135 East 39th Street

Leo F. Knust designed 135 East 39th Street in 1930 in a restrained Art Deco idiom. The six-story white-brick facade is organized around an Art Deco entrance surround set beneath a canopy, with a balustraded roofline capping the composition. The building is not tall and does not attempt to dominate its block — it holds the streetscale of a Murray Hill side street with period detailing rather than height.

The 29 residential units skew toward one-bedroom layouts, with studios, larger one-bedrooms, and a small number of larger and combined configurations in the mix. Recent inventory has included one-bedrooms in the roughly 850-square-foot range, larger one-bedrooms, and a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment — evidence of the combination activity that produces the building's few larger homes. Prewar interior signatures typical of the 1930 building cycle carry through the apartments.

135 East 39th Street operates as a cooperative. The building runs a video-intercom / virtual entry system rather than a full-time staffed lobby — a deliberate feature of the boutique scale that keeps the maintenance overhead low. A live-in superintendent manages day-to-day operations. An elevator serves the building, and the amenity infrastructure includes a basement laundry room and a shared common garden. There is no roof deck, no fitness center, and no garage.

The cooperative board's policy framework, as reflected in public records and publicly recorded NYC building data: pets are permitted; pied-à-terre use is permitted with board approval; co-purchasing is permitted with board approval; the minimum down payment is 20%; and the building carries a 1% flip tax that is buyer-paid. Confirm the flip-tax payer, guarantor policy, financing requirements, and current maintenance ranges with the managing agent and the offering plan during due diligence.

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.

Market read. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $677/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 2.9% 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 1-00895-0031) 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.

The virtual entry is structural, not incidental. The absence of a staffed lobby is the single most consequential operational distinction between 135 East 39th and a full-service Murray Hill doorman building. Buyers who require staffed package handling or a concierge presence should weigh this. Buyers who prioritize value and lower maintenance overhead should read the video-intercom entry as the structural advantage it is.

The board policy framework is accommodating on use. Pets are permitted, pied-à-terre use is allowed with board approval, and co-purchasing is permitted with board approval — a flexibility profile that is more open than many prewar co-ops. Underwrite the 20% minimum down payment and the 1% buyer-paid flip tax into your budget.

The Murray Hill co-op market is soft — price to the current comp, not the peak. Several units have carried price reductions. Buyers should reference the most-recent closed comparable on the relevant line and layout, and should not anchor to older, higher prints.

Verify the operational baseline at offer stage. The flip-tax payer (the tax is 1%), the financing percentage required by the board, guarantor policy, monthly maintenance by apartment line, and reserve fund status should all be confirmed with the building's managing agent and offering plan during due diligence.

Marketing should emphasize the Art Deco integrity and the Grand Central location. A genuine 1930 Leo F. Knust Art Deco building, on a quiet Murray Hill block steps from Grand Central and the 4/5/6/7/S lines, is the architectural-and-location anchor. The shared common garden is a differentiator among boutique co-ops.

The boutique scale is the value proposition, not a limitation. Position the video-intercom entry, the live-in super, and the intimate 29-unit culture as deliberate features for the value-oriented Murray Hill buyer — not as gaps against the full-service buildings.

Pricing requires apartment-level comparable analysis. Building-level per-square-foot averages compress across the one-bedroom-dominant inventory. Reference the most-recent closed comp on the specific line and layout being sold, and price realistically to the current soft market rather than to older prints.

Closing timelines are cooperative-standard. Board approval is required; pacing typically runs 60–90 days from contract through approval to closing.

If you're considering 135 East 39th Street, also evaluate:

• 105 East 38th Street — a 1924 neo-Georgian Murray Hill cooperative of comparable prewar vintage and boutique scale.
• Other modest Murray Hill prewar cooperatives — a cluster of small 1920s–1930s co-ops on the side streets north of the Murray Hill Historic District, comparable in scale, amenity level, and pricing to 135 East 39th.

The Roebling Team at Compass works the Murray Hill and Gramercy corridor as part of our broader Manhattan practice. We publish this building profile because Murray Hill buyers and sellers deserve building-specific intelligence — architectural attribution, policy framework, and comparable analysis at the apartment level — not generic neighborhood commentary.

If you're considering a purchase or sale at 135 East 39th Street, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.