40 East 61st Street
40 East 61st Street, New York, NY 10065
Lenox Hill, Upper East Side
BBL 1013757501 · BIN 1040811
- Year built
- 1927
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 36
- Floors
- 20
- Landmark
- No
- Pets
- Pets permitted, per management-sourced and listing records; confirm weight and breed rules in the current house rules
Every recorded sale at this building, 2003–2025
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $2,136
- Listing discount
- 5.8%
- Recorded sales
- 54
- On record
- 2003–2025
This is a hospital that became apartments, and almost nothing about the building makes sense until you know that.
It was put up in 1927 as the Professional Building — a speculative medical office block on a Lenox Hill side street, a block from Central Park and a block from Madison Avenue's retail spine. Kenneth Franzheim designed it. Alice Fuller LeRoy took nine floors and the penthouse for a private sanitarium; doctors' offices filled the rest. The sanitarium became the LeRoy Hospital, a private treatment center and maternity hospital that drew a wealthy and often famous clientele. The New York Times recorded, in a November 28, 2004 column, that new mothers there routinely stayed a week and had meals sent in from the Colony restaurant on the same block. The hospital later turned toward osteopathic medicine and closed in 1980.
What followed was more than a change of use. Rose-Dorcar 61 Associates converted the building between 1980 and 1983 and enlarged it while doing so — adding floors at the top and widening the structure by roughly a third, with Paul Segal and Rothzeid, Kaiserman & Thomson as conversion architects. The façade still shows the seam: the original beige brick with its three vertical bands of piers and spandrels, and the addition alongside it with darker spandrels and a horizontal reading. The setback created by the addition is where the building's terraces came from. The condominium declaration was recorded on May 27, 1983, and individual apartments began trading that June.
The commercial base survived the conversion, and that is the second thing a buyer needs to understand. Nearly 20,000 square feet of the building's 70,000 remains commercial, on the lower floors, in continued office and medical-office use. Residential unit numbering starts at 5A. A purchaser is buying into a mixed-use condominium with a substantial non-residential component below, sharing a street entrance, a lobby, and building systems with commercial tenancy. That has consequences for elevator traffic, for weekday lobby activity, for how common expenses are allocated between the residential and commercial sections, and for who else has a vote in the condominium's governance.
The third fact is that the tax lot is not landmarked, even though it sits on a block where two buildings are. The Upper East Side Historic District clips this block at the Fifth Avenue and East 60th Street corners — the Metropolitan Club and the Pierre — and stops. Forty East 61st Street is outside it. Exterior alterations, window replacements and façade work here run through the Department of Buildings alone. On the Upper East Side that is unusual and it is worth money, because it removes a layer of cost and delay that neighbors two hundred feet away cannot avoid.
Finally, the apartments themselves reflect their origin. A converted hospital floor plate does not produce Candela proportions. The residences are laid out three to a floor in A, B and C lines, they skew small — one- and two-bedroom layouts predominate — and their virtues are terraces, light from the enlargement's setbacks, and a Lenox Hill address at a price the surrounding prewar cooperative stock does not offer. Buyers looking for a classic seven should look elsewhere. Buyers who want a full-service Upper East Side condominium with outdoor space, no board interview and no historic-district permitting are looking at one of the few buildings in the district that delivers all three.
Architecture and unit composition
The elevation is Art Deco in the restrained commercial idiom of the late 1920s: a fluted two-story limestone base, a canopied and inset two-story entrance with bronze doors, and beige brick above organized into piers and spandrels. The 1980s enlargement reproduced the pier rhythm but changed the spandrel color and the band count, so the composition reads as two related buildings joined rather than as one. Air conditioning is through-wall and discreet. Balconies appear on the eastern side of the setback addition.
Residential floors run from the fifth up. Unit designations follow an A/B/C convention by floor — 5A, 5B, 5C through 17A and 17B — with two penthouse residences at the top. Thirty-six residential unit lots exist in the recorded schedule; the Department of Finance carries every one at building class R4. Several combinations have occurred: ACRIS shows adjoining lots conveyed together in single instruments, which is normal in a building of this vintage and unit size and means the number of physical apartments today may be slightly below the recorded lot count.
The floor count is genuinely unsettled in the public record — PLUTO says 20, the Department of Finance roll says 19, and published architectural records say 21. The likeliest explanation is that the enlargement's mechanical and penthouse levels are counted differently by different agencies. Nothing turns on it for a purchaser, but it is a good illustration of why a single city data source should not be treated as authoritative on this building.
Building operations
Service here is traditional and narrow: a full-time doorman, a live-in superintendent, elevators, and a common laundry. There is no gym, no roof deck and no garage. Washers and dryers are permitted within apartments per management-sourced records, which matters in a building whose original floor plates were not laid out with laundry in mind.
The operating question specific to 40 East 61st Street is the residential–commercial split. With roughly 20,000 square feet of commercial area against 50,000 residential, the allocation of common expenses between the two sections is a material line in the budget, and so is the commercial section's share of capital work on the façade, the roof, the elevators and the mechanical plant. A purchaser should ask the managing agent directly how common charges are apportioned between residential and commercial units, whether the commercial section is current, and what governance rights the commercial unit owner holds under the by-laws. On a converted mixed-use building of this vintage those answers are not boilerplate.
Two further items belong on any diligence list. First, no offering plan for this building was located in either document library at the time of writing, which means the by-laws, house rules, and the residential–commercial allocation formula must come from the managing agent rather than from a document already on file. Second, an amended declaration was recorded in ACRIS in March 2026. Its contents were not reviewed for this profile; a buyer should obtain and read it, because amendments to a declaration can change unit boundaries, common-interest percentages, or the rights of the commercial unit.
Capital posture on a 1927 structure enlarged in the early 1980s deserves specific attention: the Local Law 11 façade cycle on a building with two different wall assemblies is not a routine expense, and the elevator and mechanical systems installed at conversion are now more than forty years old. Request the last two audited financial statements, the reserve balance, the assessment history, and the current façade filing status.
Policy framework
Pets are permitted, per management-sourced and listing records; confirm the specific rules in the current house rules. Pied-à-terre use, LLC and trust purchases, and subletting are permitted under the standard condominium framework, with the board's remedy on a proposed transfer being a right of first refusal rather than an approval. In-unit washers and dryers are permitted, and a common laundry is maintained. Financing terms, any minimum down-payment requirement, and any resale capital contribution are not documented in public records — obtain them from the managing agent at offer stage. There is no tax abatement, and none has ever attached to this building's unit lots.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- Per unit / month range
- —
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
See full Local Law 97 analysis — emissions history, scenarios, methodology →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.
How to read this, and where it comes from
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. City record last verified September 2026.
Recent sales
Forty East 61st Street sells on three arguments: a Lenox Hill address between Madison and Park, condominium ownership rather than cooperative approval, and outdoor space on a meaningful number of residences. It prices below the prewar cooperative stock on the surrounding blocks, and the reasons are legible — smaller apartments, a converted-hospital floor plate, a commercial base, and an amenity package that stops at a doorman and a superintendent.
The buyer pool is correspondingly specific: purchasers who need condominium flexibility (foreign buyers, LLC and trust purchases, pied-à-terre use, investors who intend to lease), and buyers who value a terrace on the Upper East Side more than they value a large formal apartment. Against that pool, the absence of historic-district jurisdiction is a genuine, if quiet, advantage — window and façade work here does not queue behind the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
The building has traded continuously since 1983, so the resale record is deep and the pricing is well established across lines and floors. Terraces, floor level and whether a residence is a combination are the three variables that move value most. Index any market read to the last complete year rather than to the partial current one.
Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
Recent closings at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 10, 2025 | 10C | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,491 sf | $2,940,225 | $1,972/sf | -5.2% |
| Dec 19, 2023 | 13AB | 4 BR · 4 BA · 2,600 sf | $4,000,000 | $1,538/sf | +0.0% |
| Sep 18, 2023 | 10A | 1 BR · 1.5 BA · 1,242 sf | $1,500,000 | $1,208/sf | off-mkt |
| Apr 1, 2023 | 11A | 1 BR · 1.5 BA · 1,240 sf | $1,100,000 | $887/sf | off-mkt |
| Feb 14, 2023 | 11A | 1 BR · 1.5 BA · 1,240 sf | $995,000 | $802/sf | -9.5% |
| Apr 1, 2022 | 11B | 1 BR · 1.5 BA · 947 sf | $1,200,000 | $1,267/sf | -2.0% |
| May 27, 2021 | 8C | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,600 sf | $2,500,000 | $1,563/sf | -5.7% |
| Jun 26, 2019 | PHAB | 4 BR · 3.5 BA · 4,300 sf | $12,600,000 | $2,930/sf | -20.8% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2025) cleared a median $2,136/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 5.8% 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.
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 1-01375-7501) 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.
What to know if you’re buying
Read the residential–commercial allocation before anything else. Roughly a third of the building is commercial. Ask the managing agent how common charges and capital costs are split, and what the commercial unit owner can vote on.
Get the March 2026 amended declaration. A recorded amendment can change unit boundaries or common-interest percentages. It is in ACRIS; read it.
There is no offering plan on file in either library. By-laws, house rules and the policy stack must come from the managing agent. Budget time for that.
Underwrite the façade. Two wall assemblies of different ages, a 1927 base and an early-1980s enlargement, on a building past its fortieth year since conversion. Ask for the current Local Law 11 filing status and the reserve balance behind it.
Do not confuse this building with 44 East 67th Street. Different block, different building, different history — a 1941 Candela apartment house converted in 1988. The two are unrelated.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the terrace, if the residence has one. Outdoor space in Lenox Hill at this price is the scarcest thing the building offers.
Sell the absence of a board interview. Against the prewar cooperatives that dominate the surrounding blocks, condominium ownership with a right of first refusal is a substantive advantage for a large share of the buyer pool, and it should be said plainly.
Have the history ready and get it right. The 1927 Professional Building, the LeRoy Sanitarium, the 1983 conversion and enlargement. It is a genuinely interesting provenance, and the widely circulated "converted 1963" figure is incorrect — correcting it in your materials is worth doing.
Anticipate the commercial-base question. Every serious buyer will ask about the lower floors. Have the allocation answer, not a shrug.
Comparable buildings
- The Carlton House (21 East 61st Street) — the same block frontage, a conversion of a former hotel, at the top of the market
- 167 East 61st Street — the same street, east of Third Avenue; a different price tier at similar unit scale
- 43 East 62nd Street — comparable Lenox Hill side-street ownership one block north
- 118 East 60th Street — a block south; boutique-scale Lenox Hill inventory
- 163 East 60th Street — comparable size and service level in the same submarket
- 200 East 62nd Street — post-war full-service condominium; the amenity-forward alternative
- 205 East 63rd Street — similar unit sizing and buyer pool in Lenox Hill
- 116 East 63rd Street — nearby side-street building for buyers weighing conversion against post-war construction
- 44 East 67th Street — a Candela apartment house converted to condominium in 1988; the closest structural analogue in the district for a prewar-to-condominium conversion, and a different building entirely
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Upper East Side — read The Roebling Team Guide to Upper East Side.
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent.
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