285 West 110th Street (Circa Central Park)

The site is a 13,513-square-foot lot zoned R8A with a 160-foot frontage, and the building fills it. The curve of the southern elevation is the design's organizing move: rather than treating the traffic circle as an awkward leftover, the plan traces it, so the building presents a continuously turning face to the park and the memorial rather than a corner. Above the base, the volume steps back to the east in stages, producing terraces at the eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh floors and a landscaped common roof terrace at the twelfth level.

Two features from the construction specifications in the plan on file deserve mention because they do not show up in photographs. First, the second floor holds an inner landscaped courtyard planted with small trees, shrubs and groundcover, and two skylights set into that courtyard bring daylight down into the residential lobby below. Second, the community-facility space at the base is governed by a deed restriction; the plan discloses that once that restriction lapses, the space may be converted to commercial use. That is a long-dated but real change in the building's ground-floor character, and it belongs in a buyer's file.

Residences run from the second floor to the eleventh. The lower and middle floors carry the deeper inventory — eight residences per floor across the third, fourth and fifth — and the upper floors carry the terraced, park-facing units. Balconied residences were specified with exterior GFI receptacles and unfinished concrete or unit-paver surfaces, which is worth knowing before planning outdoor work. Storage cages and bicycle storage sit in the cellar.

Circa is a full-service condominium with an attended lobby; the first-year budget in the plan on file carried a $250,000 line for full-time doormen against 49 residences, which is a heavy staffing ratio for a building this size and shows up in common charges.

The ownership structure below the residences is the part most buyers miss. The condominium contains four categories of non-residential unit, and the residential owners control none of them. The plan on file describes one commercial unit, one community-facility unit, one amenity unit and one parking unit, none of which were offered for sale at filing; the recorded Department of Finance schedule now shows two commercial unit lots, a community-facility lot, an amenity lot and twenty individually deeded parking lots. On the FY2027 roll, the second commercial unit and the community-facility unit are held by an outside investor, which acquired them from the sponsor in June 2022 for $4,400,000. The first commercial unit and the amenity unit remain in sponsor-affiliated ownership.

The amenity unit is worth reading carefully. The plan on file discloses that the sponsor retained it, may lease it, and keeps all income from any such lease for its own account — no portion flows to the condominium. In February 2019 an alteration application was filed by the sponsor entity to establish an ambulatory health care facility on the second floor with accessory health and nutrition use, and a certificate of occupancy on that job was issued in January 2021 and amended in May 2026. So a commercial healthcare tenancy sits on the same floor as the residents' courtyard, in a unit the residents do not own and from which they receive no revenue. This is neither hidden nor improper — it is disclosed in the plan — but it is not what most buyers assume when they read the word "amenity."

Parking is likewise owned rather than rented: twenty parking spaces are separate condominium unit lots, most now held by individual owners, with several still sponsor-held on the FY2027 roll. A space is a purchase, not a monthly arrangement, and it carries its own common charges and its own share of the 421-a exemption.

Ownership form: Condominium, fee simple. Purchases close through the standard right-of-first-refusal mechanism rather than a cooperative board approval, which produces faster and more predictable timelines — 30 to 45 days is typical.

Pets: Permitted per management-sourced records. Confirm weight and breed limits in the house rules.

Pied-à-terre, subletting, LLC, trust and foreign ownership: All permitted under the standard condominium framework. Minimum lease terms should be confirmed with the managing agent.

Flip tax: Not documented in public records. Confirm any resale capital contribution with the managing agent before pricing a sale.

Real estate taxes: A 421-a exemption (Department of Finance code 5114) runs on every unit lot with a benefit commencement of the fiscal 2019 roll and a stated 25-year term. On that schedule the full-exemption period runs into the late 2030s, followed by a step-down phase-out before the benefit lapses. Materials in circulation have described the abatement as expiring in 2041; the Department of Finance record commences it in FY2019 for 25 years, which points to a later end date. Do not resolve the discrepancy from a marketing sheet — pull the current tax bill for the specific unit, read the benefit year off it, and run True Monthly Carrying Cost against both the abated number today and the unabated number at expiry.

Restricted units: Ten of the 49 residences were sold as 421-a Affordable Units under a restrictive declaration recorded December 21, 2015. Income and resale conditions attach to those units and are set out in the declaration. Establish which category a specific residence falls into before pricing anything.

Recent sales

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.

Market read. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $1,255/sf across 2 sales. Median listing discount 4.0% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01826-7503) 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.

Confirm whether the unit is market-rate or a 421-a Affordable Unit. Ten of the 49 residences were sold under a restrictive declaration. This is the first question, not the last.

Model the abatement's runway, not just its existence. Pull the actual tax bill, read the benefit year, and build the post-phase-out number into the hold. A 25-year benefit that started in FY2019 is a long tail, but it is a tail.

Read the amenity unit disclosure. The second-floor amenity unit is sponsor-retained, leasable, and its income does not flow to the condominium. There is a healthcare tenancy on that floor under a 2021 certificate of occupancy amended in 2026.

Ask about the community-facility deed restriction. The plan on file contemplates conversion to commercial use once the restriction lapses. Find out when.

Parking is a purchase. Twenty deeded parking units exist; several were still sponsor-held on the most recent roll. If a space matters, buy it as part of the deal rather than assuming availability.

Test the terraces. The setback geometry means terrace size and privacy vary enormously between the eighth floor and the eleventh. Walk them.

Lead with the carrying cost. The active 421-a is the single most quantifiable advantage this building has over 145 and 111 Central Park North, both of which are unabated. Present the True Monthly Carrying Cost analysis rather than letting a buyer discover the difference in diligence.

Do not price against the building median. With ten restricted units in the stack and a plate that narrows by more than half between the fifth floor and the eleventh, a building-wide average is close to meaningless. Comparables should be drawn from the same line and the same tier.

Frame the site. A curved building on a city-disposed parcel at the head of Frederick Douglass Circle, facing the North Woods, is not a thing that can be built again on this corridor. That argument is not available to any competing building.

Disclose the non-residential structure early. Sophisticated buyers will find the amenity unit and the outside commercial ownership. Getting there first is worth more than the alternative.

If you're considering Circa Central Park, also evaluate:

• 145 Central Park North — the 37-residence GLUCK+ condominium eight blocks east on the same frontage; the closest peer by vintage and scale, and unabated, which makes it the sharpest carrying-cost comparison
• 111 Central Park North — the 45-residence 2007 condominium at the foot of St. Nicholas Avenue; the resale-only alternative on the same street, with its 421-a fully burned off
• 1485 Fifth Avenue (5th on the Park) — also developed with Artimus and also designed by FXFowle; a 28-story park-fronting condominium at Marcus Garvey Park with an active abatement
• 2101 Eighth Avenue (Parc Standard) — Frederick Douglass Boulevard condominium a short walk north; the corridor's other new-development option at a lower price tier
• 380 Lenox Avenue (The Lenox) — full-service Harlem condominium on Malcolm X Boulevard; the larger-building alternative
• 301 West 118th Street (SoHa 118) — South Harlem condominium with a comparable boutique unit count
• 100 West 119th Street (The Normandie) — the prewar-scale Harlem alternative with entirely different economics
• 88 Morningside Avenue — Morningside Park frontage rather than Central Park; the park-facing comparison one neighborhood west
• 45 West 131st Street (West 131 Plaza Condominium) — smaller Harlem condominium; the lower-density, lower-service comparison