- Year built
- 1922
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 58
- Floors
- 17
- Landmark
- Designated
39 Fifth Avenue is the historical anchor of the Lower Fifth Avenue Gold Coast. Built in 1922 by Bing & Bing in collaboration with Emery Roth, the 17-story building was the first tall apartment building on Lower Fifth Avenue — the structural opening of the 1920s construction cycle that, over the following seven years, would replace the corridor's 19th-century mansion-and-rowhouse fabric with the prewar cooperative inventory that defines the corridor today.
Bing & Bing — the development partnership of Leo S. and Alexander S. Bing — was, alongside the Helmsleys, Tishmans, and a small handful of other 1920s Manhattan developers, among the most consequential builders of the city's luxury apartment-house tradition. The Bing & Bing partnership produced approximately a dozen apartment houses in collaboration with Emery Roth between roughly 1920 and 1931, including the buildings at 299 West 12th Street, 302 West 12th Street, 45 Christopher Street, and the broader West Village and Lower Fifth Avenue concentration that established the development team as the dominant builder of downtown luxury cooperative inventory in the 1920s. 39 Fifth Avenue sits at the front of that body of work — the first of the partnership's tall apartment-house commissions on Lower Fifth Avenue and the project that opened the corridor to the broader prewar cooperative cycle.
Roth's architectural register at 39 Fifth is Spanish Renaissance — dark brown brick with terracotta loggia detail at the third story, a configuration that produces one of the most architecturally distinguished facades on Lower Fifth Avenue. Roth's broader 1922 vocabulary, executed at 39 Fifth, would continue to evolve across the subsequent decade and would inform the architect's later, larger Park Avenue and Central Park West commissions. For Lower Fifth Avenue specifically, the Roth credential at 39 Fifth is a structural pedigree marker — and one that distinguishes the building from the Sugarman & Berger and Boak & Raad attributions that define much of the rest of the corridor.
The cooperative conversion in 1986 placed 39 Fifth in the middle of the broader Lower Fifth Avenue conversion cycle. The 58-apartment scale is materially smaller than the larger cooperatives on the corridor (One Fifth's ~180 units, the Brevoort's 296, 24 Fifth's 419) and meaningfully larger than the most boutique inventory (43 Fifth's 42, 45 Fifth's ~63). The mid-size scale produces a structurally distinct residential idiom — institutional enough to support a full-service amenity program, intimate enough to preserve a personal building culture.
For buyers, 39 Fifth represents the corridor's deepest architectural pedigree: Bing & Bing developer credential, Emery Roth architectural attribution, the historical anchor position as the first tall apartment building on Lower Fifth, and the mid-size 58-unit scale that supports a full-service operational program at intimate institutional culture.
Architecture and unit composition
The 58 cooperative apartments distribute across the building's 17 stories in configurations characteristic of Roth's 1922 vintage — substantial classic-six and classic-seven layouts, with apartment scale meaningfully larger than the one-bedroom-dominant boutique cooperatives on the corridor. Apartments retain the prewar signatures characteristic of Roth's 1922 vocabulary: substantial ceiling heights, formal entry galleries, library-living combinations, formal dining rooms, primary suites with closet infrastructure, and oak-strip flooring throughout.
The Spanish Renaissance facade — dark brown brick with the terracotta loggia detail at the third story — is the building's defining architectural feature and one of the most distinguished facade compositions on Lower Fifth Avenue.
Building operations
39 Fifth Avenue operates as a full-service cooperative with 24-hour doorman, live-in superintendent, fitness center, residents' lounge, bike storage, on-site laundry, and central storage. The amenity program is consistent with the building's mid-size cooperative scale and the corridor's broader prewar full-service tradition. Specific board policies on financing percentages, subletting frameworks, pied-à-terre permissions, pet rules, and flip-tax structure should be confirmed against the offering plan during due diligence.
Recent sales
Last 5–10 closed sales at 39 Fifth Avenue (replace with current ACRIS data at the time of marketing):
[Recent sales table to be populated from ACRIS]
Sales context: building-level averages have run in the range characteristic of the corridor's prewar full-service cooperative tier; pricing varies meaningfully by exposure (Fifth Avenue versus rear), floor, and apartment configuration.
What to know if you’re buying
The architectural pedigree is the structural feature. The Bing & Bing / Emery Roth combination at the 1922-vintage opening of the Lower Fifth Avenue cycle is the deepest architectural-pedigree credential on the corridor.
The 58-unit mid-size scale produces a specific operational character. Substantially larger than the boutique cooperatives (43 Fifth, 45 Fifth) and meaningfully smaller than the institutional corridor peers (24 Fifth, the Brevoort). The cooperative culture is correspondingly calibrated to the mid-size scale.
The classic-six and classic-seven apartment idiom is structural. Roth's 1922 layouts are meaningfully larger than the one-bedroom-dominant inventory at 45 Fifth and the studio-and-junior-one-bedroom inventory at 24 Fifth. The right building for buyers seeking the larger prewar configurations.
Greenwich Village Historic District protection applies. The 1922 Roth facade, the Church of the Ascension's adjacent Gothic Revival presence, and the broader corridor are all subject to LPC review.
Confirm operational specifics directly. Board policies on financing, subletting, pied-à-terre use, pets, and flip tax should be confirmed during due diligence.
What to know if you’re selling
Marketing should lead with the architectural anchor positioning. "First tall apartment building on Lower Fifth Avenue, Bing & Bing / Emery Roth 1922" is the structural marketing argument.
Pricing should reference the corridor's full-service prewar tier. Comparable buildings: One Fifth Avenue (Corbett 1927), 24 Fifth (Roth 1926), the broader 1920s Lower Fifth cooperative cycle.
Closing timelines are cooperative-standard. Plan for 60–90 days from contract through approval to closing.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 39 Fifth Avenue, also evaluate:
- One Fifth Avenue — Corbett 1927; corridor anchor; full-service prewar peer
- 24 Fifth Avenue — Emery Roth 1926; corridor peer; the corridor's second Roth commission
- 45 Fifth Avenue — Sugarman & Berger 1925; boutique prewar peer
- 30 Fifth Avenue — 1923; immediate corridor peer; comparable vintage
- 33 Fifth Avenue — 1923; immediate corridor peer; comparable vintage
- 2 Fifth Avenue — Emery Roth & Sons 1951–52; mid-century postwar corridor peer
The Roebling Team at 39 Fifth Avenue
The Roebling Team at Compass works the Lower Fifth Avenue corridor as part of our broader Park-facing Manhattan practice — Central Park West, the Upper East Side, the Fifth Avenue inventory at both ends of Central Park, and the Greenwich Village Gold Coast that anchors the southern terminus of the Fifth Avenue residential spine. We publish this building profile because Lower Fifth Avenue buyers and sellers deserve building-specific intelligence — architectural attribution, board context, apartment-line comparable analysis — not generic neighborhood commentary.
If you're considering a purchase or sale at 39 Fifth, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.