520 East 76th Street (John Jay House)

Feldman's design rises 14 floors in red brick on a mid-block site, with the massing stepped back at the top two floors — the setbacks produce the building's signature penthouse product: angled bay windows, corner dens, and long wraparound terraces documented in the building's floor plans. Below, the 102 apartments run from studios through two-bedrooms, with post-war proportions — long living/dining rooms (some past 30 feet), enclosed windowed kitchens, and defined foyers — and ground-floor lines that open to patios on the garden side. South exposures over the low school buildings carry strong light; upper east-facing lines pick up river views toward the esplanade. Renovation quality varies by line, from estate condition to gut-renovated units marketed with stone baths and reworked kitchens.

Full-service at the essentials: 24-hour doorman, live-in superintendent, central laundry, bike room, and rentable storage, under institutional management (AKAM per city records). The outdoor program is the differentiator — the landscaped backyard with its deck, grill station, and lawn, and the common roof deck above — shared spaces that function as the building's amenity floor. There is no garage and no fitness center; buyers should weigh the outdoor space and service against the amenity stacks of larger post-war peers. Current financial statements, by-laws, and house rules should be obtained through the managing agent during diligence.

Recent sales

Recent transfers at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. 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.

Market read. Most recent trades (2026 to date) cleared a median $877/sf (floor-adjusted) across 2 sales. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 2.4% 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 1-01487-0039). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. 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 policy stack is the headline. Pieds-à-terre, sublets, pets, and 75 percent financing are the reported terms to review for this full-service cooperative, without inferring purchaser demographics or comparative rarity. Verify each policy's current terms with the managing agent; the financing maximum appears as 75 percent in the building's marketing records and 80 percent in some brokerage records.

Walk the block before you decide. The cul-de-sac is the product: John Jay Park's pools and courts across the way, the esplanade at the end of the street, school-day rhythm on the sidewalk. Buyers who need subway-door convenience should price the walk — the Q at Second Avenue–72nd and the crosstown M79 are the practical links, and the FDR is immediate for drivers.

Underwrite the building, not the brochure. As with any post-war co-op of this vintage, the questions are the capital ones — facade cycles, elevators, boiler. Your attorney should review the last two years of financials and board minutes; we request them at offer stage as standard practice.

The penthouse and garden lines are different products. Setback terraces above, patio-and-garden lines below — require separate assessment of outdoor area, access and condition using actual listings and dated sales. If one appears, compare other terraced postwar units and adjust any same-building mid-floor sales for outdoor space, floor, layout and condition.

Prepare the board package to the corridor's standard. Flexible policies do not mean a casual board. Run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator before offering and structure the package accordingly.

Sell the flexibility to the widest pool. Pied-à-terre and sublet permissions materially expand who can buy your apartment — make the policies explicit in the marketing rather than leaving them to buyer-agent diligence. We confirm current terms with management before listing so the marketing claims survive attorney review.

Lead with the outdoor program. The backyard and roof deck are specific outdoor facilities to document accurately, and the John Jay Park adjacency is a named asset — market the block, not just the unit.

Price to the east-of-York comp set. Use dated sales of full-service cooperatives east of Second Avenue and relevant alternatives farther west, adjusting for location, service, exposure, condition and monthly costs rather than assuming either location gives the wrong price. Assess any renovation-related price difference from matched dated sales — run the Renovation Cost Calculator against your asking strategy if your unit is original.

If you're considering 520 East 76th Street, also evaluate:

• Cherokee Apartments (507–523 East 77th Street) — the landmarked 1910–12 garden-court co-op facing John Jay Park; the pre-war alternative on the same park
• 520 East 72nd Street — the riverfront cul-de-sac co-op on the peer block south
• The Edgewater (530 East 72nd Street) — cul-de-sac post-war co-op at the river's edge
• Newport East (370 East 76th Street) — the post-war co-op alternative on the same street, west of York
• 420 East 72nd Street — 1962 full-service co-op at larger scale
• 360 East 72nd Street — 1963 post-war supertower co-op; the big-building alternative
• 333 East 79th Street — 1961 two-building post-war co-op north along the corridor
• 200 East 74th Street — 1962 post-war co-op closer to the Second Avenue Q
• 255 East 77th Street — 2025 new-development condominium; the new-construction alternative at a different price point