3 East 71st Street

Roth gave 3 East 71st a dignified two-story limestone base with a pink-granite entrance surround, set beneath a warm beige-brick shaft — a facade that bridges prewar gravity and postwar economy. The 13-story building reads as a refined Lenox Hill apartment house, scaled to its blue-chip block between Fifth and Madison.

The roughly 46 apartments offer a variety of configurations, including impressive duplex residences. Many homes carry wood-burning fireplaces, high ceilings, and the generous, well-zoned layouts that define a Roth building. The upper floors are the prizes, with sweeping outlooks over the Frick's gardens, Central Park to the west, and the skyline to the south — views protected, in part, by the low-rise institutional and townhouse context immediately around the building.

3 East 71st is a full-service cooperative. A 24-hour doorman covers the lobby, and a live-in resident manager runs the building with porter support. For a building of this vintage, the amenity set is generous: a fitness center, a central laundry room, bike storage, and private storage units.

The board's policy posture is notably welcoming for prime Lenox Hill. The cooperative permits pied-à-terre purchases, allows pets, and accommodates diplomatic buyers. Financing is permitted, generally in the 40–50% range with board approval, and a 4% flip tax is collected on resale and is paid by the purchaser. Those terms — pied-à-terre and diplomatic flexibility opposite the Frick — distinguish 3 East 71st from the more restrictive Fifth Avenue houses a block away, while the board maintains the standards the address commands.

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 (2022) cleared a median $1,496/sf across 2 sales. Median listing discount 8.7% 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 1-01386-0006) 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 board process is real — a full package, financials, references, and an interview — but the terms are accommodating: pied-à-terre and diplomatic purchases are permitted, pets are allowed, and financing up to roughly 50% is available with board approval. Budget the 4% buyer-paid flip tax into your underwriting; it is higher than the 1–2% common elsewhere and materially affects total cost. Evaluate apartments for view (the Frick-and-Park outlook on the upper floors is the building's signature), fireplace, and layout. The location — across from the Frick, a half-block from Central Park and Fifth Avenue, near the 6 at 68th Street and the Q at 72nd — is permanent value.

3 East 71st sells on its address and its flexibility: an Emery Roth co-op opposite the Frick and steps from the Park, with pied-à-terre and diplomatic rules that broaden the buyer pool relative to the cash-only houses nearby. The Frick-and-Central-Park view, a working wood-burning fireplace, high floor, and duplex configuration are the differentiators that set a strong price within the building. Sellers should account for the 4% flip tax in their net-proceeds analysis. Because turnover is thin, price to the building's own most recent comparable and to the peer prime-Lenox-Hill co-ops nearby. We market each home to the qualified, internationally-minded buyer this building attracts.

If you're considering 3 East 71st Street, these nearby Lenox Hill and Fifth Avenue cooperatives are the natural comparison set:

• 2 East 70th Street — prewar co-op a block south, near Fifth
• 10 East 70th Street — full-service co-op on the same blue-chip stretch
• 834 Fifth Avenue — one of Fifth Avenue's grandest prewar co-ops nearby
• 845 Fifth Avenue — Park-facing co-op a few blocks south
• 19 East 72nd Street — full-service co-op two blocks north

The Roebling Team at Compass specializes in Lenox Hill, the broader Upper East Side, and the cooperative market along Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue. We publish this profile because buyers and sellers at a building like 3 East 71st deserve building-specific intelligence — the pied-à-terre and financing terms, the 4% flip tax, the Frick-and-Park views, and where each line sits against the prime-Lenox-Hill comparable set.

If you're weighing a purchase or sale at 3 East 71st Street, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.