- Year built
- 1929
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 31
- Floors
- 17
- Landmark
- Designated
- Pets
- Limited; confirm specifics with management
- Subletting
- Highly restrictive; effectively no-sublet for most purposes
- Financing
- Restrictive — confirm specifics with managing agent (the building has historically prohibited mortgage financing on most transactions; current policy may vary by apartment configuration)
- Flip tax
- Confirm at offer stage (historically 3%, buyer-paid)
740 Park Avenue is the cooperative apartment building most consistently identified, by both real estate professionals and the broader cultural register, as the single most consequential luxury residential address in the United States. Completed in 1929–1930 at the southwest corner of East 71st Street and Park Avenue, the 17-story limestone-and-brick cooperative was designed by Rosario Candela — then in the peak years of his prewar Manhattan luxury practice — in association with Arthur Loomis Harmon, a partner in the firm (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon) that two years later would design the Empire State Building. The building's combination of architectural pedigree, the specific quality of its floor plates and unit configurations, the institutional character of its cooperative board, and the depth and continuity of its resident roster across nearly a century has made 740 Park the structural reference point for the upper limits of the Manhattan cooperative tradition.
Development history. 740 Park was developed by real-estate operator James T. Lee — the same developer behind 998 Fifth Avenue (1912) — who persuaded the existing mansion owners on the site to give up their houses for apartments. Ground broken March 1929, completed October 1930. The New York Times described 740 Park at completion as "literally twelve mansions built one on top of another." The building was the subject of Michael Gross's 2005 book 740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building, which traced the apartment-by-apartment ownership history of the building from its 1930 opening through the early twenty-first century.
Resident history. The building's resident history across nearly a century has included representation from each generation of the American institutional finance, industrial, philanthropic, and political leadership class. John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Greene Aldrich moved into the building soon after its 1930 completion, occupying the 35-room triplex on the 14th–16th floors and rooftop that remains the building's largest apartment. Original founding-era residents also included George Stephenson Brewster, James Watson Webb, Langdon K. Thorne, and Janet and John Vernou Bouvier III — the parents of Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (later Kennedy Onassis) — who occupied an apartment in the building during Jacqueline's childhood. The Rockefeller triplex was sold by the Rockefeller family in 1948; its subsequent ownership history has included John W. Galbreath and, since 2000, Stephen A. Schwarzman (Blackstone), who reportedly acquired the apartment for approximately $30 million in a transaction widely covered at the time as among the most significant residential purchases in Manhattan history.
The building's twenty-first-century roster has been substantially documented in public records and the real estate press. David H. Koch (Koch Industries) occupied an apartment in the building until his death in 2019. Henry R. Kravis (KKR), Steven Mnuchin (whose initial application was famously rejected before a subsequent application was approved), John A. Thain (formerly of Merrill Lynch and CIT), and Christopher Forbes (Forbes Media) have all been resident at the building. The roster's coherence — institutional finance, industrial, and philanthropic principals across multiple generations — is the structural feature that distinguishes 740 Park from any other Manhattan cooperative.
What makes 740 Park structurally different from other Park Avenue tier-one buildings is the rigor and selectivity of its board. The building approves a small number of new shareholders per decade. Buyers who become residents are vetted across financial, professional, and cultural dimensions to a degree that exceeds most other Manhattan co-ops. The result is a residence that operates more like a private institution than a typical real estate transaction.
Architecture and unit composition
The Candela-and-Harmon design produced one of the most architecturally significant residential buildings of the late-1920s Manhattan luxury cycle. The 17-story limestone-and-brick exterior — with its restrained classicizing detailing, deeply set windows, terracing setbacks at the upper floors, and the substantial corner massing that anchors the building's presence at 71st and Park — exemplifies the prewar Manhattan luxury idiom at architectural maturity.
The interior architectural program is calibrated to Candela's signature prewar floor-plate vocabulary. The building was constructed with 31 cooperative apartments — extraordinarily large for a Manhattan apartment building of any era — distributed across the 17 floors in configurations ranging from full-floor apartments to multi-level duplexes and triplexes. The original ceiling heights, room scale, library-and-dining-room separation, primary bedroom suite configurations, and architectural circulation patterns are recognizable across the inventory and have been substantially preserved through nearly a century of renovation and combination.
Apartments at 740 Park are large by any measure — most are full-floor or multi-floor configurations exceeding 4,000 square feet, with several substantial duplexes and triplexes. Some apartments span 8,000+ square feet. Pre-war Candela signatures throughout: 12–14 foot ceilings in primary rooms, formal entry galleries with grand proportions, library-living combinations, primary suites with substantial walk-in closets and dressing areas, kitchens originally configured for staffed service. Many original elements (mantelpieces, hardware, wood paneling) have been retained in apartments that have undergone careful renovation.
Across the 31 apartments, unit configurations are heterogeneous — Candela's original floor plans have been modified through combinations and renovations over the decades — and pricing on the individual apartment line requires substantive apartment-specific analysis. The corridor's general logic (high-floor southerly and easterly exposures over the Park Avenue median commanding the highest premiums) applies to 740 Park as it does to the rest of the corridor.
Building operations
740 Park Avenue operates as a full-service cooperative with the institutional amenity package consistent with its architectural and cooperative tier — 24-hour doorman, concierge, full-time superintendent, white-glove service profile, full operational support for the resident population. Property management is handled by Residential Management.
The building's cooperative board culture is, by Park Avenue standards, on the most selective and substantively engaged end of the spectrum. The board's evaluative criteria are calibrated to the building's institutional position — substantial post-closing liquidity requirements, low debt-to-income ratios, primary-residence intent, demonstrated character fit with the building's culture, and the kind of professional and personal profile that aligns with the building's existing shareholder base. Reports of rejected applications — including the widely reported initial rejection of Steven Mnuchin's purchase prior to his eventual approval — have made 740 Park the structural reference point for the upper limits of cooperative board selectivity in Manhattan.
Building policies on financing percentages, subletting, pied-à-terre use, alteration agreements, and pet permissions are calibrated to the cooperative's institutional culture and should be confirmed directly with the managing agent during due diligence. The building's financial profile — the underlying mortgage structure, the reserve position, recent assessment history, and the building's Local Law 97 planning — should be examined at the application stage; the building's financial statements are made available to prospective applicants through standard cooperative practice.
The building's mechanical systems are well-maintained. Underlying mortgage and reserves are calibrated to the building's longstanding institutional posture — emphasis on stability over capital efficiency.
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.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 9, 2026 | 4/5D (duplex) | 5 BR · 5 BA · 7,500 sf · Park Avenue exposure · Three wood-burning fireplaces, private elevator vestibule, marble staircase Buyer: Ken Griffin (Citadel). Off-market $38M sale recorded April 2026. Seller's 2019 acquisition basis was $20.5M for the same configuration — the trade is the second in two consecutive years where Griffin acquired an adjacent duplex line in the building. | $38,000,000 | $5,067/sf | off-mkt |
| Jul 25, 2025 | 6/7C | 5 BR · 5+ BA Closed July 17, 2025 at $14.99M — full asking price. Duplex configuration spanning floors 6 and 7. A clean ask-to-close ratio on tier-one Park Avenue duplex inventory — the rare 740 Park comp that didn't require negotiation. | $14,990,000 | +0.0% | |
| Feb 18, 2025 | 4/5B (duplex, 18 rooms) | 5 BR · 6.5 BA · 8,500 sf · Park Avenue exposure Buyer: Ken Griffin (Citadel). Closed at $45M — 6.3% under the $48M last asking. Seller: Julia Koch, who acquired with David Koch in 2004 for approximately $17M — one of the largest long-hold gains in the building's recorded history. Among Manhattan's 16 highest-priced co-op sales ever recorded. | $45,000,000 | $5,294/sf | -6.3% |
| Dec 20, 2023 | PH17/18D | 3 BR · 3.5 BA Closed Dec 20, 2023 at $25M. Penthouse duplex configuration. The ACRIS deed for #17PHD recorded at $28M four days earlier (Dec 18) — both figures represent the closing wave but $25M is the public listing data-recorded contract amount on the 17/18D duplex. | $25,000,000 | off-mkt | |
| Jan 8, 2024 | Penthouse | 3 BR · 3.5 BA · Park Avenue penthouse Closed January 2024 at $28M. Seller: John Thain, the former Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs executive. Originally listed at $39.5M in 2018 — illustrative of how Gold Coast trophy inventory absorbs concession when initially overpriced relative to the cooperative's narrow active-buyer pool. | $28,000,000 | -18.8% | |
| Oct 19, 2023 | 10/11C | 5 BR · 5+ BA Closed October 12, 2023 at $17M — 28.42% under the $23.75M asking price. Among the largest absolute-dollar discounts in 740 Park's modern dataset. A canonical data point for how meaningfully tier-one Park Avenue trophy inventory negotiates on extended-market listings. | $17,000,000 | -28.4% | |
| Oct 25, 2022 | 2/3C | 5 BR · 6.5 BA · 5,590 sf Closed October 21, 2022 at $12.5M — 10.07% under the $13.9M asking price. Lower-floor duplex configuration. | $12,500,000 | $2,236/sf | -10.1% |
| Sep 9, 2021 | 8/9A | 5 BR · 6.5 BA | $22,500,000 | -12.6% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $5,067/sf across 1 sale. Sales close on average -14.3% below 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.
Other recent transfers
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 17, 2017 | STE B | $2,500,000 |
| May 18, 2012 | SR5 6 | $1,109,154 |
| Nov 23, 2011 | 17B | $27,000,000 |
| Feb 6, 2008 | 4-5A | $32,000,000 |
| Oct 30, 2007 | 10B11 | $23,100,000 |
| Jun 16, 2006 | PHD | $27,500,000 |
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 1-01386-0033) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
The architectural and cultural pedigree is the structural feature. The Candela-and-Harmon design, the resident-roster continuity, the corridor's most-recognized cooperative address, and the institutional character of the building together constitute the building's structural premium over the rest of the corridor.
The cooperative culture is institutional and selective. Buyers should expect a substantive board review process: comprehensive financial package, substantial post-closing liquidity requirements, low debt-to-income ratios, primary-residence intent, and the kind of professional and personal profile that aligns with the building's existing shareholder base. Application preparation is a substantive project; the Roebling Team approach is to calibrate the package and the application strategy to the building's specific cooperative culture before submission.
The board approval process is the building. Approaching 740 Park as a real estate transaction misses the structural reality: you are applying for membership in an institution that has been deliberately curated for nearly a century. Successful applicants typically demonstrate substantial wealth, professional accomplishment, philanthropic commitment, and behavioral discretion. Personal references matter enormously. The interview is rigorous. Approval is not the default outcome, and many qualified-on-paper buyers are not approved.
The apartment inventory is heterogeneous. Combinations and renovations have produced significant unit-to-unit variation; pricing requires apartment-specific comparable analysis. Floor, exposure, view (particularly southerly and easterly views over the Park Avenue median), apartment configuration, and condition all materially affect pricing.
Financing rules are restrictive. The building's permitted financing percentage is on the restrictive end of the Manhattan cooperative range; historically the building has prohibited mortgage financing on most transactions, requiring all-cash purchases. Buyers should confirm the specific current policy with the managing agent before structuring the offer.
Subletting and pied-à-terre policies are restrictive. The building operates as a community of resident shareholders; buyers whose use case is not aligned with primary-residence intent should consider alternative buildings.
Foreign buyers face substantial friction. The board has historically preferred U.S.-based primary residents with established American institutional connections. Foreign buyers — even highly accomplished ones — face additional scrutiny and a lower base rate of approval.
Renovation is constrained both by historic district status and by institutional culture. Substantial renovation is feasible but requires careful architectural work that respects the building's character. Modern overhauls that erase pre-war detail are not approved. Buyers planning renovation should understand the cultural expectation: apartment improvements should reinforce the building's character, not modernize it.
Confirm specifics directly with management. Pet policy, alteration-agreement scope, working-capital contribution, flip-tax structure, and recent capital-assessment history should all be confirmed against the offering plan and current board policies during due diligence.
What to know if you’re selling
Marketing is private. Most 740 Park transactions occur with limited or no public marketing. Sellers typically work through private broker networks, with apartments shown only to vetted prospective buyers. Public listing via REBNY syndication or Compass typically signals either a longer hold or a particular seller circumstance.
Marketing should emphasize the architectural and resident-history pedigree. Candela-and-Harmon 1929–1930, the corridor's most-recognized address, the institutional cooperative tradition, and the building's documented residential continuity. Apartment-specific marketing should foreground the floor, exposure, view, configuration, and condition that distinguish the unit within the building's inventory.
The buyer pool is narrow but durable. 740 Park's buyer pool is the institutional finance, industrial, and philanthropic leadership class — perhaps a few dozen plausibly approvable buyers actively in market in any given year. Marketing should reach that pool through targeted channels rather than through general residential listing distribution.
Pricing requires apartment-level comparable analysis. The unit-to-unit variation is substantial; recent comparables on the specific apartment line, exposure, and configuration should anchor the marketing approach. Press coverage of recent transactions provides public anchoring; ACRIS records provide the documentary basis. The building's small unit count means historical sales data is relatively sparse, and broker familiarity with the building, the buyer pool, and the off-market activity that doesn't appear in the building is architecturally consequential.
Board approvability is the second pricing dimension. A buyer at price A who will not clear the board is, from the seller's economic perspective, a buyer at price zero. Marketing should calibrate the buyer evaluation in tandem with the price discussion to avoid extended marketing time on offers that cannot close.
Closing timelines are cooperative-standard but the package is heavier. Plan for 6–10 weeks from contract signing to closing, with substantial board package preparation and a board interview that is unusually consequential. The substantive board review at this building potentially extends the upper end of the typical timeline.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 740 Park Avenue, also evaluate:
- 998 Fifth Avenue — pre-war landmark on Fifth, McKim Mead & White, similar tier (and the earlier James T. Lee development that established the Fifth-vs-Park luxury-apartment template)
- 1040 Fifth Avenue — Candela design on Fifth, comparable prestige
- 820 Fifth Avenue — pre-war landmark, smaller and very selective
- 834 Fifth Avenue — Candela, tier-one Gold Coast
- 1107 Fifth Avenue — historic Marjorie Merriweather Post triplex anchor
- 1185 Park Avenue — full-block Park Avenue building, comparable scale and Park Avenue prestige
- The Beresford (211 CPW) — west-side equivalent in prestige; very different cultural register
- The Dakota (1 W 72nd) — west-side equivalent in cultural significance; also very different register
The Roebling Team at 740 Park Avenue
The Roebling Team at Compass works the Park Avenue corridor as the structural core of our Manhattan luxury practice. We publish this building profile because 740 Park buyers and sellers deserve building-specific intelligence — architectural attribution, cooperative culture context, resident-history calibration, and apartment-line comparable analysis — not generic Park Avenue commentary.
If you're considering a purchase or sale at 740 Park Avenue, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point. We'll bring the full context this page provides plus the transactional specifics your situation requires — financial structuring, board approvability assessment, comparable analysis at the apartment line, and the pacing strategy that fits your timeline.
Corey Cohen · The Roebling Team at Compass 646.939.7375 · c.cohen@compass.com
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $21,066/yr
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $233,688/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $53 – $590