More than 20 years after Academy Award-winning actor Sidney Poitier scooped up an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the park-view duplex residence has popped back up for sale.
On the market for $11.5 million with Corcoran’s Chris Kann, Poitier and his wife, Joanna, paid just $2.5 million for the Fifth Avenue pad back in 1994. According to New York Magazine, Poitier bought the apartment so they could be closer to their daughters, who were attending NYU at the time. After graduation, the family decided to relocate to Los Angeles, and Poitier sold the home in 2001 for $5 million to an art-collecting couple who already lived in the building. Now that the owners have passed, the unit is being offered by their estate.
The apartment sits just above the treeline with open views over Central Park.
Sonia Paulino Love/MW Studio
Poitier’s former pre-war co-op is positioned right across from Central Park and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. Altogether, the spacious abode features five bedrooms and seven bathrooms spread across its two floors. Interestingly, it’s the only home in the building with six rooms, not to mention three bathrooms, that face the park.
The home itself is accessed via a semi-private elevator that opens to a small foyer and an ample stair gallery. Just inside, a massive double living room that is roughly 25 feet square with a charming wood-burning fireplace, a wet bar, and sweeping skyline views thanks to three oversized single-pane picture windows. The nearby formal dining room leads to a windowed eat-in chef’s kitchen configured around a large central island. Additionally, this level holds two bedroom suites and a sculptural staircase that curls up to the second floor.
The primary suite includes two walk-in closets and a dressing room.
Sonia Paulino Love/MW Studio
Upstairs, the spacious primary bedroom is complete with two huge walk-in closets, a dressing room with additional closet space, a fireplace, and a roomy bath. Two more en suite bedrooms are joined by a wood-paneled library that doubles as a media room and a service wing with a large laundry room, a home office, a bathroom, and a tiny staff bedroom easily converted to a gym or meditation space.
The landmarked building at 1158 Fifth Avenue was originally designed by architects Howard Krane and Kenneth Franzheim in 1924. The French Renaissance-style structure in Manhattan’s Carnegie Hill sports a beautiful lobby staffed by full-time doormen and concierges, a fitness center, and bicycle storage.
Click here to see more photos of the Fifth Avenue cooperative.
Sonia Paulino Love/MW Studio
Authors
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Abby Montanez