998 Fifth Avenue
998 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028
Upper East Side
BBL 1014930001 · BIN 1046660
- Year built
- 1910
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 17
- Floors
- 12
- Landmark
- Designated
- Subletting
- Highly restrictive
- Financing
- Not permitted — 100% cash purchases only
- Flip tax
- 2% of the sale price, paid by the seller.
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, 2006–2025
Bedroom-by-bedroom medians, the full transfer record, and how units trade against ask.
- Recent range
- $37.5M – $37.5M
- Listing discount
- 17.5%
- Recorded transfers
- 14
998 Fifth Avenue is the building that proved wealthy New Yorkers would live in apartments. When McKim, Mead & White completed it in 1912, the conventional wisdom held that families of substantial means belonged in single-family Fifth Avenue townhouses — not in shared buildings, which were associated with middle-class tenements and rental hotels. James T. Lee (Jackie Kennedy's grandfather, who would later develop 740 Park Avenue) wagered against that convention. He commissioned McKim, Mead & White — the most prestigious American architectural firm of the era — to design an apartment house that would feel as substantial as the townhouses it would compete with.
The wager succeeded. Elihu Root — former Secretary of State, Secretary of War, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate — was Lee's first tenant, and his decision to leave his Park Avenue townhouse for an apartment at 998 Fifth was treated as cultural news. The building rapidly filled with Roots and their peers: Murry Guggenheim, Levi Morton, members of the Sloane and Whitney families, and a cohort of New York's institutional aristocracy. Within a decade, the great Fifth Avenue luxury apartment-house tradition was established — and 998 Fifth was its origin point.
McKim, Mead & White's design is restrained Italian Renaissance Revival — a limestone palazzo organized around a rusticated three-story base, a smooth-faced mid-section, and a deeply projecting cornice. The proportions, scale, and detail were deliberately calibrated to read as institutional rather than commercial. The building does not announce itself; it simply belongs.
The original plan called for one apartment per floor — a configuration that produced floor plates of approximately 5,500 square feet, with each apartment commanding a Fifth Avenue/Park exposure of roughly 60 feet of frontage. Some apartments have since been combined (or subdivided to a lesser degree), but the building retains its original one-or-two-apartments-per-floor character and its institutional culture.
Architecture and unit composition
Apartments at 998 Fifth are exceptional in scale. The original one-per-floor configuration produced apartments of approximately 5,000–7,000 square feet, with ceiling heights of 12 feet in primary rooms, formal entry galleries, library-living-room combinations, multiple primary suites, and extensive service infrastructure (servants' wings, separate service entrances, dedicated staff stairwells).
McKim, Mead & White's interior detailing was substantial — paneled libraries, plaster ceiling mouldings, marble mantelpieces, hardwood floors of generous board width. The building's residents have, on the whole, preserved this detail carefully across the century. Modern renovations at 998 Fifth are typically additive (kitchens and bathrooms updated for contemporary use) rather than substitutive (original detail removed).
Park-facing apartments (the western flank) have direct Central Park views across to the Metropolitan Museum's southern flank and the Park beyond. View permanence is essentially absolute — the Met sits opposite, and Central Park itself is the view further west.
Building operations
998 Fifth operates as a full-service pre-war co-op with 24-hour doorman, attended elevator, on-site superintendent, and dedicated private storage. The building's small unit count (approximately 17) produces an institutional culture characteristic of the smallest tier-one co-ops — residents and staff know each other across generations.
The 1953 cooperative conversion was earlier than most CPW or comparable Fifth Avenue conversions, reflecting the early commitment of the building's residents to ownership rather than rental. Specific policy details (flip tax structure, financing cap, sublet fee) are not publicly published by the building; buyers should review the current proprietary lease and house rules during due diligence.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $42,283/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $207
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.
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — the licensed engineer the city requires to sign the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent). Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library.
See the full facade history →Management & transfer contacts
- Flip tax
- 2% of gross sales price (paid by Seller)
- Notable fees
- Managing Agent's Fee $900 (individual)/$1000 (estate); Fidelifacts credit report $871/applicant
Recent sales
998 Fifth Avenue's recorded turnover is minimal — a 27-unit 1912 McKim, Mead & White trophy across from the Metropolitan Museum where holding periods stretch into decades and most closings occur off-market. The 2005–2025 dataset documents only ~15 transfers, producing one of the lowest publicly-recorded turnover rates among Fifth Avenue trophy co-ops, and the building's institutional culture explicitly preferences private-network transactions over public marketing.
The September 2025 sale of #6W by William Lauder at $37.5M to a private buyer is the period's defining transaction. Lauder's 2017 acquisition basis on the same apartment was $23.5M — a 59.6% nominal appreciation across 8 years on this specific full-floor W-line apartment, one of the steeper same-apartment comp curves at the building's apex tier. The ACRIS recording on the $37.5M transfer reflects the multi-document structure typical of co-op transactions of this scale; trade press has confirmed the actual sale price.
The building's W-line — Central Park + Metropolitan Museum exposure on the eastern (Park) flank — is the architectural marquee, and the W-line transactional record provides the building's most useful apex-tier comp set: #1W $9.4M (2006) → $18.5M (2012) (97% appreciation across 6.5 years, an unusually steep curve), #2WEST $18M (2007), #3W $21M (2016, -17.65% from $25.5M ask), #4W $27.5M (2007 pre-Lehman peak), #5W $27,222,500 (2012, -19.93% from $34M ask), #6W $23.5M (2017) → $37.5M (2025), #8W $20M (2006), #11W $22M (2021).
The 17.65% ask-to-close gap on #3W (2016) and the 19.93% gap on #5W (2012) document that even 998 Fifth's apex inventory negotiates meaningfully against initial pricing — a pattern that recurs across cycles when the building's $25M+ aspirational tier meets the broader luxury-co-op market. The E-line duplex inventory shows a parallel pattern: #5/6E traded at $15.75M full-ask in 2006, $18.5M in 2012, and $16.5M in 2014 — extraordinary turnover for a marquee Fifth Avenue duplex with only ~5% nominal appreciation across the full 2006–2014 window. The 2025 #6W close calibrates the building's prime-floor, Met-facing inventory at roughly $9,400/sqft effective — useful context for any buyer evaluating comparable McKim, Mead & White or peer Gilded Age co-op inventory along the Museum Mile.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 25, 2021 | 11W | 4 BR · 5.5 BA | $22,000,000 | -25.4% | |
| Aug 29, 2017 | 6W | 5 BR · 3,173 sf | $23,500,000 | $7,406/sf | -19.0% |
| Jun 16, 2016 | 3W | 3 BR · 6.5 BA | $21,000,000 | -17.6% | |
| Jun 19, 2014 | 5 | 4 BR | $16,500,000 | -17.5% | |
| Mar 20, 2012 | 5W | 5 BR | $27,222,500 | -19.9% | |
| Jan 3, 2012 | 3 | 5 BR | $16,000,000 | -15.8% | |
| Jan 17, 2007 | 4W | 4 BR | $27,500,000 | +0.0% | |
| Aug 7, 2006 | 5 | 4 BR | $15,750,000 | +0.0% |
Market read. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2017): a median $7,406/sf across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2025. Median listing discount 16.7% from the last 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.
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 1-01493-0001) 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
Financing is not permitted. 998 Fifth is among the Gold Coast co-ops that require 100% cash purchases — no mortgage financing of any kind. This is the building's most consequential structural fact and aligns it with 740 Park, 834 Fifth, and a small number of other tier-one Gold Coast co-ops where the no-financing posture is the screen that defines the building.
The board is among the most selective in the Gold Coast. Approaching 998 Fifth as a transaction misses the structural reality — the board has curated the building's residency for over a century, and approval criteria extend across financial, professional, and cultural dimensions. Personal references matter. Foreign buyers face additional friction. Investment buyers and pied-à-terre buyers have essentially no path.
Renovation is constrained by historic district status and institutional culture. Substantive renovation is feasible but must respect the building's architectural character. The board does not approve modernizations that erase pre-war detail.
View permanence is exceptional. The Met sits opposite; Central Park is the view east. No development envelope threatens the corridor.
Primary-residence intent is the working assumption. Buyers expecting to hold and live full-time are appropriate fits.
What to know if you’re selling
Marketing is largely private. Most 998 Fifth transactions occur with limited or no public marketing. The buyer pool is small, institutional, and accessible primarily through private broker networks.
Pricing requires building-specific context. Comparable sales are sparse given turnover velocity; apartment-to-apartment heterogeneity is substantial. Pricing benefits from familiarity with the building's small inventory history.
The buyer pool is committed but narrow. Buyers who pursue 998 Fifth know what they're pursuing — there is no education work to do; the work is matching the right apartment to the right buyer.
The 2% flip tax is seller-paid. Distinct from 740 Park's buyer-paid 3% flip tax, 998 Fifth's flip tax is borne by the seller at closing. On a $15M apartment, that is $300,000 of seller-side closing cost — and should be modeled into net-proceeds analysis from the outset.
Closing timelines are co-op standard but the package is heavier. 6–10 weeks from contract to closing, with substantial board package work.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 998 Fifth Avenue, also evaluate:
- 740 Park Avenue — Candela/Cross & Cross 1930, the apex of pre-war American luxury
- 820 Fifth Avenue — 1916 Starrett & Van Vleck pre-war, smaller scale, very selective
- 834 Fifth Avenue — Candela 1931, Gold Coast tier-one
- 1040 Fifth Avenue — Candela 1930, Jackie Kennedy's building
- 907 Fifth Avenue — pre-war Fifth Avenue, slightly later vintage
- 1107 Fifth Avenue — Marjorie Merriweather Post anchor building
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, 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.
Considering a move at 998 Fifth Avenue?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 998 Fifth Avenue would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.