870 Fifth Avenue
870 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10065
BBL 1013830001 · BIN 1041250
- Year built
- 1949
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 94
- Amenities
- Full-time doorman and concierge, attended service, fitness room, roof deck with Central Park outlook, bicycle storage, central laundry, private storage
- Land
- Owned by the building's owners
- The Roebling Research Desk's building record
- Landmark status
- Requires confirmation
- City records and our profile differ. Confirm with building management.
- Subletting by shareholders
- Not permitted
- Pied-à-terre
- Permitted
- Dogs
- Permitted with conditions
- Cats
- Not stated
- Maximum financing
- 50% of the purchase price
- Flip tax
- Requires confirmation
- Sources differ on who pays. Confirm with building management.
- Doorman
- Full-time doorman
- Flip tax
- Requires confirmation
- Financing
- Up to 50% financeable (50% minimum down).
- Subletting
- Not permitted — an owner-occupancy building.
- Pied-à-terre
- Permitted.
- Pets
- Dogs are grandfathered only (those resident before September 2000); no new pets without written Board approval.
- Co-purchasing
- Permitted.
- Land
- Fee ownership — the cooperative owns the land and the building.
- Tax status
- J-51 / co-op tax abatement, restricted to primary-resident owners (verify current status at offer stage).
- Alterations
- Prior written Board consent required; Landmarks rules apply to window work; 70% floor carpeting required.
Compiled by The Roebling Research Desk from the building’s offering plan, amendments, and related building documents (primary source dated 2026). Reported and subject to confirmation. Board policies can change by amendment — confirm at the offer stage.
Every recorded sale at this building, 2003–2026
Bedroom-by-bedroom medians, the full transfer record, and how units trade against ask.
- 2BR median
- $1.6M
- Recent range
- $1.5M – $3.7M
- Listing discount
- 7.7%
- Recorded transfers
- 81
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 870 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.
870 Fifth Avenue is one of the postwar apartment houses that replaced Fifth Avenue's mansion row, and it is one of the few where the original organizing document is still the clearest description of the building. The Plan of Organization on file is a construction-era cooperative plan: 870 Fifth Avenue Corporation was formed in January 1948 to take title to the land and to build, and Simon Brothers erected the building to William I. Hohauser's plans. This was never a rental. There is no conversion year, no sponsor holdover, and no non-eviction plan in the building's history — a structural distinction from most of the prewar co-ops around it.
The site is one of the more consequential corners on Fifth Avenue. Architectural and historical records record that the houses of M. C. Inman and Robert L. Stuart were demolished to make way for the building; the Stuart house had been extensively altered by McKim, Mead & White after its purchase in 1897 by the financier William C. Whitney. What replaced them is a nineteen-story apartment house on an irregular 17,750-square-foot plot with 100 feet on Fifth Avenue and a long 200-foot run on East 68th Street.
That geometry is the reason to be here. A shallow, wide plot with a long side-street frontage produces a floor plate where nearly every apartment faces either Fifth Avenue and Central Park or the southern light of 68th Street, and Hohauser's canted and angled window bays at the corners extend the park sightlines further north and south than a flat elevation would. The building is modest by Fifth Avenue standards in scale and in finish, and it is unusually good on light and outlook for its price band.
The third thing that distinguishes 870 Fifth is its policy posture. Listing and management-sourced records consistently describe a cooperative that permits pets, accommodates pied-à-terre use and allows financing to half the purchase price — a materially more flexible framework than the all-cash, primary-residence-only norm on this stretch of Fifth Avenue. That flexibility is worth verifying at the managing agent rather than assumed from the market's reputation for the building, but it is the reason a meaningful share of buyers look here rather than four blocks north.
Architecture and unit composition
Hohauser was a prolific New York apartment-house architect working in the 1930s and 1940s, and 870 Fifth is a transitional design — the massing and the limestone base still belong to the prewar convention, while the plan and the window treatment belong to what came after. The Fifth Avenue elevation is masonry above a limestone base; the corners carry the canted and angled bays that are the building's most recognizable feature and that give the park-facing apartments a wider field of view than the frontage alone would allow. The residential entrance is on East 68th Street rather than on the avenue.
The Plan of Organization describes a nineteen-story penthouse apartment building. PLUTO carries 20 floors, counting the penthouse level; both are accurate depending on how the top of the building is counted, and neither is wrong. City records show a 1987 alteration, the largest documented modernization in the building's history.
On unit count, three numbers circulate and all three have a source. The building was organized with 106 apartments, and the corporation's audited financial statements still describe the property in those terms. PLUTO carries 94 residential units and 102 total units on the lot. The gap is combinations accumulated over seventy-five years, which is normal for a Fifth Avenue cooperative of this vintage and which means the current line-by-line composition has to come from the managing agent rather than from the public record.
Building operations
870 Fifth operates as a full-service Lenox Hill cooperative with a doorman and concierge on duty around the clock, attended service, a fitness room, a roof deck with Central Park outlook, bicycle storage, private storage and central laundry. Building staff are covered by a collective bargaining agreement with SEIU Local 32BJ, which sets payroll as the second-largest line in the operating budget after real estate taxes.
The building's financial posture is documented, and it is the part of the diligence that matters most here. Per audited financial statements on file for the year ended December 31, 2018 — the most recent statements in The Roebling Research Library, and now several years stale:
The underlying mortgage is interest-only with a 2031 balloon. The corporation carries a $7,650,000 mortgage with Bank of New York Mellon, structured as monthly interest-only payments with the entire principal balance due at maturity on March 1, 2031. The rate was swapped from a floating LIBOR-based rate to a fixed 3.66% for the term. That is a low fixed cost on a modest loan for a building this size, but there is no amortization: the full principal has to be refinanced or repaid in 2031, and it will be refinanced into a very different rate environment. Any buyer should ask what the board's plan for that maturity is. The corporation also maintains a $1,000,000 line of credit, undrawn at the statement date.
Assessments are recurring and structural, not episodic. The corporation levies an annual special assessment sized to coincide with the co-op/condo real estate tax abatement credited to shareholders — roughly $535,000 in 2018 and $515,000 in 2017. In effect the building recaptures the abatement at the corporate level. Shareholders who see only the abatement on their tax line and not the offsetting assessment will misread the true carrying cost.
There is no reserve requirement and no reserve study. The governing documents do not require the corporation to accumulate funds for future major repairs and replacements, and no study of the remaining useful lives of building components has been performed. The corporation's stated plan for future capital needs is to use existing reserves, borrow, assess, or defer. Cash on hand was approximately $1.15 million at the 2018 year-end. For a building of 94-plus apartments with a landmarked exterior and a 2031 mortgage maturity, that is a thin cushion and it is the single most important question to put to the managing agent.
Maintenance has moved. The per-share maintenance rate rose from $85.88 to $96.57 between 2017 and 2018 — roughly 12% in one year. The corporation also settled a tax certiorari proceeding for the 2018/19 year, producing a refund and a reduction in future billings.
All of the above is seven years old. Ask for the three most recent audited statements, the current mortgage terms, the current assessment schedule and the current reserve balance before relying on any of it.
Policy framework
Ownership form: Cooperative. Purchases are by share transfer and proprietary lease. A full board package and a board interview are required, and the board's discretion to approve or decline is effectively unreviewable — the ordinary cooperative standard.
Flip tax: 3% of the sale price or $45 per share, whichever is greater. The corporate documents provide that the fee is payable to the corporation by either the purchaser or the seller; they do not assign it to one side. In practice the allocation is a deal point, and it is a large one — on a $2.5 million sale the fee is $75,000. Confirm with the managing agent, and settle the allocation in the contract rather than at the closing table.
Financing: Reported at a 50% maximum in listing and management-sourced records. Boards on this corridor also apply post-closing liquidity and debt-to-income tests that are not published; expect to document both.
Pets and pied-à-terre: Reported as permitted, with a weight limit around 40 pounds for dogs and pied-à-terre use accommodated. Both are unusual on this stretch of Fifth Avenue and both should be confirmed in writing before an offer, because both are board policy rather than document.
Subletting, LLC and trust ownership, foreign purchase: Not documented in the plan or the financial statements on file. Cooperatives of this profile typically restrict subletting tightly, permit trust ownership with a personal guarantee, do not permit LLC ownership, and require substantial additional diligence from purchasers whose assets sit outside the United States. Verify each with the managing agent — none of it is public.
Application and transaction fees
Fees below are from building management's published schedule, as of October 2026. They are shown as published, item by item; no total is added because the total depends on the transaction. Deposits are listed apart from nonrefundable charges.
- Terms
- Amount equivalent to 3% of the purchase price or $45 per share, whichever is greater
- Paid by
- Requires confirmationSources differ on who pays. Confirm with building management.
Source: building management's published schedule, as of October 2026
Purchase
8 items
Fees and charges
| Item | Paid by | When | Amount | Refundable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application Processing FeeConditional | Paid by Buyer | When With the application | Amount $600 or $1,000 (Trust Purchase - if permitted by Corporation) | Refundable Not stated |
| Application Processing Fee for Co-applicant or GuarantorPer applicant | Paid by Buyer | When With the application | Amount $250 per Co-applicant/ Guarantor | Refundable Not stated |
| Financing FeeConditional | Paid by Buyer | When At closing | Amount $350 (if financing) | Refundable Not stated |
| Closing FeePer share | Paid by Seller | When At closing | Amount $800 ($850 without a Broker) plus $0.05 per share | Refundable Not stated |
| Sale by an Estate or Trust - Closing FeePer share | Paid by Seller | When At closing | Amount $1,000 plus $0.05 per share | Refundable Not stated |
| Fidelifacts Credit ReportConditional · Per applicant | Paid by Buyer | When With the application | Amount $871.00 per Applicant/Occupant, $1,633.13 if there are two (2) Applicants/Occupants | Refundable Not stated |
Deposits
| Item | Paid by | When | Amount | Refundable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Move In Deposit | Paid by Buyer | When With the application | Amount $1,000 | Refundable Refundable |
| Move Out Deposit | Paid by Seller | When With the application | Amount $1,000 | Refundable Refundable |
Refinance
2 items
Fees and charges
| Item | Paid by | When | Amount | Refundable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Background Report FeePer applicant | Paid by Buyer | When With the application | Amount $125 per applicant | Refundable Not stated |
| Application Processing Fee | Paid by Shareholder | When With the application | Amount $400 | Refundable Not stated |
Ownership transfer
1 item
Fees and charges
| Item | Paid by | When | Amount | Refundable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transfer Fee | Paid by Shareholder | When With the application | Amount Contact Transfer Agent for fee schedule | Refundable Not stated |
Management updates its schedule without a public filing. The date is when management last updated the page, not when a rule changed. Confirm the current schedule with management before you apply.
Considering an apartment here? Send Corey the listing to discuss the building's costs and purchase requirements.
Own an apartment here? Request an apartment-specific pricing review.
Financing and purchase requirements
- Maximum financing
- 50% of the purchase priceUp to 50% financeable (50% minimum down).Source: The Roebling Research Desk's building record
Sublet and pied-à-terre policy
A condominium owner leasing a unit and a co-op shareholder subletting are different rules, and a building-wide rule is different from a restriction on one apartment. This is the building's rule; confirm it for the specific apartment.
- Subletting by shareholders
- Not permittedSource: building management's published schedule, as of October 2026
- Pied-à-terre ownership
- PermittedSource: building management's published schedule, as of October 2026
Considering an apartment here? Send Corey the listing to discuss the sublet and pied-à-terre rules for that apartment.
Pets and in-unit washer/dryer
- Dogs
- Permitted with conditionsDogs are grandfathered only (those resident before September 2000); no new pets without written Board approval.Source: The Roebling Research Desk's building record
- Cats
- Not statedThe source permits pets without naming cats.Source: The Roebling Research Desk's building record
- In-unit washer/dryer
- Not verified
Considering an apartment here? Send Corey the listing to confirm the pet and washer/dryer rules for that apartment.
Monthly carrying charges in recent sales
- Maintenance, per room
- $868 per room a monthMedian of 12 recorded sales since October 2023Source: recorded sales, refreshed October 2026
- Maintenance, per square foot
- $2.81 per square foot a monthMedian of 6 recorded sales since October 2023Source: recorded sales, refreshed October 2026
Maintenance as recorded with each sale. A co-op's maintenance already covers the building's real estate taxes and the building's own mortgage, if it has one; add your own loan payment for the monthly outlay. A summary of recorded sales, not a current bill; charges change.
Building staffing and amenities
- Doorman
- Full-time doormanSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Concierge
- YesSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Elevator
- YesSource: NYC Department of City Planning records (PLUTO)
- Amenities noted
- Fitness room, roof deck, bike storage, storage, laundry roomSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
Staffing and amenities as our building profile and recent listing records describe them. A feature not listed is not confirmed absent.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- Per unit / month range
- —
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).
Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
Management & transfer contacts
- Flip tax
- Requires confirmation
- Sublet policy
- Not Allowed
- Pied-à-terre
- Allowed
- Notable fees
- Max financing 50%; 2x purchase price in liquid assets required; DTI max 28%; Closing Fee $800 ($850 no broker) + $0.05/share
Recent sales
870 Fifth Avenue trades as a mid-tier prestige Fifth Avenue cooperative: an authentic Fifth Avenue and Central Park address at a materially lower price per room than the Candela and Roth trophy inventory ten to twenty blocks north, with a postwar building's finish level and a more accommodating policy framework.
Three things set price within the building. Exposure is first and dominant — Fifth Avenue and park-facing lines carry a substantial premium over 68th Street lines, and the canted corner bays make the corner apartments a separate product again. Floor is second, with the park views improving materially above the tree line. Combination status is third: because the building has lost roughly a dozen apartments to combinations since 1949, the large apartments here are one-off configurations rather than a repeating line, and they have to be priced against their own history rather than against a building average.
Indexed to 2025, the last complete year, Upper East Side cooperative pricing was stable rather than rising, with well-run buildings holding value and buildings carrying capital uncertainty trading at a discount. At 870 Fifth the capital question — the 2031 interest-only maturity and the absence of a funded reserve — is the variable a well-advised buyer will price. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 6, 2026 | 11A | 3 BR · 2.5 BA · 2,010 sf | $3,550,000 | $1,766/sf | +1.6% |
| Sep 18, 2025 | 11D | 2 BR · 2.5 BA · 1,600 sf | $2,000,000 | $1,250/sf | -19.8% |
| May 9, 2025 | 7A | 3 BR · 3.5 BA · 2,000 sf | $2,987,000 | $1,494/sf | -0.3% |
| Apr 25, 2025 | 8A | 3 BR · 3.5 BA | $3,700,000 | -11.8% | |
| Nov 14, 2024 | PHC | 3 BR · 3.5 BA | $4,200,000 | +5.1% | |
| Oct 28, 2024 | 5E | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,500 sf | $1,625,000 | $1,083/sf | -22.6% |
| Oct 3, 2024 | 8F | 2 BR · 2 BA | $1,517,500 | -19.9% | |
| Sep 10, 2024 | 18C | 3 BR · 3.5 BA · 2,400 sf | $2,550,000 | $1,063/sf | -8.8% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026 to date) cleared a median $1,512/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 3.4% 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 15, 2003 | 14E | $3,395,000 |
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 1-01383-0001). 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 870 Fifth Avenue and nearby.
At the recent median sale of $3.55M (6 transfers since 2024), a buyer putting 25% down would pay about $67,800 to close, or 1.9% of the price.
- Mansion tax: $53,250
- No mortgage recording tax or title insurance on a co-op purchase
- Attorneys, lender, building fees and filings: $14,550
Assumes a resale (the seller pays transfer taxes), a $4,500 attorney fee and a mortgage on the rest.
Keep up with 870 Fifth Avenue and its market
The Roebling Report, monthly: Manhattan sales data and analysis, including buildings like 870 Fifth Avenue. Unsubscribe anytime.
We’ll use your email for The Roebling Report and note your interest in this building. See our privacy policy.
What to know if you’re buying
Put the 2031 mortgage maturity at the top of the diligence list. An interest-only loan with the full principal due at maturity has to be refinanced. Ask the managing agent what the board's plan is, and what a refinancing at current rates would do to maintenance.
Read the assessment line, not just the abatement line. The annual assessment is sized to offset the co-op/condo tax abatement. Model maintenance plus assessment as the real monthly number.
Ask whether a reserve study has ever been done. As of the statements on file, none had, and the governing documents do not require reserve accumulation. In a landmarked building with a masonry Fifth Avenue elevation and LL11 obligations, that is a live exposure.
Confirm the flip tax allocation in the contract. The documents allow it to be charged to either side. Silence on the point is expensive.
Verify the flexible policies in writing. Pets, pied-à-terre and 50% financing are the reasons many buyers choose this building, and all three are board policy rather than plan provisions. Get them confirmed by the managing agent before you commit.
Resolve the unit count for your specific line. The building was organized with 106 apartments and now carries 94 residential units in city records. Combinations change stack geometry, plumbing risers and neighbor layout. Ask what happened above and below you.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the plan geometry. The wide, shallow lot and the 200-foot 68th Street frontage mean essentially every apartment gets park or southern light. That is a genuine and verifiable structural advantage over deeper prewar plots on the same corridor.
Lead with the policy framework. Pets, pied-à-terre and half financing are the building's most differentiating commercial features on this stretch of Fifth Avenue. Confirm them with the managing agent, then market them precisely.
Get ahead of the capital questions. Buyers' attorneys will find the 2031 balloon and the reserve posture. A seller who has the current statements, the board's refinancing plan and the assessment history ready controls that conversation instead of reacting to it.
Negotiate the flip tax explicitly. At 3% of price it is the largest single line in the net-proceeds calculation, and the documents leave the allocation open. Price it into the ask.
Price by exposure and by configuration. Park-facing and corner inventory should never be priced off a building average, and combined apartments should be priced off their own comparables.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 870 Fifth Avenue, also evaluate:
- 875 Fifth Avenue — Emery Roth, 1940; the immediate Fifth Avenue neighbor and the closest direct comparison
- 860 Fifth Avenue — postwar Fifth Avenue cooperative two blocks south
- 845 Fifth Avenue — Fifth Avenue peer at 65th Street
- 900 Fifth Avenue — postwar Fifth Avenue cooperative just north
- 907 Fifth Avenue — J.E.R. Carpenter, 1916; prewar Fifth Avenue peer at 72nd Street
- 834 Fifth Avenue — Rosario Candela, 1931; the trophy end of the corridor
- 888 Park Avenue — Lenox Hill prewar cooperative one avenue east
- 40 East 66th Street — Lenox Hill side-street cooperative alternative at a similar price band
More Fifth Avenue buildings
- 845 Fifth Avenue — 1920 co-op by J.E.R. Carpenter
- 857 Fifth Avenue — 1963 co-op by Sylvan and Robert Bien
- 860 Fifth Avenue — 1949 co-op by Sylvan Bien
- 875 Fifth Avenue — 1941 co-op by Emery Roth
- 880 Fifth Avenue — 1948 co-op by Emery Roth & Sons
- 900 Fifth Avenue — 1960 co-op by Sylvan and Robert Bien
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 870 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