812 Park Avenue: A 1927 Carpenter Co-op at East 75th Street

812 Park Avenue is a 14-story prewar cooperative designed by J.E.R. Carpenter and completed in 1927 at the southwest corner of East 75th Street.

It stands inside the Upper East Side Historic District, and as a co-op its board decides who may buy, which matters more to an overseas purchaser than the address itself. Here is what buying there involves.

1. What the Building Is

812 Park Avenue is a 14-story prewar cooperative on the west side of Park Avenue, at the southwest corner of East 75th Street on the Upper East Side. It has no marketing name and is known simply by its address. The rest of the blockfront, down to East 74th Street, is 800 Park Avenue, a fourteen-story apartment house of 1925.

J.E.R. Carpenter designed it, and it was completed in 1927 as an apartment house for 36 families. The city's property record now lists 42 residential units among 45 in total and classes the building as an elevator cooperative, so a buyer acquires shares in the corporation rather than a deed.

Its tax block runs west to Fifth Avenue, which puts Central Park two avenue blocks away, beyond Madison Avenue. The building lies within the Upper East Side Historic District, designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1981, whose report describes Park Avenue as an elegant residential street of tall apartment houses set against low-scale side streets.

The location is on Google Maps.

2. A 1927 Carpenter Design on Park Avenue

J.E.R. Carpenter, whom the Landmarks Preservation Commission counts among the most noted apartment architects of 1920s New York, designed more than a dozen buildings in what is now the Upper East Side Historic District, among them 550, 610 and 635 Park Avenue. The Commission records that 812 Park replaced nine rowhouses facing East 75th Street.

The facade follows the neo-Renaissance formula of its period: a three-story rusticated stone base, brick above, and a central round-arched entrance beneath a third-floor balcony carried on brackets. Cornices run above the fourth and thirteenth floors, the upper one with a fleur-de-lis frieze, and a balustrade finishes the roofline.

Inside, the plans favored duplex apartments, and most units remain duplexes today, many with fireplaces. A published architectural review records that the building won a gold medal from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects as the best new residential building of 1927. It became a cooperative in 1949.

Ask for the floor plan of the specific apartment, since duplex and single-floor layouts differ within the building.

3. Owning in a Historic District Co-op

Because the building sits in the Upper East Side Historic District, most exterior changes to its facades require review by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Replacement windows are judged against the Commission's standards, so the street face of an apartment is not the owner's decision alone.

Interior work needs a Commission permit when it requires a Buildings Department permit or affects the exterior. The co-op adds its own alteration agreement, and listings describe summer work rules that confine renovation to May 15 through September 30, a window to plan around before buying with work in mind.

Shared facilities are traditional rather than resort-like. A canopied entrance leads to a classical lobby, and the building has a landscaped central garden courtyard about 32 feet wide, a fitness center on the first floor, storage, and a full-time staff that includes a live-in superintendent and a resident manager.

Get the house rules and alteration agreement from the managing agent before you plan any renovation.

4. Buying Here as an Overseas Purchaser

812 Park Avenue is a cooperative: buyers acquire shares, and the board approves each purchaser after a full financial package and an interview, and may decline without giving reasons. Co-ops commonly limit financing, entity and trust purchases, pied-à-terre use and subletting, so an overseas buyer faces more conditions than in a condominium.

The buyer pays New York's mansion tax on residential purchases of $1 million or more, on the whole price, at rates from 1% between $1 million and $2 million up to 3.9% at $25 million and above. Since July 2026 the city has also levied an annual pied-à-terre surcharge on high-value apartments that are no one's primary residence, and its administration is before the courts.

On a later sale, a foreign owner faces FIRPTA withholding of 15% of the gross price unless an IRS withholding certificate reduces it. A non-resident who is not a US citizen has only a $60,000 US estate tax exemption on US-situs assets unless a treaty provides more, so settle the ownership structure with tax counsel before contract.

Ask the managing agent for the board's current rules on financing and ownership in writing before you bid.

Recorded Sales: What the Public Record Shows

NYC's Department of Finance records every sale with its address and price. Between January 2023 and September 2026 it recorded 11 sales of co-op apartments at 812 Park Avenue, at a median price of $9 million. Half of them closed between $4.4 million and $10 million; the highest was $19.35 million.

A median across a whole building mixes small and large apartments, low floors and high ones, so it describes the building rather than any one residence. Use it to see how often apartments here change hands and where the building's prices sit. Price a specific apartment from recorded sales on the same line and floor range, which can be pulled from the deed records before you make an offer.

These are recorded deed prices, not asking prices, and none of them is a Reinvent NY transaction. A sale appears in the record weeks after closing, and a deed price can include a parking space or storage unit bought at the same time.

Final Thoughts: Prewar Planning, Board Conditions

812 Park Avenue offers what new construction rarely can: Carpenter's duplex planning, a corner on Park Avenue and the continuity of a cooperative that dates to 1949. The trade-off is control, because the board decides who buys, how purchases are financed and how and when apartments are renovated.

Before an offer, read the co-op's recent financial statements, the proprietary lease and the house rules, and ask about any underlying mortgage and planned capital work. Maintenance includes each apartment's share of the building's property tax and debt, so compare it with care against a condominium's common charges.

Price a specific apartment from recorded sales of comparable layouts rather than a building-wide figure, because duplexes, penthouses and single-floor units trade on different terms. Listings have stated the financing allowance differently, from all cash to partial financing, so take the current policy from the managing agent.

Request the board package requirements and recent financial statements before you schedule a viewing.

Figures here describe the building, not any one apartment. Asking prices, monthly carrying costs, tax abatement status and sublet rules are established unit by unit from the offering plan, the most recent financial statement and the managing agent.

Reinvent NY Inc. provides real estate and business expansion consulting in New York. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax or investment advice.

More buildings worth knowing: 100 Eleventh Avenue, 111 West 57th Street, 130 William. The full set is indexed under New York building profiles.