The Bellemont: Eleven Residences at Madison and 86th

The Bellemont is an eleven-residence limestone condominium by Robert A.M. Stern Architects at 1165 Madison Avenue, on the corner of East 86th Street and one avenue block from Central Park.

It is often mistaken for 200 East 83rd Street, a much larger tower by the same developer and architect a few blocks to the south-east. Here is what The Bellemont is and what buying one of its few apartments involves.

1. What the Building Is

Naftali Group developed the building with Robert A.M. Stern Architects for the architecture and Rome-based Achille Salvagni for the residences and lobby. It rises 210 feet in hand-laid Indiana limestone, with a wedding-cake massing that steps back to create private terraces, and a facade of Juliet balconies, arched windows and ornate metalwork.

The building holds eleven residences above ground-floor retail, according to its certificate of occupancy and city deed records. It was first marketed with twelve; two penthouses were then combined into a single four-storey home with its own elevator and eight private terraces.

SLCE Architects was architect of record, and sales launched privately in October 2021, without public listings. The Department of Buildings issued a temporary certificate of occupancy in March 2023, the first closing was recorded that spring, and the final certificate was issued in 2026.

The location is on Google Maps.

2. Layouts and Shared Spaces

The developer describes half-floor, full-floor, duplex and penthouse layouts, and city deed records match: north and south homes on the lower floors, full floors on the seventh, eighth and ninth, a duplex and penthouses at the top. A full-floor apartment takes in every exposure the building has.

Salvagni's interiors were conceived to evoke a turn-of-the-century Parisian apartment, with loft-like ceilings, mouldings, large polished doors and dramatically scaled windows. The lobby, staffed around the clock, uses tree and leaf motifs drawn from Central Park.

Most of the shared amenities sit on the cellar level: a fitness centre, a regulation squash court that doubles as a half basketball court, a screening room and a children's playroom. A communal roof terrace looks toward Central Park, and the whole programme is shared by only eleven households.

In a building of eleven homes, ask how staffing and amenity costs are shared before comparing monthly charges.

3. Carnegie Hill and the Madison Avenue Corner

The site is in Carnegie Hill, one avenue block from Central Park and close to the museums of Museum Mile on Fifth Avenue. Madison Avenue's shops and restaurants run past the door, and several independent schools, among them Spence and Dalton, are a short walk away.

The nearest subway is the Lexington Avenue line at 86th Street, where the 4, 5 and 6 stop about a fifth of a mile east by the MTA's station coordinates. The Q at Second Avenue and 86th Street is further, at roughly two fifths of a mile. Being on Madison rather than Fifth puts the building one avenue closer to the Lexington line.

Robert A.M. Stern Architects designed other limestone condominiums in the neighbourhood, including 1228 Madison Avenue and 150 East 78th Street, and those are the natural comparisons. The Bellemont's difference is scale: eleven homes, against 86 at the firm's 200 East 83rd Street.

Price an apartment here against recorded sales in the building and in comparable condominiums nearby, not asking prices.

4. Buying Here as an Overseas Purchaser

The Bellemont is a condominium, so there is no co-op board approval, unlike many of the older buildings on its own block, which city records list as cooperatives. A buyer abroad can purchase personally or, where the documents allow, through an entity. Foreign-national mortgages need larger deposits, so start the application before making an offer.

The buyer pays New York's mansion tax on residential purchases of $1 million or more, charged on the whole price at rates rising from 1% between $1 million and $2 million to 3.9% at $25 million and above. Since July 2026 the city has also levied an annual pied-à-terre surcharge on high-value apartments that are no one's primary residence, and its administration is before the courts.

On a later sale by a foreign owner, the buyer must withhold 15% of the gross price under FIRPTA unless an IRS withholding certificate reduces it. A non-resident who is not a US citizen has only a $60,000 estate tax exemption on US-situs assets unless a treaty provides more, so settle the ownership structure with tax counsel before contract.

With only eleven homes in the building, have financing and ownership structure settled before an apartment comes to market.

Recorded Sales: What the Public Record Shows

NYC's Department of Finance records every sale with its address and price. Between January 2023 and September 2026 it recorded 13 sales of apartments at The Bellemont, at a median price of $19.09 million. Half of them closed between $10.02 million and $24.08 million; the highest was $67.88 million.

A median across a whole building mixes small and large apartments, low floors and high ones, so it describes the building rather than any one residence. Use it to see how often apartments here change hands and where the building's prices sit. Price a specific apartment from recorded sales on the same line and floor range, which can be pulled from the deed records before you make an offer.

These are recorded deed prices, not asking prices, and none of them is a Reinvent NY transaction. A sale appears in the record weeks after closing, and a deed price can include a parking space or storage unit bought at the same time.

Final Thoughts: Few Homes on a Classic Corner

The Bellemont is small by design: eleven residences, a limestone exterior in the Upper East Side tradition and interiors modelled on the grand apartments of an earlier era. It now holds a final certificate of occupancy, so the construction phase is behind it. The design was meant to look as if it had always stood on its corner.

With so few owners, each apartment's share of the building's costs, and the state of its reserves, matter more than in a large tower. Read the latest financial statement and the board minutes with the same care as the floor plan, and ask what the budget assumes for staffing.

Recorded sale prices are public record in New York, and in a building this size each one is informative. Compare full floors with full floors and penthouses with penthouses rather than relying on a building-wide figure, and bring those figures to any negotiation.

Request the offering plan, its amendments and the latest financial statement before making an offer.

Figures here describe the building, not any one apartment. Asking prices, monthly carrying costs, tax abatement status and sublet rules are established unit by unit from the offering plan, the most recent financial statement and the managing agent. Real estate services are provided through R New York.

Reinvent NY Inc. provides real estate and business expansion consulting in New York. Real estate brokerage services are provided through R New York. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax or investment advice.

More buildings worth knowing: 100 Eleventh Avenue, 111 West 57th Street, 130 William. The full set is indexed under New York building profiles.