The Lucida (151 East 85th Street)

The 110 residences run two- to six-bedrooms with a consistency of finish unusual for a building this size: 10-foot ceilings, chocolate-stained oak floors, floor-to-ceiling triple-paned glass, marble baths, and kitchens specified at the trophy-condo tier per listing records. The plans are genuinely family-scaled — entrance galleries running 20 to 37 feet, eat-in kitchens with family lounges, libraries and media rooms in the larger lines, laundry rooms and staff areas in the four- and five-bedroom units. The setback massing produces terraces and corner exposures at the upper floors — the 16th-floor lines carry large angled corner terraces over 86th and Lexington — and the building tops out in duplex penthouses across the 20th and 21st floors with substantial private outdoor space. Unit 8G belongs to the condominium as the resident manager's apartment per the offering plan.

Full-service at the standard of the corridor: 24-hour doorman and concierge, live-in resident manager, and an amenity program — skylit pool, spa and fitness center, residents' lounge with catering kitchen, children's playroom, wine cellar, bike room, storage, and valet-parked garage — that remains competitive against the newer condos built uptown since. The 110 storage bins and 110 wine-storage licenses sit in the sub-cellar levels within the retail unit, held under licenses whose term tracks the lower-parcel lease per the offering plan — a detail your attorney should map when a storage or wine license conveys with a residence. The offering plan with amendments through the tenth and recent audited financial statements are on file in The Roebling Research Library.

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.

Market read. Most recent trades (2026 to date) cleared a median $1,976/sf (floor-adjusted) across 5 sales. 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 6.5% 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 1-01514-7502; 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.

The format is the scarcity. Family-scaled condominium residences — real four- and five-bedroom plans with galleries and eat-in kitchens — remain structurally rare east of Park Avenue. The Lucida and the contemporaneous Brompton created the category at this intersection; pricing between the two tracks line and light more than brand.

Have counsel map the two-parcel structure. The tower residences are conventional condo units, but the retail and rental components sit on a long ground lease held institutionally, and storage and wine licenses are tied to that lower parcel per the offering plan. This is well-trodden diligence — the documents are on file with us — but it should be done precisely.

86th and Lexington is a transit node, with everything that implies. The express 4/5/6 is at the corner with a subway entrance at the building, the Q is two avenues east, and the crosstown spine runs past the front door — alongside a fire station just east on 85th Street and genuine retail-corridor traffic. The triple-glazed envelope was engineered for exactly this; still, price front-facing lines with eyes open and visit at street-rush hours.

Underwrite the carry, not just the price. Large units carry common charges and taxes consistent with the full-amenity condo tier. Run the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator on the specific unit, and the Mansion Tax Calculator at the intended price — every trade in this building crosses multiple thresholds.

Verify the policy stack. Pet, sublet, and financing specifics run through the by-laws and managing agent. The condominium framework is flexible by Upper East Side standards — a structural advantage for trust, LLC, and pied-à-terre buyers — but confirm current requirements at offer stage.

Market the building's category, then your line. The pitch is family condo scale plus the green-building program — filtered air, triple glazing, the amenity floor — alongside nearby cooperatives and condominiums, comparing their actual ownership and transfer requirements. Then anchor to same-line history: the spread between setback-terrace inventory and lower retail-adjacent floors is wide, and building-average $/sf misleads here.

Expect a deliberate, school-calendar buyer pool. The building's core buyer is trading for bedroom count and proximity to the neighborhood's schools and the park. Marketing windows and negotiation rhythm follow the family calendar; we plan launches accordingly.

Use the documents. The offering plan, amendments, and financial statements on file let us answer diligence questions — storage licenses, the lower-parcel structure, amenity governance — before they become contract friction. Sellers who front-load this close faster.

If you're considering The Lucida, also evaluate:

• 205 East 85th Street (The Brompton) — the Robert A.M. Stern–designed Related condominium built contemporaneously one block east; the masonry counterpoint to the Lucida's glass
• 1289 Lexington Avenue (The Hayworth) — the newer boutique condominium across East 86th Street
• 200 East 83rd Street — the Stern-designed Naftali tower; the corridor's newest benchmark at a higher per-foot basis
• 180 East 88th Street — DDG's boutique tower; the design-forward alternative
• 200 East 95th Street (The Kent) — Extell's later Upper East Side condominium; the same developer's program further north at a softer basis
• 360 East 89th Street (Citizen360) — contemporary condo alternative in Yorkville
• 151 East 78th Street — boutique pre-war-styled condo; the smaller-format alternative south of the 86th Street corridor