Cornell University pays $510M to Sotheby’s for office building in Lenox Hill

Cornell University paid $510 million to Sotheby’s through the entity 1334 York, LLC for the office building at 1334 York Avenue in Lenox Hill, Manhattan. The expected use is owner-occupied.
The deal closed on October 1, 2025 and was recorded on October 15, 2025. The building is composed of 11 commercial condominium units with approximately 340,066 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $1,500 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)

Sotheby’s last year paid $100 million to the Whitney Museum of Art for the Breuer Building.
The signatory for Sotheby’s was Steven Wrightson . The signatory for Cornell University was Christopher Cowen . The contract date was October 1, 2025. The building was converted to a commercial condominium structure with six units on October 30, 2023, and then later on September 24, 2024, one of those units, the former 1305, was divided into five new condo units. So unit 1305 was removed and replaced with units 1401 to 1405 (p. 32) with 191,157 square feet on construction floors 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (which are marketing floors 5, 6, 7, 8, 9).

The entire building is now composed of 11 commercial condo units, and all were sold to Cornell, which already had a leasehold on the five units, 1401-1405. The sale also includes a leaseback, in which Sotheby’s will control a portion of the building for up to 10 years.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Cornell University had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Sotheby’s purchased one property in one transaction for a total of $100 million and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The block

On the tax block of 1334 York Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 15 commercial properties representing 407,259 square feet of the 650,654 square feet. The two identified owners are Sotheby’s and City of New York.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 63 percent of the 650,654 square feet of built space are office buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 37 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Sotheby’s owned at least three commercial properties in New York City with 651,016 square feet and a city-determined market value of $199.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 92 percent of the 651,016 square feet of built space are office properties, with P7 properties next occupying 8 percent of the space. The bulk, or 70 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 30 percent of the space.

Direct link to Acris document. link