit count. City data reports 53 residential units. The condominium has 55 residential and 2 professional units, which matches the 57 recorded unit lots exactly. Automated valuation output built on the PLUTO figure will be wrong.
Ask about the resident manager's unit mortgage. A roughly $1,003,900 balloon came due in January 2026 on the loan the condominium took to buy Unit 2D. How the board handled it is the single most useful current fact about this building's finances, and it is not public.
Read the façade history. The building funded a $1,426,350 façade and parapet program with a $1,000,000 assessment and its reserves between 2019 and 2021. Ask what the next cycle looks like and what the current reserve position is.
Understand the sponsor settlement. It is disclosed in the audited statements and it is closed. Ask the managing agent whether any of the underlying conditions recur, and have your engineer look specifically at the areas the conversion touched.
There is no landmark constraint and no abatement. Both cut the same way: exterior work is faster and cheaper to approve than in a historic district, and taxes are full freight. Neither is what a buyer coming from Carnegie Hill will assume.
Test the location honestly. This is Fifth Avenue at 102nd Street. The park frontage is real, the Museum Mile institutions are a short walk south, and the neighborhood north and east of the building is a different market from the one ten blocks down. Walk it at more than one hour of the day.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the park and the plan. Direct Central Park frontage, two homes per wing per floor, and a 1925 Blum building are the arguments no newer product in this stretch can answer.
Get ahead of the tax question. Buyers assume a 2011 conversion carries J-51. This one does not. Presenting the full unabated number with a carrying-cost analysis up front produces better outcomes than letting it surface late.
Price against the right set. Comparables drawn from Carnegie Hill co-ops will misprice the unit in both directions. Build the set from park-front condominiums and converted prewar condominiums, then adjust for the corridor position.
Line and floor matter more than the building average. Park-facing, rear-facing and 102nd Street exposures are separate products in a building of 55 residences. Price the line.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 1212 Fifth Avenue, also evaluate:
- 1270 Fifth Avenue — the nearest park-front alternative on the same avenue above Carnegie Hill; the closest peer by position
- 1165 Fifth Avenue — prewar Fifth Avenue building at the top of Carnegie Hill; the co-op alternative with park frontage
- 1158 Fifth Avenue — prewar Fifth Avenue apartment house a few blocks south; different tenure, comparable bones
- 1148 Fifth Avenue — Carnegie Hill prewar on the park; the traditional benchmark this building is priced against
- 1136 Fifth Avenue — prewar Fifth Avenue building inside the historic district; useful for isolating what designation is worth
- 1125 Fifth Avenue — Carnegie Hill park-front building; another point on the same curve
- 1120 Fifth Avenue — prewar Fifth Avenue apartment house; comparable scale and vintage
- 1107 Fifth Avenue — the marquee prewar address on upper Fifth; the ceiling of the comparable set
- 180 East 88th Street — Carnegie Hill new-construction condominium; the modern alternative for a condominium buyer
- 1289 Lexington Avenue — 2019 Carnegie Hill condominium; contemporary product at a different price and policy posture
- 115 East 86th Street — 1928 building converted from rental in 1982; the older conversion comparison
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Fifth Avenue — read The Roebling Team Guide to Fifth Avenue.
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent.
Considering a move at 1212 Fifth Avenue?
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