The Croydon, 12 East 86th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 12 East 86th Street by Carter Horsley

This very large, pre-war, rental apartment building occupies about half the block bounded by Madison and Fifth Avenues and 86th and 85th Streets.

The beige-brick building has light wells along the avenue and a mid-block mid-rise wing on 86th Street.

It has a very large entrance marquee and a very large lobby.

The pre-war building was originally the Croydon Hotel. (Another former hotel on the same blockfront, the former Adams Hotel at 2 East 86th Street, was converted to a luxury condominium and was able to get a Fifth Avenue address even though it is not on the avenue but just to the east of the new Serge Sabarsky museum of German Expressionist Art at the Fifth Avenue corner known as the Neue Gallerie.

This 15-story building, which has a concierge and a garage, has good retail along the avenue, and many of its discrete air-conditioners have been cut through the building's few decorative spandrels. The building is pet-friendly and has laundry facilities and a bicycle room.

It was built in 1923 and designed by Schwartz & Gross. For many years, it was owned by Sarah Korein, whose other major holdings in Manhattan over the years included Lever House, 120 Broadway, and the Beresford.

This neighborhood at the south end of the Carnegie Hill District became very attractive in the late 1980's and the 1990s with the opening of many boutiques and several restaurants and the upgrading of a nearby supermarket.

There is excellent neighborhood shopping and many excellent schools and religious institutions nearby as well as many of the city's most important cultural institutions. There is excellent west-bound cross-town bus service on the street, and the east-bound service has a stop across the avenue. An express subway station is at Lexington Avenue.

There is considerable traffic along the avenue and especially on 85th Street, which is the approach to a Central Park cross drive.

The building, which is also known as 11 East 85th Street and 1150 Madison Avenue, has 343 apartments. Dean & DeLuca, the food store, occupies its storefront on the northwest corner of Madison Avenue and 85th Street.