995 Fifth Avenue (The Stanhope)

Candela's envelope is quieter than his Park Avenue trophies — a 17-story brick shaft with restrained Georgian detail — but the position does the talking: west exposures face the Met and Central Park across the avenue, with light over the museum's roofline and the park beyond, depending on floor. The conversion plan distributes roughly two residences per floor through the midsection, full-floor scale at the top of the building (listing records describe the 16th-floor residence, occupying the former ballroom level, at roughly 8,360 square feet), a duplex penthouse with landscaped terraces, and the studio band on the lower floors — former staff and hotel rooms that now serve as the building's entry price point and as staff or guest quarters for larger units. Interiors retained pre-war signatures — herringbone floors, working fireplaces in select units — over rebuilt mechanicals.

Full-service at the trophy standard: 24-hour doorman and concierge, live-in resident manager, the La Palestra-designed fitness and spa facility with treatment rooms, library and billiards room, breakfast lounge, backup generator, and bicycle and stroller storage. The managing agent of record at the date of the financial statements on file is named in those statements. The corporation carries no underlying mortgage per those statements; ground rent and real estate taxes are the dominant expense lines, which is the correct lens for evaluating maintenance levels here. The audited financial statements are on file in The Roebling Research Library and available to clients 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 $2,405/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 7.3% 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 1-01492-0069). 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.

• Charlie Parker — the jazz saxophonist died in the Stanhope Hotel in March 1955, in the suite of the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter; the event is among the most documented in jazz history
• Daphne Guinness — the artist and Guinness heiress; her residency at the building was widely covered, including a 2012 neighbor dispute over an overflowed bath reported by the New York Post and other outlets
• Claude Wasserstein — former wife of financier Bruce Wasserstein; her penthouse listing was covered by the trade press in 2010

The flexibility is the headline — verify its current terms. Condo-style purchase mechanics in a Candela building opposite the Met is a proposition the surrounding co-ops structurally cannot match: pied-à-terre use, LLC and trust ownership, and a materially lighter approval posture per listing records. Confirm the current by-laws and approval process with the managing agent rather than relying on market shorthand.

Underwrite the ground lease like the asset it is. The lease runs to 2154 per the audited statements on file — long enough that financing and resale function normally — but the rent steps are real (the 2043 step is already scheduled) and they flow through maintenance. Your attorney should review the lease terms and the offering plan's escalation formula; we provide the financial statements from the Research Library as the starting point.

Maintenance reflects ground rent plus taxes, not debt. There is no underlying mortgage per the statements on file. Compare carrying costs against fee-simple buildings on that basis — run the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator on the specific unit before judging the monthly number.

Know which building you're buying within the building. The studio band, the mid-floor residences, and the full-floor/penthouse tier are three different markets with different buyer pools and different $/sf. Price the line, not the address.

Plan for the fee stack. The 2 percent transfer fee to the corporation is documented in the audited statements on file; listing records describe it as purchaser-paid. Confirm allocation and any additional fees at offer stage, and run the Mansion Tax Calculator — nearly every trade here crosses multiple thresholds.

Sell the scarcity with precision. Candela, the Met-front corner, the 2154 lease horizon, and condo-style mechanics in a co-op corridor — these are verifiable structural facts, and the buyer pool for them is international. The marketing should make the ground-lease case affirmatively rather than waiting for buyer's counsel to raise it.

Pre-package the diligence. Ground-lease buildings lose deals in the document phase. We put the financial statements, the lease schedule, and the fee structure in front of serious buyers' attorneys early; transactions here close on preparation.

Anchor to same-line and conversion-peer history. Assess how closely each sale matches the studio, mid-floor or ballroom-floor residence under consideration. Same-line history and conversion peers such as 1049 Fifth can be useful, but consider other relevant apartments with adjustments for measured area, layout, lease terms and carrying costs.

If you're considering 995 Fifth Avenue, also evaluate:

• 1049 Fifth Avenue — the other Museum Mile hotel-to-residence conversion; the most direct conceptual peer, with condominium rather than condop mechanics
• 998 Fifth Avenue — McKim, Mead & White's landmark co-op directly across 81st Street; the white-glove co-op alternative at the same corner
• 1001 Fifth Avenue — the Philip Johnson-fronted residential building one block north; confirm its ownership and land-tenure structure
• 1009 Fifth Avenue — landmarked pre-war opposite the Met
• 990 Fifth Avenue — boutique pre-war co-op neighbor to the south
• 980 Fifth Avenue — the full-service post-war alternative two blocks south
• The Pierre — grand-hotel residential living further down the avenue; the hotel-service alternative
• The Plaza — the city's benchmark hotel-to-residence conversion; the comparison buyers inevitably make