Manhattan’s storied 740 Park Ave. has once again seen another prominent property sale.
Julia Koch, one of the world’s richest women with an estimated net worth of $74.2 billion, according to Forbes, has just sold her co-op at the exclusive Park Avenue palace for $45 million, according to property records.
The Real Deal first reported the sale.
The buyer, sources told Gimme Shelter, is a New Yorker.
The spectacular 18-room duplex is a generous 8,500 square feet. It first hit the market for $48 million in 2022.
The fourth- and fifth-floor dwelling comes with five bedrooms, six baths and two powder rooms. It opens with a private elevator landing to a marble entry foyer. Design details include a statement curved staircase, multiple marble fireplaces and large spaces for entertaining.
A living room features wide-plank oak floors, a window wall and its own marble fireplace. There’s also an eat-in chef’s kitchen, a formal dining room with original details and a wood-paneled library with a built-in bar.
Last year, John Thain — formerly CEO of Merrill Lynch and president of Goldman Sachs — sold his penthouse duplex at 740 Park for $28 million. That’s six years after he first listed it for $39.5 million in 2018, according to reports.
Koch is the widow of David Koch, an ultra-conservative billionaire and co-owner of Koch Industries, who died in 2019 at age 79. He bought the co-op from the Japanese government for around $18 million in 2004.
In addition, John D. Rockefeller, financier Saul Steinberg and Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman all called the same unit in the building home.
Julia Koch is also the owner of two Upper East Side co-ops that she bought from the estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for $101 million in 2022. The following year, she sold a $41 million Upper East Side townhouse in another off-market deal.
She also owns a $70 million Southampton estate that she purchased in 2021 and a Palm Beach estate. In addition, Julia and her children bought a 15% stake of BSE Global, the parent company of the Brooklyn Nets, last June. The deal valued BSE Global at $6 billion.
Built in 1929, the 19-story Art Deco building was designed by Rosario Candela and Arthur Loomis Harmon. It was developed by James T. Lee, the grandfather of the late former first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis, who once lived in the building as a child. The building was even the subject of a book: “740 Park: The Story of the World’s Richest Apartment Building,” by Michael Gross.
The building features 31 units, including duplexes and triplexes. Past and present residents include Rockefeller and Vanderbilt family members, Vera Wang and former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The listing brokers were Corcoran’s Leighton Candler, Bradley Comisar and Jennifer Reardon.