38 East 85th Street
38 East 85th Street, New York, NY 10028
Upper East Side
BBL 1014960054 · BIN 1046824
- Year built
- 1925
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 60
- Landmark
- No
- Amenities
- Full-service prewar house with attended lobby and building staff under a 32BJ collective bargaining agreement. Confirm the current staffing schedule and any storage, bicycle or laundry facilities with the managing agent
Every recorded sale at this building, 1997–2026
Bedroom-by-bedroom medians, the full transfer record, and how units trade against ask.
- 2BR median
- $1.6M
- Recent range
- $935K – $1.8M
- Listing discount
- 3.4%
- Recorded transfers
- 53
This is a Schwartz & Gross corner house from 1925 at Madison and 85th — the firm that built more of the Upper East Side's serious prewar apartment stock than almost anyone else — and by prewar standards it is small: sixty apartments across twelve floors and a penthouse. But the building's defining feature is not its architecture. It is the retail base beneath it.
The Madison Avenue frontage between 84th and 85th is prime Carnegie Hill retail, and the cooperative owns it. Commercial rent at this building runs to several times what shareholders pay in maintenance. In practical terms, the sixty apartment owners hold a small prewar co-op that sits on top of a commercial property, and the commercial property pays most of the bills. That inverts the ordinary arithmetic of co-op ownership: maintenance per share is low relative to the neighborhood, real estate taxes on the combined residential and commercial assessment are large, and the corporation's operating result in any given year turns more on lease turnover in the retail base than on anything happening upstairs.
That structure has a long history here. The 1969 offering plan on file describes the corporation taking title subject to a master lease of the stores, with the cooperative as landlord and the tenant's subleases assigned to the corporation as security. By the most recent financial statements on file, the arrangement had simplified into direct leasing to two commercial tenants — one of them a bank branch — with a lease modification and early-termination payment received when one occupant left, and a new ten-year lease signed shortly afterward. Retail vacancy at this building is a shareholder event, not a landlord's problem happening elsewhere.
The second thing worth knowing is that the building carries almost no debt. A $2.5 million interest-only mortgage on a building of this size and value is a fraction of what a comparable house typically borrows. That is a genuine strength — and the note's stated 2025 maturity means the current financing position is a live diligence question rather than a settled fact.
Architecture and unit composition
The building is a standard-issue Schwartz & Gross corner house done well: a one-story limestone commercial base along Madison, eleven stories of brick above with restrained detailing, and the residential entrance placed on the quieter side street. The offering plan on file records a frontage of just over 102 feet on Madison and a depth of 100 feet on East 85th, giving the plan a genuine corner rather than a narrow avenue slot, and the corner exposures are the building's best product.
The sixty apartments were laid out to 1925 conventions — entrance foyers, separate dining rooms, staff rooms behind the kitchen — and the offering plan records that some of the smaller apartments had already been created out of former maids' rooms by the time of the 1969 conversion. Subsequent combinations and renovations have moved the mix further from the original plan, and a buyer should expect layouts here to vary considerably from line to line. The ground floor includes a professional unit with its own street entrance, a common feature of side-street prewar houses on this stretch of the Upper East Side.
Because the lot carries no landmark designation, exterior work at this building is a zoning and DOB question rather than a Landmarks question — with the qualification that the Madison Avenue special district regulates the street wall and ground-floor retail frontage. That is an unusual amount of latitude for a Carnegie Hill corner, and it is a direct consequence of where the district lines happen to fall.
Building operations
The building is staffed under a 32BJ collective bargaining agreement, with payroll and related costs the largest operating line after real estate taxes. Management is professional and reporting is complete: audited financial statements, budget-to-actual schedules, the house rules and the original offering plan are all on file in The Roebling Research Library.
Two operating observations matter for underwriting. First, maintenance income is small relative to total revenue, so shareholder carrying costs are unusually low for a Carnegie Hill prewar building — but they are also more exposed than usual to commercial lease outcomes. Second, the corporation has not commissioned a study of future major repairs and replacements, and its stated approach to funding capital work is cash, assessments, borrowing or deferral. Capital spending was heavy across 2019–2021 and was funded in part by a capital assessment and a drawn line of credit, which is the pattern that policy produces.
Policy framework
Very little of the policy stack at this building is public, and the honest answer is that a buyer must ask. What is documented in the financial statements on file is the transfer fee: 2 percent of the sale price, charged to the seller.
The financing ceiling, the minimum down payment, post-closing liquidity requirements, sublet policy, pet policy, pied-à-terre practice, and the board's treatment of trusts and limited liability companies are not published. They are set by the board, they change without public notice, and they are not inferable from neighborhood convention — a sixty-unit Carnegie Hill house with an unusual balance sheet can be more or less restrictive than its neighbors for reasons that have nothing to do with the block. Obtain all of them in writing from the managing agent before you prepare a board package.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $25,822/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $36
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
This is a small, closely held building, and it trades that way. ACRIS records roughly fifty share transfers on the tax lot since digital recording began — a pace of two or three sales a year across sixty apartments, which is thin even by prewar co-op standards. Turnover that low means comparable evidence inside the building is limited, that a single well-renovated sale can reset expectations for a line, and that patient buyers occasionally find no inventory at all for months at a stretch.
Pricing follows the usual Carnegie Hill prewar logic — floor, exposure, layout integrity and renovation condition — with corner lines and higher floors at the top of the range. What differentiates this building against its immediate peers is carrying cost: maintenance per room is low here because the retail base carries a large share of the budget, and buyers comparing monthly carry across the neighborhood should look at that line closely. Sellers should be prepared for buyers' counsel to probe the commercial lease exposure and the post-2025 financing position. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
Recent transfers 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 8, 2026 | 3E | 3 BR · 2 BA | $1,475,000 | -6.3% | |
| Mar 31, 2025 | 10E | 2 BR · 1.5 BA | $1,795,000 | -2.7% | |
| Nov 13, 2023 | 7E | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,200 sf | $1,600,000 | $1,333/sf | +0.3% |
| Sep 11, 2023 | 4E | 2 BR · 1.5 BA | $1,150,000 | -4.2% | |
| Feb 5, 2021 | 10A | 3 BR · 3 BA | $2,034,000 | +2.0% | |
| May 1, 2018 | 3E | 2 BR · 2 BA | $1,130,000 | -19.3% | |
| Feb 7, 2018 | 5A | 3 BR · 2 BA · 1,700 sf | $2,700,000 | $1,588/sf | +0.2% |
| Jan 3, 2018 | 7D | 2 BR | $1,790,000 | -10.3% |
Market read. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2023): a median $1,741/sf across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2026. Median listing discount 1.9% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Other recent transfers
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 16, 2005 | 6E | $900,000 |
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 1-01496-0054) 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 on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.
What to know if you’re buying
Underwrite the retail, not just the apartment. Commercial rent carries most of this building's budget. Your attorney should read the lease schedule, the expiration dates and the renewal terms with the same attention normally given to the reserve fund, because that is where the maintenance line's stability actually comes from.
Confirm the mortgage position. The financial statements on file record a $2.5 million interest-only note maturing in 2025. Ask for the current audited statements and the executed loan documents; a refinance at current rates on a building this lightly levered is a modest event, but it is not a fact you should assume.
Get every board policy in writing. Financing ceiling, minimum down, post-closing liquidity, sublet and pied-à-terre terms, and the treatment of trusts and LLCs are all unpublished here. Ask, and ask in writing. Then run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator against the actual requirements.
No landmark designation is a real advantage. Renovation and window work here do not require an LPC permit. That is worth money on a prewar Carnegie Hill corner, and buyers planning significant work should weigh it against otherwise similar apartments a block north or west inside a historic district.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with carrying cost. Low maintenance for a Carnegie Hill prewar apartment is a differentiating fact, and it survives diligence because the reason for it — the commercial base — is documented in the audited statements.
Prepare the building story in advance. With only a handful of sales a year, buyers and their attorneys arrive with questions and few comparables. Having the financial statements, the lease position and the assessment history assembled before the first showing shortens the path to contract.
Net the 2 percent transfer fee. It is charged to the seller on sale price. Run the Seller Closing Cost Calculator with it in.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 38 East 85th Street, also evaluate:
- 30 East 85th Street — the immediate neighbor on the same block; the closest like-for-like comparison
- 35 East 85th Street — prewar cooperative directly across the street
- 45 East 85th Street — full-service building on the same block toward Madison
- 10 East 85th Street — prewar cooperative at the Fifth Avenue end of the block
- 106 East 85th Street — Carnegie Hill cooperative east of Park; the quieter-block alternative
- 1000 Park Avenue — Park Avenue prewar cooperative at 84th Street; the avenue step-up
- 1030 Fifth Avenue — Fifth Avenue prewar cooperative facing the Metropolitan Museum
- 1035 Fifth Avenue — Fifth Avenue prewar cooperative one block north
- 111 East 85th Street — the postwar alternative on the same street
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Upper East Side — read The Roebling Team Guide to Upper East Side.
The full playbook — what goes in the package, how boards read your financials, the interview, and the timeline — plus sample cover, reference, and personal letters you can adapt.
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 38 East 85th Street?
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A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 38 East 85th Street would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.