Why this matters
Donald Trump's Manhattan residential developments span four decades — from the 1980s Y-shaped trefoil at Trump Plaza through the 2005 conversion of the Hotel Delmonico into Trump Park Avenue. Each carries distinctive operational and architectural characteristics. This guide indexes the Trump-developed Manhattan residential buildings on theroeblingteam.com.
167 East 61st Street — Trump Plaza (1984)
Trump Plaza at 167 East 61st Street is Donald Trump's deliberate cooperative — he chose the more selective coop structure over the easier condominium format. Trump told the NYT: "I wanted to buck the trend. There are a lot of people who want to live in a cooperative." Architect Philip Birnbaum produced a Y-shaped (trefoil) plan with five apartments per floor and wrap-around bronze-topped balconies. Paul Goldberger reviewed it for the NYT: the building "looks as if it might be the finest building in Caracas — all of this sleekness is chic in a particularly Latin way, quite uncharacteristic of New York, despite the lavish use of limestone."
Recent history: In 2014, the Trump Plaza coop corporation purchased the underlying land for $190 million, eliminating the ground-lease overhang and converting the building from a land-lease coop to a fee-simple cooperative — among the most significant transactional events in the building's history.
Notable residents: Former Kentucky Governor John Y. Brown Jr. and Phyllis George; Dick Clark; Martina Navratilova; Italian restaurant Alo Alo (Dino De Laurentiis).
502 Park Avenue — Trump Park Avenue (2005)
502 Park Avenue (Trump Park Avenue) is the 2005 conversion of the 1929 Hotel Delmonico — originally Goldner & Goldner's Viceroy Hotel, renamed Cromwell Arms, then Hotel Delmonico when the famed century-old Delmonico's Restaurant relocated to the property six weeks before the October 1929 stock-market crash. Trump acquired the property in November 2001 for $115 million and launched an $80 million conversion by Costas Kondylis.
Per the building writer, "Mr. Trump added substantial space to several of the tower's floors on the north and west sides that were glass-clad and not at all in context with the building's architectural style."
Apartment configuration: Floors 3-4 contain large former-ballroom units with ceilings up to 15 feet. Floors 5-15 are 1- to 3-bedroom layouts. Terraces begin at floor 16. From floor 20 upward, twelve full-floor apartments of 4,000 to 7,000 square feet have private elevator landings. The 31st-to-32nd-floor penthouse duplex carries 17-foot vaulted ceilings and 42 arched windows.
Cultural history overlay: Hotel Delmonico-era residents include Lucille Ball, Ed Sullivan, Lorenz Hart, Ronnie Spector, former NY Governor Charles Seymour Whitman, Oliver Harriman. Bob Dylan introduced cannabis to The Beatles in their sixth-floor suite on August 28, 1964 — the hotel switchboard received approximately 200,000 incoming calls during the Beatles' two-day stay. Christie's first international branch opened in the building in 1977. Régine's celebrity disco operated there before Andy Warhol's transfer to Studio 54.
Trump Park Avenue era residents: Matt Lauer; Rupert Murdoch (News Corp $50,000/month residence per WSJ 2006); Wendi Deng Murdoch; Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump; Donny Deutsch; Michael Cohen; Steve Tisch; Jonathan Tisch; Alex Rodriguez; Stewart Rahr; Paula White; Saudi Prince Faisal bin Abdul Majeed al-Saud.
Recent transactional: PH27 sold for $7.3M in August 2025 — approximately half the 2016 acquisition price.
What you should know if you're a Trump-developed building buyer
The Trump-developed Manhattan residential body of work spans two structural formats:
- Cooperative (Trump Plaza 1984 — Trump's deliberate choice)
- Condominium (Trump Park Avenue 2005 conversion)
The cooperative-versus-condominium choice produces materially different transactional experiences:
- Trump Plaza: board interview, ~75% financing maximum, structural cooperative discipline
- Trump Park Avenue: condominium right of first refusal procedural only, standard condominium LTV, maximum policy flexibility (pied-à-terre, LLC, foreign buyer all permitted)
Each building carries distinct architectural pedigree:
- Trump Plaza: Philip Birnbaum 1984 Y-shaped trefoil; Goldberger's "finest building in Caracas" review
- Trump Park Avenue: Goldner & Goldner 1929 Hotel Delmonico / Kondylis 2005 conversion; Hotel Delmonico cultural-history overlay including Lucille Ball, Bob Dylan / Beatles, Régine's
The Roebling Team — Trump-developed building advisory
The Trump-developed Manhattan residential buildings each carry distinct operational characteristics. We cross-reference the The Roebling Research Library offering plan and house rules during diligence, particularly important given the structural format differences between the cooperative and condominium configurations.
Corey Cohen · The Roebling Team at Compass 646.939.7375 · c.cohen@compass.com
Sources: The Roebling Research Library (offering plans, house rules, financial statements, board minutes, internal transaction records); publicly recorded NYC building data.
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