74 West 85th Street
74 West 85th Street, on the south side between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue, Upper West Side
BBL 1011987501 · BIN 1031337
- Year built
- 1894
- Type
- Condominium
- Amenities
- Intercom entry
- Landmark status
- Not an individual landmark; in the Upper West Side / Central Park West Historic District
- NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission records, updated February 2026
Every recorded sale at this building, 2004–2026
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf, 2026 to date
- $1,457
- 1 sale
- Listing discount
- 1.0%
- Recorded sales
- 10
- On record
- 2004–2026
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A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at The Clifton 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.
74 West 85th Street offers condominium ownership within a small nineteenth-century apartment house on a Central Park block. John G. Prague designed the building for Adam E. Fischer in 1894–95, using Romanesque Revival architecture. Its ten residences include compact one-bedroom homes and larger two-bedroom plans, with walk-up access and a separate commercial component.
Architecture and unit composition
LPC identifies the original building as The Clifford, one of a pair of individually designed flats buildings. Its facade combines brick, limestone and ironwork, with masonry bearing-wall construction, a low stoop and five residential stories above the basement. The building was designed for multiple apartments from the outset.
The recurring smaller plans are approximately 450 square feet, while a larger two-bedroom format is around 841 square feet. Other configurations have been offered with more extensive accommodation, including upper-floor homes around 1,000 square feet. The resulting inventory provides several purchase sizes within a narrow, approximately twenty-foot-wide frontage.
Interior renovations vary, but the building's basic scale remains compact. The larger recurring plans provide two bedrooms and one bathroom. Upper apartments require a longer stair climb, and the walk-up arrangement is central to daily use of the building. The address is near Columbus Avenue at the western end of the park block.
Building operations
The condominium contains ten residential tax lots and a separate commercial lot. Residential and commercial property are taxed in different classes, and the commercial space has its own ownership interest. The commercial transaction history therefore should be kept separate from apartment comparisons.
Historic-district protection covers the exterior. Alterations to the brick and limestone facade, windows and other regulated features fall within LPC's review requirements. The existing floor area is below the zoning allowance, although the district designation also governs changes to the building's exterior and massing.
No owner holds more than one of the ten residential lots on the current DOF roll.
Local Law 97
This building is below the 25,000 sq ft threshold at which LL97 limits apply to a building on its own. It is still covered if it shares a tax lot or condominium board with buildings totaling over 50,000 sq ft; confirm on DOB’s covered-buildings list.
See full Local Law 97 analysis →Recent sales
Recent closings 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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 10, 2026 | 9 | 2 BR · 1 BA · 841 sf | $1,225,000 | $1,457/sf | -2.0% |
| Aug 22, 2019 | 4 | 1 BR · 1 BA · 450 sf | $650,000 | $1,444/sf | -3.7% |
| Jun 13, 2014 | 3 | 841 sf | $850,000 | $1,011/sf | — |
| Nov 6, 2007 | 4 | 1 BR · 470 sf | $560,000 | $1,191/sf | +1.8% |
| Jul 28, 2006 | 5 | 2 BR · 1 BA · 841 sf | $775,000 | $922/sf | — |
| Jun 21, 2006 | 8 | 450 sf | $444,000 | $987/sf | — |
| Dec 16, 2004 | 4 | 1 BR · 450 sf | $451,230 | $1,003/sf | — |
| Nov 15, 2004 | 2 | 1 BR · 450 sf | $650,000 | $1,444/sf | — |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026 to date) cleared a median $1,457/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. Median listing discount 1.0% 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.
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 1-01198-7501; each condominium apartment is its own tax lot). 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.
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Buying here? Condo closing costs with a mortgage typically run 3 to 6% of the price. See NYC co-op and condo closing costs, line by line.
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Comparable buildings
- 28 West 86th Street — a small condominium developed from an expanded townhouse pair, with attended elevator service.
- The Pontiac — a small condominium incorporating an assemblage of older buildings.
- The Orleans — a prewar condominium in a former hotel, with a substantially higher service level.
- The Greystone — an early-twentieth-century apartment house converted to condominium ownership.
- 309 West 83rd Street — a small historic condominium with elevator access near Riverside Drive.
More Upper West Side buildings
- 65 West 95th Street — 1928 co-op
- 66 West 84th Street — 1892 co-op
- 71 West 83rd Street (Dundonald Flats) — 1885 co-op
- 80 Central Park West — 1967 co-op
- 80 West 67th Street (77 West 66th Street) — condominium by Stephen B. Jacobs Group
- The Rushmore (80 Riverside Boulevard) — 2008 condominium by Costas Kondylis & Partners
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, transit, and pricing across Upper West Side — read The Roebling Team Guide to Upper West Side.
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. Where this page compares one building or neighborhood to another, that is our analysis of the recorded record — it names the measure, the period and the sample it rests on, and it is an observation about medians rather than a prediction about any particular apartment.
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646.939.7375 · c.cohen@compass.com