944 Fifth Avenue
944 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10075
Lenox Hill, Upper East Side
BBL 1013900003 · BIN 1041683
- Year built
- 1925
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 15
- Floors
- 14
- Landmark
- Designated
- Subletting
- Not permitted — an owner-occupancy building.
Compiled by The Roebling Research Desk from the building’s offering plan, amendments, and related building documents (primary source dated 2026). Board policies can change by amendment — confirm at the offer stage.
Every recorded sale at this building, 1998–2025
Bedroom-by-bedroom medians, the full transfer record, and how units trade against ask.
- 4BR+ median
- $20.3M
- Recent range
- $15M – $24.5M
- Listing discount
- 27.6%
- Recorded transfers
- 18
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944 Fifth Avenue is among the smallest, most architecturally restrained, and most institutionally exclusive cooperatives on the Gold Coast — a 14-story Italian Renaissance palazzo designed by Nathan Korn in 1925 with only 15 apartments. The building's scale places it in the same intimate inventory tier as 820 Fifth (13 apartments) and 998 Fifth (17 apartments), and its institutional culture follows the same posture of selectivity that characterizes the smallest Lenox Hill peers.
The architectural argument is restrained. Korn's Italian Renaissance palazzo execution is dignified rather than dramatic, with a limestone facade that reads as institutional rather than declarative. The building does not announce itself; it relies on the apartments inside and the location to carry its quality. This is the same architectural posture that defines 820 Fifth (a decade later from a different firm) — and that has consistently produced among the most quietly consequential Gold Coast inventory.
The site context is unusual. 944 Fifth sits immediately north of the Edward S. Harkness mansion — a 1908 Hale & Rogers commission for Edward S. Harkness, a founder of Standard Oil, whose family Carnegie-era philanthropy shaped American education, medicine, and public health for the 20th century. The mansion now serves as headquarters of the Commonwealth Fund, one of the country's great philanthropic institutions. The architectural juxtaposition — a 1908 Harkness mansion adjacent to a 1925 Renaissance palazzo apartment building — is among the most institutionally substantial sequences on Fifth Avenue and produces a daily-life context for 944 Fifth's residents that explicitly connects the building to early-20th-century American philanthropic and industrial leadership.
The 1953 cooperative conversion was relatively early in the Fifth Avenue rental-to-co-op transition. 944 Fifth has operated as a cooperative for more than 70 years, with the institutional culture characteristic of the smallest tier-one Gold Coast buildings.
For buyers, 944 Fifth represents a particular position in the Gold Coast canon: architecturally distinguished without being ostentatious, intimately scaled, and contextually anchored by the institutional neighbors that surround it. Inventory turnover is slow — with 15 apartments and multi-decade residency norms, the building can go 12–24 months between transactions.
Architecture and unit composition
The 15 apartments span configurations from approximately 3,500 sf simplexes to substantial 5,500+ sf full-floor configurations and the occasional duplex. The 14-story plan produces a roughly one-apartment-per-floor configuration on most floors, with several floors carrying two apartments.
Korn's Italian Renaissance palazzo signatures throughout: 11–12 foot ceilings in primary rooms, formal entry galleries, library-living-room combinations, primary suites with substantial closet infrastructure, service wings characteristic of 1925-era luxury apartment design.
Park-facing apartments on the western flank have direct Central Park views; the building's positioning at 75th–76th gives upper floors particularly good view envelopes. View permanence is essentially absolute given the Harkness mansion's institutional protection of the immediately south flank and the corridor's general stability.
Building operations
944 Fifth operates as a full-service pre-war cooperative with full-time doorman, attended elevator, on-site superintendent, and private storage. The 15-apartment scale produces an institutional culture characteristic of the smallest tier-one Gold Coast peers — residents and staff know each other across multi-decade tenures.
Specific policy details (financing posture, flip tax structure, sublet specifics, pied-à-terre allowance) should be confirmed directly with property management during due diligence. Tier-one Gold Coast Lenox Hill cooperatives at this scale commonly require 100% cash; confirm whether 944 Fifth carries that requirement.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $13,932/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $83
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).
Penalties shown are amounts DOB assessed against filings on record across 2005–10 to 2025–30. The FISP dataset does not record whether they were paid, contested or remain open, so treat the figure as history rather than a current balance and confirm the building’s standing with the managing agent.
Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
Management & transfer contacts
- Flip tax
- 2% of purchase price
- Sublet policy
- Not allowed
Recent sales
944 Fifth Avenue's 2005–2025 transactional record reflects a small Candela co-op with low turnover — roughly one apartment per floor across 15 floors, transacting at the apex tier of Manhattan pre-war pricing. The largest configuration in the recent record is the high-floor combination that traded in November 2012, a 6BR/6+BA spanning multiple full floors at the building's apex. The building sits in the same trophy tier as 740 Park, 820 Fifth, and 834 Fifth.
The building's modern dataset shows two patterns. First, full-floor stability over long holds. The 5th-floor full-floor (4BR) traded in May 2007 and again in December 2022, with modest nominal appreciation across 15 years on the same apartment, consistent with 944 Fifth's stable institutional pricing. Second, off-market discipline. The March 2023 sale of #9FI was a recorded transfer with no public listing, and the recorded consideration on the November 2024 sale of #8 differed materially from the figure reported in the trade press. Much of the building's actual annual activity transacts off-market through private broker networks at stipulated values.
Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
Recent transfers 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 25, 2025 | 14 | 4 BR · 6.5 BA | $23,000,000 | -33.3% | |
| Nov 5, 2024 | 8 | 4 BR · 4.5 BA · 4,000 sf | $17,549,000 | $4,387/sf | -31.2% |
| Jul 9, 2024 | — | 5 BR · 5.5 BA | $14,999,900 | -11.7% | |
| May 16, 2023 | — | 4 BR · 6 BA | $20,500,000 | -16.3% | |
| May 16, 2023 | 9 | 4 BR · 6 BA | $24,500,000 | +0.0% | |
| Dec 7, 2022 | 5 | 4 BR · 5 BA | $18,000,000 | -5.3% | |
| Mar 2, 2005 | 3 | 4 BR | $10,000,000 | -9.1% | |
| Jul 30, 1998 | 11 | 4 BR · 5,400 sf | $12,500,000 | $2,315/sf | off-mkt |
Market read. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2024): a median $4,387/sf across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2025. Median listing discount 16.3% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
Other recent transfers
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 23, 2004 | 4TH | $12,600,000 |
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 1-01390-0003) 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.
Buying here? Co-op closing costs typically run 2 to 3% of the price. See NYC co-op and condo closing costs, line by line.
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What to know if you’re buying
The 15-apartment scale produces an unusually intimate buying experience. Buyers should expect a board screening process that emphasizes both financial qualification and lifestyle fit. Personal references matter substantially. Foreign buyers face friction characteristic of tier-one Fifth Avenue cooperatives.
Confirm specific policies directly with management. Because 944 Fifth's policy block is not formally published in the manner of comparable buildings, buyers should obtain current information on the flip tax structure, financing posture, and sublet specifics during the contract review process.
The Harkness mansion adjacency is part of the building's context. The 1908 mansion now serves as the Commonwealth Fund headquarters; residents experience the institutional neighborhood as part of their daily-life signature.
Renovation is constrained by historic district status and pre-war character. The board reviews scope and quality with attention to preservation of Korn's Italian Renaissance detailing.
View permanence is excellent. Central Park west; the Harkness mansion to the immediate south provides institutional view protection; the corridor's broader development envelope is built out.
Inventory rarity is real. With only 15 apartments and slow turnover, prospective buyers should be prepared for a multi-year search or for the rare opportunistic acquisition when inventory becomes available.
What to know if you’re selling
The buyer pool is narrow but qualified. With 15 apartments and tier-one Gold Coast positioning, the buyer cohort is small, financially substantial, and accessible primarily through private broker networks.
Marketing is typically private. Most 944 Fifth transactions occur with limited or no public marketing.
Pricing requires apartment-level context. Comparable sales are sparse; the building's heterogeneity (one-per-floor vs. two-per-floor inventory, view and exposure variation, renovation history) means apartment-specific comparables matter more than building-level averages.
Closing timelines are co-op standard but the package work is substantial. 6–10 weeks from contract signing to closing, with rigorous board package preparation.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 944 Fifth Avenue, also evaluate:
- 820 Fifth Avenue — Starrett & Van Vleck 1916; 13 apartments; cash-only; comparable institutional scale
- 834 Fifth Avenue — Candela 1931; 24 apartments; tier-one Gold Coast
- 845 Fifth Avenue — James E. R. Carpenter 1920; 16 apartments; comparable scale and posture
- 875 Fifth Avenue — Emery Roth 1941 Moderne; broader amenity package
- 907 Fifth Avenue — James E. R. Carpenter 1916; permits financing
- 998 Fifth Avenue — McKim, Mead & White 1912; the original Fifth Avenue tier-one
- 1040 Fifth Avenue — Candela 1930; Jackie Kennedy's building
More Fifth Avenue buildings
- 927 Fifth Avenue — 1917 co-op by Warren & Wetmore
- 930 Fifth Avenue — 1940 co-op by Emery Roth
- 936 Fifth Avenue — 1955 co-op
- 950 Fifth Avenue — 1926 co-op by J.E.R. Carpenter
- 953 Fifth Avenue — 1925 co-op
- 955 Fifth Avenue — 1938 co-op by Rosario Candela
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, transit, and pricing across Fifth Avenue — read The Roebling Team Guide to Fifth Avenue.
The full playbook — what goes in the package, how boards read your financials, the interview, and the timeline — plus sample cover, reference, and personal letters you can adapt.
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. Where this page compares one building or neighborhood to another, that is our analysis of the recorded record — it names the measure, the period and the sample it rests on, and it is an observation about medians rather than a prediction about any particular apartment.
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