38 East 85th Street

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.

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, the reviewed statements show maintenance income as a small share of total revenue, making the commercial lease schedule relevant. That ratio alone does not establish low current shareholder costs or greater exposure than peers. Second, those statements report no study of future major repairs and replacements and describe funding through cash, assessments, borrowing or deferral; obtain any later study and current capital plan. 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.

The reviewed materials leave several current policy terms unresolved; obtain them in writing. 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 were not established in the materials reviewed. Have counsel reconcile current written policies with the operative lease, by-laws and valid amendments; the terms cannot be inferred 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.

Recent sales

Recent transfers at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. 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. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2023): a median $1,741/sf (floor-adjusted) 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.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01496-0054). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. 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.

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; model the actual refinancing or extension terms, fees and debt service against current income, reserves and capital obligations before judging the effect.

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 were not established in the materials reviewed. 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.

Document the actual carrying cost. Present current maintenance, assessments and included expenses beside identified Carnegie Hill comparables. Explain commercial lease receipts and risks using the current budget; historical retail income alone does not establish a low-cost ranking.

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.

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