By Gus Saltonstall
You have the opportunity to be neighbors with Yoko Ono in the Upper West Side’s most famous building.
You just need slightly over $6 million.
A four-bedroom apartment on the seventh floor of The Dakota at 1 West 72nd Street recently hit the market for $6.2 million. As first reported by the New York Post, the unit is currently the only home for sale within the building, and also happens to be directly next to Yoko Ono’s longtime apartment, which she shared with John Lennon.
The available apartment has eight rooms, four bedrooms, two-and-a-half bathrooms, five fireplaces, a library, and more, according to a listing from Douglas Elliman.
Here’s how that listing describes a portion of the apartment.
“A long hallway guides you to two bedrooms, one with a Juliet balcony, as well as two beautifully renovated full bathrooms. The oversized dining room, features dormer ceilings, gorgeous wainscoting, generous storage space and boasts views of the stunning architecture of the Dakota’s courtyard and rooftop.”
The apartment was most recently owned by a lawyer named Paul H. Epstein, who bought it in 2012 for an undisclosed amount of money, property records show. Epstein’s clients included fellow Dakota building resident Leonard Bernstein, according to the Post.
As reported in the winter of 2023, while Ono still owns her apartment within The Dakota, she spends the majority of her time at a farm in Franklin, New York, which she bought with Lennon in 1978.
You can see photos of the listed apartment — HERE.
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$12,000/mo maintenance, and no park views.
Beautiful apartment in an iconic building. The maintenance charge of over 130k a year is quite a burden though.
Most of the maintenance (30-40%) is taxes. One of the more under-appreciated drivers of u affordability in the neighborhood. No one puts “affordability” and “The Dakota” in the same sentence, but it’s the same across the neighborhood and impacts all co-ops (which really nust provide wholesale housing for their owners).
The taxes on coops in this neighborhood astonish me. I have a two bedroom apartment –large but nothing special – and my annual real estate taxes are over $30,000. It is mind blowing that such a huge chunk of my maintenance is taxes. I lived in a much fancier building in Greenwich Village (same size apartment) and the taxes were significantly lower. It all has something to do with the appraisal of rental buildings nearby but I haven’t really been able to figure it out. Just gasp when I see my annual tax burden.
The principal maintenance burden for coops in NYC used to be fuel, now it is overwhelming taxes, with value of buildings being constantly reassessed.
I agree – it’s killing middle class residents. The city keeps going to the well. Dread to think where it will go next with the continued decline in city finances
Eric,
What NYC or NYS service that you use right now are you willing to give up?
Also do you think building maintenance doesn’t contribute to the monthly fees coop owners pay? Roofs need to be maintained, windows replaced, brickwork kept in good condition, etc.