- Year built
- 1941
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 103
- Floors
- 19
- Landmark
- Designated
- Pets
- Confirm directly with management
- Subletting
- Restrictive; board approval required
875 Fifth Avenue is one of the only major luxury apartment houses completed on Fifth Avenue in the years immediately preceding World War II — a 19-story Emery Roth composition that translated streamlined Moderne architectural vocabulary into the Gold Coast Park-facing context. Where Rosario Candela's 1929–1931 Fifth Avenue commissions (834 Fifth, 1040 Fifth, 1148 Fifth) had defined pre-war Fifth Avenue classical luxury, Roth's 875 Fifth — completed a decade later, just before the Depression and war halted Manhattan luxury apartment construction for nearly two decades — represented a different argument: Moderne and Art Deco architectural language at the Gold Coast price tier.
The result is architecturally distinctive in the Fifth Avenue inventory. The glass-brick rounded corners on the water-tank enclosure, the rounded bay windows above the first setback, and the streamlined detailing throughout produce a building that reads as Moderne rather than classical. For buyers attracted to Art Deco / Moderne architecture (the Eldorado, the Century, the Ardsley on CPW), 875 Fifth is the closest Fifth Avenue equivalent.
The building was constructed on the site of three former Fifth Avenue mansions, completing the transition of that block from townhouse-tier to apartment-tier residential — a transition that had begun with 998 Fifth Avenue in 1912 and continued through Candela's interwar commissions. By 1941, when Emery Roth's commission completed, the apartment-house era on Fifth Avenue was effectively settled.
What structurally differentiates 875 Fifth from the neighboring pre-war Candela peers is its scale and amenity package. With 103 apartments today (the original plan called for 134), 875 Fifth is materially larger than 820 Fifth (13 units), 998 Fifth (17 units), 834 Fifth (24 units), or 1040 Fifth (27 units). The amenity package is also broader: 875 Fifth includes a fitness center, business center, residents' lounge, and private garden — features uncommon among 1920s/30s Candela Gold Coast pre-wars, which tend to be amenity-light. Buyers who want Gold Coast Park-facing positioning plus modern amenity infrastructure find 875 Fifth among the few Lenox Hill pre-war options that deliver both.
Architecture and unit composition
The 103 current apartments span configurations from approximately 1,200 sf 1BRs to substantial 4,000+ sf 4BRs and duplexes. The 1941 original plan included 8 duplexes; many have been preserved while some have been combined or split during the building's 85-year history.
Roth's Moderne signatures throughout: high ceilings (10–11 feet in primary rooms — slightly lower than Candela's 12-foot rooms but generous by post-war standards), formal entry galleries, library-living combinations, rounded bay windows on certain units, art deco detailing in lobbies and common spaces.
Park-facing apartments on the eastern flank have direct Central Park views; the building's setback configuration produces meaningful view differentiation between low and high floors. The bay-window apartments are particularly prized for view aperture and architectural distinctiveness.
Building operations
875 Fifth operates as a full-service white-glove cooperative. The amenity package is broader than the typical Gold Coast pre-war: 24-hour doorman, attended elevators, live-in superintendent, fitness center, laundry, bike storage, private storage, business center, residents' lounge, and a private garden. The building participates in the NYC Cooperative & Condominium Property Tax Abatement Program for qualifying primary-residence shareholders.
The board's posture follows tier-one Gold Coast Lenox Hill norms — rigorous financial review, strong personal references, primary-residence intent the working assumption. Specific policy details (financing cap or prohibition, flip tax payor and percentage, sublet policy specifics, pied-à-terre allowance) should be confirmed directly with property management during due diligence; the building's policy block is not formally published in the manner of comparable buildings.
Recent sales
Last 5–10 closed sales at 875 Fifth Avenue (replace this section with current ACRIS data — pull at publication time and refresh quarterly):
[Recent sales table to be populated from ACRIS]
Sales context at 875 Fifth (from CityRealty and Real Deal coverage):
- Penthouse AB transacted at $4,350,000 in December 2022 — meaningful editorial datapoint on penthouse pricing in the post-2022 market context.
- Current active listings (as of mid-2026) range approximately $3.75M to $7.85M across the inventory currently on market.
- Apartment heterogeneity is meaningful — bay-window apartments and Park-facing units command premiums versus non-Park-facing interior apartments at the same floor.
What to know if you’re buying
The amenity package is broader than Gold Coast peers. Buyers who want Lenox Hill pre-war architecture plus modern amenity infrastructure (fitness center, business center, residents' lounge, garden) will find 875 Fifth uncommon in delivering both. Apartments at 820 Fifth or 998 Fifth offer pre-war architecture with much lighter amenity infrastructure; 875 Fifth's amenity package is more typical of post-war buildings, executed inside a 1941 architectural envelope.
Board approval follows tier-one Lenox Hill norms. Strong financial profile, professional accomplishment, personal references, and primary-residence intent are the central criteria. Foreign buyers face friction typical of tier-one Fifth Avenue co-ops.
Confirm specific policies directly with management. Because the building's policy block is not formally published in the manner of comparable buildings, buyers should obtain current information on the flip tax structure (payor and percentage), financing cap (if any), sublet policy specifics, and any pied-à-terre allowance during the contract review process.
The architectural distinction is real. Roth's Moderne vocabulary is rare on Fifth Avenue; buyers who value architectural distinctiveness within the Gold Coast inventory should weight 875 Fifth accordingly.
View permanence is excellent. Central Park east; 68th–69th Streets are residential side streets with stable heights; the corridor is built out.
The scale (103 apartments) produces more accessible buyer dynamics. Compared to the 13–27 unit peer buildings, 875 Fifth's larger inventory produces faster turnover, broader buyer pool, and more accessible per-square-foot pricing at the lower end of the inventory.
What to know if you’re selling
Marketing typically combines public listing and direct broker outreach. Public channels (StreetEasy, Compass private exclusive) are standard; private network outreach matters for higher-priced apartments and bay-window units.
Pricing requires apartment-level comparable analysis. The building's 103-unit scale produces meaningful variation; view, exposure, floor, bay-window configuration, and renovation status all matter substantially.
The amenity package is a marketing asset. Buyers researching Gold Coast Lenox Hill inventory will respond to 875 Fifth's broader amenity infrastructure — listing copy should highlight the fitness center, business center, residents' lounge, and garden as differentiators.
Closing timelines are co-op standard. 6–10 weeks from contract signing to closing.
The Roebling Team at 875 Fifth
The Roebling Team at Compass specializes in Central Park West, the Upper East Side, and the broader Park-facing Manhattan market. We publish this building profile because Gold Coast buyers and sellers deserve building-specific intelligence — architecture, board culture, transactional mechanics, and the realities of pricing at the apartment level — not generic market commentary.
If you're considering a purchase or sale at 875 Fifth, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point. We'll bring the full context this page provides plus the transactional specifics your situation requires — financial structuring, board approvability, comparable analysis at the apartment level, and the pacing strategy that fits your timeline.