857 Fifth Avenue
857 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10065
BBL 1013820001 · BIN 1041199
- Year built
- 1963
- Type
- Cooperative
- Landmark status
- Not an individual landmark; in the Upper East Side Historic District
- NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission records, updated February 2026
- Doorman
- Full-time doorman
Every recorded sale at this building, 2005–2026
Bedroom-by-bedroom medians, the full transfer record, and how units trade against ask.
- 4BR+ median, 2023–2026
- $6.8M
- 2 qualifying sales
- Recent range
- $6.5M – $7.5M
- Listing discount
- 0.0%
- Recorded transfers
- 12
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 857 Fifth Avenue 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.
857 Fifth Avenue is the rare postwar building on this stretch of the avenue that earns a second look from buyers who would normally only consider prewar. Completed in 1963 by Robert L. Bien for the Frouge Corporation — on the site of one of the lost Gilded Age mansions of upper Fifth — it is one of the most stylish white-brick buildings in the city, and decidedly not a generic 1960s tower. Bien gave it a sculptural profile: bold curved window bays, swelling most dramatically across the top floors facing the park, that read as nautical, almost ship-like, against the masonry uptown stock around it.
The building's other distinction is scarcity of a particular kind. Across 19 stories there are only 18 apartments — fewer than one per floor on average — but that ratio does not establish interior size, floor configuration, privacy or resale frequency. Converted to cooperative ownership in 1968, it has long traded as a connoisseur's address: postwar light and layouts, a direct Central Park frontage, and a Lenox Hill location a block from the Frick and the avenue's gallery and townhouse blocks.
Architecture and unit composition
The façade is the argument. Where most postwar Fifth Avenue buildings settle for flat white brick, 857 uses curved, projecting bays to sculpt light and capture the park — a gesture that gives even the lower floors a sense of movement and the upper floors panoramic, wrapping views. The curved bays at the crown are the building's signature, visible from across the avenue.
Confirm interior dimensions, ceiling heights, light and room arrangement in the specific apartment rather than inferring them from the small unit count or construction era. Verify how many homes share each floor and landing before describing privacy or full-floor ownership. The curved bays shape the park-facing rooms; assess their actual outlook in person.
Building operations
857 Fifth is run as a full-service white-glove cooperative: a full-time doorman and attended lobby, and a live-in superintendent overseeing a building small enough that staff know every resident. The intimate scale — 18 owners carrying a 19-story building on the most expensive avenue in the city — means each owner carries a meaningful share of building costs; review the current budget, audited statements, debt and any assessments. Buyers should plan for a board application and interview, and confirm the building's current financing, occupancy and ownership requirements from its governing documents and application instructions. We walk clients through the building's current policies on financing, subletting, and pied-à-terre use before an offer.
Building staffing and amenities
- Doorman
- Full-time doormanSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Attended lobby
- YesSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Live-in superintendent
- YesSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Elevator
- YesSource: NYC Department of City Planning records (PLUTO)
Staffing and amenities as our building profile and recent listing records describe them. A feature not listed is not confirmed absent. Outdoor space, parking and some facilities can belong to particular apartments or to a separate owner; confirm access for the specific apartment.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $60,914/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $282
- Modeled exposure split equally across 18 units (the residential count on the city's lot record). Not an assessed amount; co-op shareholders are typically charged by share allocation.
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City data last refreshed October 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. A filed Safe grade is not a guarantee of current condition: owners still maintain the facade and, where required, observe parapets each year. Future inspection timing (Local Law 49 of 2025 changed the cycle framework from October 1, 2026), repair and any assessment decisions remain building-specific.
How to read this, and where it comes from
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — a licensed professional engineer or registered architect who meets DOB’s FISP qualifications and signs 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 data last refreshed October 2026.
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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 25, 2026 | 7 | 4 BR · 5.5 BA | $6,500,000 | -5.1% | |
| Nov 8, 2023 | 16 | 3 BR · 3.5 BA | $7,500,000 | +0.0% | |
| Jun 20, 2023 | 9 | 4 BR · 4.5 BA · 3,800 sf | $7,145,250 | $1,880/sf | +2.1% |
| May 4, 2022 | 14 | 3 BR · 4.5 BA | $8,050,000 | -16.1% | |
| Oct 23, 2017 | 1 | 3 BR | $4,995,000 | +0.0% | |
| Jun 27, 2017 | 4 | 4 BR | $6,500,000 | -6.5% | |
| May 3, 2017 | 8 | 5 BR | $10,500,000 | -4.1% | |
| Nov 2, 2011 | 3 | 3 BR | $6,150,000 | -8.9% |
Market read. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2023): a median $1,880/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2026. Median listing discount 4.1% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
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 1-01382-0001). 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.
What would your apartment rent for?
Enter your apartment and I'll send you what it would rent for, from comparable closed leases at 857 Fifth Avenue and nearby.
Buying here? Co-op closing costs typically run 2 to 3% of the price. See NYC co-op and condo closing costs, line by line.
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What to know if you’re buying
This is a building you buy for the views and the architecture as much as the address. Confirm the park exposure of any apartment under consideration — the curved bays make the difference between a good home and a great one here. Expect a rigorous board process consistent with top-tier Fifth Avenue cooperatives, and structure your financing and use intentions conservatively going in. Check current listings and dated transfers rather than assuming inventory availability from the unit count. We help clients position to move quickly when one does.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the documented design: a sculptural park-front cooperative with fewer than twenty apartments, curved bays and views to verify in the specific home. Confirm floor and landing arrangements from plans rather than asserting one home per floor or an absence of comparable supply. Price against the avenue's most exclusive postwar cooperatives and the upper tier of nearby prewar product, not against ordinary white-brick stock. Presentation can describe a renovation’s relationship to the mid-century design, but it does not assure the strongest transaction outcome; we build the comparable case from the avenue's actual transaction record.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 857 Fifth Avenue, also evaluate nearby Fifth Avenue inventory:
- 834 Fifth Avenue — landmark prewar cooperative a few blocks south
- 845 Fifth Avenue — full-service Fifth Avenue cooperative nearby
- 860 Fifth Avenue — Fifth Avenue cooperative just north
- 870 Fifth Avenue — Fifth Avenue cooperative peer
More Fifth Avenue buildings
- 834 Fifth Avenue — 1931 co-op by Rosario Candela
- 838 Fifth Avenue — 1950 condominium by Beyer Blinder Belle
- 845 Fifth Avenue — 1920 co-op by J.E.R. Carpenter
- 860 Fifth Avenue — 1949 co-op by Sylvan Bien
- 870 Fifth Avenue — 1949 co-op
- 875 Fifth Avenue — co-op by Emery Roth
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, transit, and pricing across Fifth Avenue — read The Roebling Team Guide to Fifth Avenue.
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. 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.
Considering a move at 857 Fifth Avenue?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
646.939.7375 · c.cohen@compass.com