1 Lexington Avenue (49 Gramercy Park North)
1 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Gramercy Park
BBL 1008770022 · BIN 1017991
- Year built
- 1910
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 27
- Floors
- 12
- Landmark
- Designated
Every recorded sale at this building, 2004–2025
Bedroom-by-bedroom medians, the full transfer record, and how units trade against ask.
- 3BR median
- $2.5M
- Recent range
- $2M – $5.9M
- Listing discount
- 6.7%
- Recorded transfers
- 35
1 Lexington Avenue is one of the small handful of full-service prewar cooperatives that actually front Gramercy Park — and that distinction is the entire point. Manhattan has one private park, and only the roughly three dozen buildings around its perimeter confer a key. This building sits at the park's northeast corner, where Lexington Avenue is born at East 21st Street, on the site of the former home of Cyrus West Field, who laid the first transatlantic cable. Herbert Lucas designed the building in 1910, and it is widely read as the sister of 24 Gramercy Park South, which Lucas designed in a closely related idiom — the two share a portico-and-balcony vocabulary that gives the park's edge much of its early-twentieth-century dignity.
What buyers respond to here is a combination that is genuinely scarce: a park key, a refined neo-Renaissance facade inside a protected historic district, and apartments that began life as very large prewar layouts. Because the building opened with only twelve apartments and was later reconfigured to twenty-seven, the unit mix is generous in scale and idiosyncratic in plan, with a high proportion of duplexes and apartments retaining wood-burning fireplaces and windowed kitchens. This is not a building of identical white-brick lines; it is a building of distinct, often grand, individually shaped homes.
The address has long attracted creative and culinary New York. Residents have included Uma Thurman, Winona Ryder, and the restaurateur Danny Meyer, whose Union Square and Madison Square ventures helped define the surrounding neighborhood's modern dining culture. That gravitational pull toward a discreet, established clientele is consistent with the building's posture — quiet, full-service, and serious about the park it overlooks.
Architecture and unit composition
Lucas's design is a careful exercise in early-twentieth-century classicism. A two-story stone base anchors the building; above it, deep red-brown brick is laid in Flemish bond, with voluted stone keystones over the windows and carved fruit garlands above a colonnaded, balustraded Tuscan portico. Cast-iron balconies ride on stone console brackets, and a high cast-iron perimeter fence completes the composition at street level. The whole reads as a townhouse-scaled apartment house — the architecture of a private home, multiplied.
Inside, the apartments reflect the building's reconfiguration history. The original twelve apartments were exceptionally large; the present twenty-seven include many duplexes and layouts that retain prewar bones — high ceilings, wood-burning fireplaces, separate service areas, and windowed kitchens. Park-facing residences look directly onto Gramercy's planes and London plane trees; rear and side exposures gain quiet and light over the protected low-rise blocks of the historic district.
Building operations
The cooperative runs as a full-service building: a full-time doorman and concierge, an attended wood-paneled elevator with an operator, a marble lobby, a live-in resident manager, central laundry, and bicycle storage. The board permits financing up to 65% of the purchase price and applies a 2% flip tax to shareholders who sell within five years of acquiring their apartment. Pets are welcome and in-unit washer/dryers are permitted; pieds-à-terre are not allowed, consistent with the building's primary-residence character. The building's location inside the Gramercy Park Historic District means exterior work is subject to Landmarks review, which protects the facade and the streetwall but adds process to any visible alteration.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $13,052/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $39
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.
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.
See the full facade history →Management & transfer contacts
- Flip tax
- 2% of purchase price, paid by Seller (sales within first 5 years of ownership)
- Notable fees
- Max financing 65% of purchase price/appraised value
Recent sales
Recent transfers at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. Apartment-level facts are independently verified before publishing; sale prices reflect the recorded transfer amount at the NYC Department of Finance.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 13, 2025 | 1 | 3 BR · 2 BA | $1,995,000 | -6.1% | |
| Nov 7, 2025 | 5A | 5 BR · 4 BA · 3,582 sf | $5,900,000 | $1,647/sf | -21.3% |
| Jul 29, 2025 | 3B | 2 BR · 1.5 BA · 1,400 sf | $3,150,000 | $2,250/sf | -7.2% |
| Jul 17, 2023 | 3 | 3 BR · 2 BA | $3,025,000 | -4.0% | |
| Jun 2, 2022 | 9D | 2 BR · 1 BA | $1,585,000 | -6.2% | |
| Jan 19, 2022 | 3B | 2 BR · 1.5 BA | $2,665,000 | -14.0% | |
| Mar 18, 2019 | 9D | 2 BR · 1 BA | $1,395,000 | -10.0% | |
| Oct 23, 2018 | 5 | 4 BR · 2.5 BA | $7,600,000 | -14.6% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2025) cleared a median $1,949/sf across 2 sales. Median listing discount 6.0% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 13, 2006 | 10 | $1,650,000 |
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 1-00877-0022) and verified listing data. Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified by The Roebling Team research desk. 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 to know if you’re buying
The park key is the asset. A key to Gramercy Park accompanies ownership, and it is the single feature that separates this building from otherwise comparable prewar co-ops a few blocks away. Value it accordingly.
Underwrite to a primary-residence board. Financing is capped at 65%, pieds-à-terre are not permitted, and the building is plainly oriented toward owners who will live there. Investors and part-time buyers should look elsewhere; primary-residence buyers will find a cooperative that protects exactly that profile.
Budget the flip tax if you may sell early. A 2% flip tax applies to sales within five years of purchase. If your horizon is short, model that cost into your return.
Expect prewar individuality. Layouts vary widely because the building was reconfigured from twelve apartments to twenty-seven. Walk each unit on its own terms — duplexes, fireplaces, and windowed kitchens are common, but no two homes are identical.
Plan around Landmarks. Visible exterior changes require LPC review. The protection is a feature, but it shapes timelines for any work touching the facade or windows.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the key and the architecture. The marketing story is the park, the Herbert Lucas facade, and the historic-district setting. These are durable, defensible selling points that do not depend on market timing.
Comp at the apartment level. With twenty-seven heterogeneous units, generic neighborhood averages mislead. Pricing should be built from the building's own recent trades and the closest park-fronting peers, adjusted for floor, exposure, and condition.
Pace for a discerning buyer pool. The natural buyer is a primary-residence purchaser who specifically wants a Gramercy Park key. That pool is smaller but committed; a focused, patient marketing strategy serves the larger duplexes best.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 1 Lexington Avenue, also evaluate these park-fronting and Gramercy prewar cooperatives:
- 32 Gramercy Park South (Gramercy Towers) — large prewar park-fronting co-op with a key
- 34 Gramercy Park East (The Gramercy) — NYC's oldest continuously operating co-op, with the park key
- 36 Gramercy Park East — Gothic-detailed prewar park-fronting co-op
- 44 Gramercy Park North — 1929 Neo-Gothic co-op on the park's north side
- 50 Gramercy Park North — modern park-fronting building with full amenities
- 60 Gramercy Park North — Emery Roth prewar cooperative near the park
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Gramercy — read The Roebling Team Guide to Gramercy.
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.
Considering a move at 1 Lexington Avenue (49 Gramercy Park North)?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 1 Lexington Avenue (49 Gramercy Park North) 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.