- Year built
- 1920
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 16
- Floors
- 12
- Landmark
- Designated
- Pets
- Confirm directly with management
- Subletting
- Restrictive
845 Fifth Avenue is one of James E. R. Carpenter's most architecturally restrained and most consistently celebrated Fifth Avenue commissions. Built in 1920 as a 12-story limestone-clad cooperative, the building exemplifies Carpenter's late 1910s and early 1920s posture: an unremarkable exterior wrapping apartments of genuinely substantial scale and detail. The architectural argument is that the building should not announce itself — that the apartments, not the facade, should carry the building's quality.
The result has been one of the most quietly consequential addresses in the Gold Coast. 845 Fifth has 16 apartments across 12 floors — meaning most floors carry a single full-floor configuration. The apartments are large, with multiple fireplaces, formal entry galleries that organize the floor plate, and pre-war architectural detail (paneling, plaster work, marble) that has been preserved across the building's century of occupancy.
The building's resident roster across that century has included a remarkable cross-section of American finance and industry. Late Wall Street legend Alan "Ace" Greenberg, the longtime chairman of Bear Stearns, owned an apartment at 845 Fifth. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's longtime New York residence was at 845 Fifth; in 2022, following Allen's death, Julia Koch (widow of David Koch) acquired the apartment for $101 million — among the largest co-op transactions in New York City history and a transaction that anchored the building's pricing in post-pandemic recovery. In early 2026, the socialite Shafi Roepers sold her third-floor unit for $28 million. A full-floor apartment associated with Greenberg was listed at $30 million in 2025.
The transaction record makes 845 Fifth among the highest per-square-foot trading cooperatives in Manhattan — and one of the few addresses where multiple eight-and-nine-figure transactions have occurred within a compressed window. For buyers, this signals both the building's continued status at the apex of the Lenox Hill market and the meaningful sponsor liquidity in the inventory.
What structurally differentiates 845 Fifth from neighboring tier-one Lenox Hill peers (820 Fifth, 834 Fifth, 875 Fifth) is the unusually consistent full-floor configuration combined with the small total inventory. Where 820 Fifth has 13 apartments and 998 Fifth has 17, 845 Fifth's 16 apartments occupy a similarly intimate institutional culture — but in a building organized around Carpenter's specific architectural premise rather than Starrett & Van Vleck's, Roth's, or McKim Mead & White's.
Architecture and unit composition
The 16 apartments at 845 Fifth are predominantly full-floor configurations, with floor-plate sizes producing apartments in the 4,500–7,500 sf range depending on the specific floor and the renovation history. Pre-war architectural signatures throughout: 11–12 foot ceilings in primary rooms, formal entry galleries running the depth of the apartment, multiple fireplaces (the building's distinguishing interior feature), library-living combinations, primary suites with extensive closet and dressing infrastructure, and service wings.
Park-facing apartments on the eastern flank have direct Central Park views with stable view envelope. The building's positioning between East 66th and East 67th Streets places it at the heart of the most expensive stretch of the Gold Coast.
Apartment-by-apartment heterogeneity is meaningful — combinations, renovations, and individual stewardship have produced apartments with substantially different layouts and finish conditions across the building's century.
Building operations
845 Fifth operates as a full-service pre-war cooperative. The building's small unit count (16) produces institutional culture characteristic of the most intimate tier-one Gold Coast co-ops — residents and staff know each other across multi-decade tenures, and the building's daily-life signature is unusually quiet for Manhattan.
Specific policy details (financing cap or prohibition, flip tax structure, sublet policy specifics) are not formally published in the manner of comparable buildings. Buyers should obtain current information directly from property management during due diligence and review the proprietary lease and house rules.
Recent sales
Last 5–10 closed sales at 845 Fifth Avenue (replace this section with current ACRIS data — pull at publication time and refresh quarterly):
[Recent sales table to be populated from ACRIS]
Sales context at 845 Fifth (from public reporting and ACRIS):
- 2022: Julia Koch acquired Paul Allen's longtime New York apartment for approximately $101 million — among the largest co-op transactions in NYC history.
- 2026 Q1: Socialite Shafi Roepers sold her third-floor unit for $28 million.
- 2025: A full-floor apartment associated with the Greenberg family was listed at $30 million.
- 2015: A 4 East 66th Street penthouse-tier apartment hit the market at $65 million (covered by The Real Deal).
Sales velocity at 845 Fifth is slow but transactional pricing is among the highest per-square-foot in Manhattan cooperative inventory. Transactions typically occur with a mix of private network and public listing exposure, with the most consequential trades closing through private channels.
What to know if you’re buying
Pricing reflects the building's transactional history. The $101M Koch acquisition reset the upper end of expectations for full-floor apartments at 845 Fifth. Comparable analysis should account for the building's recent eight-and-nine-figure trades.
Board approval follows tier-one Lenox Hill norms. Strong financial profile, professional accomplishment, primary-residence intent, and personal references matter. Foreign buyers face friction characteristic of tier-one Fifth Avenue co-ops.
Confirm specific policies directly with management. Because the building's policy block is not formally published in the manner of comparable buildings, buyers should obtain current information on the flip tax structure (payor and percentage), financing posture (cash-only requirement or not, financing cap if any), and sublet policy specifics during the contract review process. Tier-one Lenox Hill cooperatives commonly require 100% cash purchases — confirm whether 845 Fifth carries this requirement.
Renovation is constrained by historic district status and institutional culture. Substantive renovation is feasible but must respect the building's pre-war character. The board reviews scope and quality with attention to the preservation of original detail.
View permanence is exceptional. Central Park east; the corridor is built out.
The full-floor configuration is the apartment. Buyers should understand they are acquiring an entire floor plate, with elevator-vestibule access and the privacy that comes with single-apartment-per-floor configuration.
What to know if you’re selling
The buyer pool is narrow but qualified. With 16 apartments and recent $28M–$101M transactions, the buyer cohort is small, financially substantial, and accessible primarily through private broker networks supplemented by selective public listing exposure.
Marketing requires apartment-level positioning. Each apartment is essentially unique; pricing and marketing should reflect the specific floor, view, configuration, and renovation history rather than building-level averages.
Public listing is the exception, not the rule. Most 845 Fifth transactions are negotiated through private network channels with limited public exposure. The Koch–Allen estate transaction was effectively a private matter; the 2026 Roepers transaction was similarly handled.
Closing timelines are co-op standard. 6–10 weeks from contract signing to closing, with substantial board package work.
The Roebling Team at 845 Fifth
The Roebling Team at Compass specializes in Central Park West, the Upper East Side, and the broader Park-facing Manhattan market. We publish this building profile because Gold Coast buyers and sellers deserve building-specific intelligence — architecture, board culture, transactional mechanics, and the realities of pricing at the apartment level — not generic market commentary.
If you're considering a purchase or sale at 845 Fifth, 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, comparable analysis at the apartment level, and the pacing strategy that fits your timeline.