701 Madison Avenue (The Leonori)

Thirteen stories on a corner lot of about 8,384 square feet, roughly 83 feet on East 63rd Street by 100 feet deep, carrying some 65,689 square feet of building area — about 53,011 residential and 12,658 retail. The lot is built to a floor-area ratio of 7.84 against a permitted residential ratio of 10.0 in the C5-1 district; the unused capacity is theoretical rather than practical, because the building is a designated contributing structure in a historic district and a substantial vertical enlargement is not a realistic outcome.

The elevation is Beaux-Arts, with a three-story rusticated limestone base carrying the shaft above and a canopied entrance under a marquee on East 63rd Street. DOB records a 2008 restoration of that marquee at the lobby entrance. PLUTO records a significant alteration in 1939, and further work in 2000 added a penthouse and combined it with an apartment on the top floor under a new certificate of occupancy — the origin of the duplex penthouse at the crown.

Apartment lines run A through F on most floors. The A and F lines are the larger two-bedroom homes, several with balconies; the C lines sit in the 700-to-750-square-foot one-bedroom range; the D and E lines are the studios, some as small as roughly 260 to 350 square feet, which are the direct residue of the apartment-hotel plan. Renovation and combination filings run continuously from 2000 to the present — apartments 10A and 10B combined in 2006, 12B, 12C and 12D combined in 2005, individual gut renovations on the fourth, fifth, seventh, ninth, tenth and eleventh floors — so condition and layout vary substantially line to line and floor to floor.

A full pre-war condominium of moderate scale with an elevator core, a doormanned lobby entrance on East 63rd Street and an outside managing agent. The lobby was renovated in 2015 under filings that included new split-system HVAC at the lobby and first floor and associated structural work; published accounts describe that program alongside elevator replacement. Fire-alarm, smoke-detection and sprinkler systems were modernized in a 2014 campaign, and a first-floor opening was created to connect a stair to the lobby that year.

Façade maintenance is the recurring capital theme, as it is for any thirteen-story masonry building over the Local Law 11 threshold. Sidewalk sheds went up for façade restoration in 2002 and 2004, a full façade restoration was filed in 2004, and masonry and metal railing repairs were filed in 2017. The offering plan on file notes that the city's periodic façade inspection law applied to the building at the time of conversion, so the cycle has been running for more than forty years. Ask where the building sits in the current cycle and what the last report concluded.

Rooftop telecommunications is a live operational item here and worth a buyer's attention. DOB records rooftop antenna installations and modifications in 2001, 2006, 2010 and 2016, with associated equipment rooms in the basement. Habitat Magazine reported in 2012 that the condominium's board had brought suit in connection with a rooftop cellular installation. Rooftop licenses can be a meaningful revenue line for a building of this size and they can also generate disputes; ask the managing agent for the current status of any rooftop agreements and any related litigation.

The condominium by-laws and house rules are not published, and this profile will not guess at them. As a condominium, there is no co-op board admission; purchases run through the condominium's application and right-of-first-refusal process. Whether trust or entity ownership, foreign purchasers and pied-à-terre use are permitted is set by the declaration and by-laws and should be confirmed, as are the specific rules on subletting, pets, alterations, move-in deposits and any transfer fee. Request the by-laws, the current house rules, the two most recent audited financial statements, the current budget, the reserve position, any assessment schedule, and the count of unsold and rent-regulated units from the managing agent at offer stage.

Recent sales

Recent closings 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 (2025) cleared a median $2,148/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. 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 6.3% 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 1-01377-7502; each condominium apartment is its own tax lot). 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.

Know which tier of apartment you are buying. Studios of 300 square feet and two-bedrooms of 1,450 square feet are in the same condominium and on the same floors. Compare similar layouts and verified areas, using the same line where suitable and adjusting other comparable homes for relevant differences.

Condominium tenure is the product. There is no co-op board admission; purchases run through the condominium's application and right-of-first-refusal process. Confirm trust, entity, pied-à-terre and non-resident ownership rules in the current declaration, bylaws and house rules.

Ask for the count of unsold and regulated units. The 1983 plan was non-eviction. Whatever remains of that legacy affects reserves, voting and the resale pool, ; establish current holdings from the available public records, plan amendments and management's current roster.

There is no abatement to burn off. No J-51, no 421-a. Model the tax line at full assessment.

Ask about the rooftop. Antenna licenses have been in place since at least 2001 and have generated at least one reported dispute. Get the current agreements and the current litigation posture.

The landmark answer is yes, verified by lot. Windows, façade and storefront work require LPC review. Factor the review timeline into any renovation plan that touches the exterior.

Lead with the tenure and the corner. A pre-war Beaux-Arts condominium at Madison and 63rd, one block from Central Park, is a narrow and defensible category. Buyers rejected by co-op boards in this corridor come here.

Get the conversion date right. The plan was declared effective March 29, 1983, not 1985. The document is on file and the correction is worth making, because it makes the building one of the earliest pre-war condominium conversions in the city rather than one of many.

Document the capital record. The 2015 lobby and elevator program, the 2014 life-safety modernization and the façade cycle all survive attorney diligence better when presented than when discovered.

Price the line, not the building. Sellers of the larger A and F lines should market against pre-war two-bedrooms, not against the building's own studio pricing.

If you're considering 701 Madison Avenue, also evaluate:

• 760 Madison Avenue — Madison Avenue condominium a few blocks north; the closest tenure-and-avenue comparison
• 817 Fifth Avenue — George B. Post & Sons, 1924–25, on the same tax block at the Fifth Avenue end; a pre-war comparison; confirm its ownership structure in the governing documents
• 17 East 63rd Street — East 63rd Street building one block west across Madison; a separate block and a separate tenure
• 4 East 62nd Street — pre-war building one block south on its own block
• 570 Park Avenue — Emery Roth, 1915–16, on the same tax block at the Park Avenue end; the pre-war Park Avenue cooperative alternative
• 43 East 62nd Street — East 62nd Street building on the same block
• 810 Fifth Avenue — J. E. R. Carpenter, 1925–26, on the same block; the Fifth Avenue trophy cooperative tier
• 812 Fifth Avenue — post-war Fifth Avenue building on the same block
• 737 Park Avenue — pre-war Park Avenue building converted to condominium; the closest analogue in tenure conversion at larger scale
• 20 East 68th Street — Upper East Side building a few blocks north