The fourth installment of LLNYC’s series on Manhattan’s most prestigious cooperative apartment buildings is a look inside 960 Fifth Avenue.
The 1928 building, which uses 3 East 77th Street as an alternate address, was designed by the famous Rosario Candela with architecture firm Warren & Wetmore. And all the requisite Candela “good building” details and flourishes are there: wood-burning fireplaces in common rooms, ceiling heights that stretch to 18 feet in some units and staircases that enable hostesses to make a grand entrance in the duplexes. The building also has a gym with outdoor space on an upper floor.
960 Fifth also boasts an old-school amenity on the ground floor, the Georgian Suite, a private restaurant where residents can host parties, fund-raisers or simply have a meal. The facility also offers catering services for small dinner parties in residents’ homes.
This building’s demographics skew heavily in favor of inherited wealth. Many of the residents behind this particular limestone facade are scions of families who made money in concrete, construction, toys, sugar and textiles. Several of the residents also have ties to the South — particularly Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee.
Here’s a detailed look at the residents of 960 Fifth Avenue.
Coleman and Susan Burke
Unit price: $4,700,000
Susan Payson Burke is a philanthropist, former PR director for Bergdorf Goodman and gardener. Coleman Burke is a real estate investor, lawyer by training, philanthropist and an amateur paleontologist. He is the founder and managing partner of Waterfront Properties, which invests in commercial properties. Both are on boards of several prestigious institutions. The couple divides their time between Manhattan, Bedford, Nantucket and Florida.
Coleman and Susan Burke, Gail Auchincloss Gilbert and Charles Lazarus, and Joan Regen Bogen
Gail Auchincloss Gilbert
Unit price: $1,500,000
Gail Auchincloss Gilbert is a wealthy widow and member of old New York society.
For 55 years she was married to Seymour Parker Gilbert III, and the couple had three children, S. Parker Gilbert Jr., David and Lynn Tudor. Her husband led the investment bank Morgan Stanley and oversaw its initial public offering in 1986 and continued to influence the bank’s management in retirement.Her grandfather, James C. Auchincloss, was a New Jersey congressman.
Charles Lazarus and Joan Regenbogen
Unit(s) price: $4,800,000
Charles Lazarus is the founder of Toys “R” Us. Since 1995, he has been married to Joan Regenbogen, an interior designer. He was married to Helen Singer Kaplan, a sex therapist, from 1979 until she died in 1995. According to public records, Lazarus owns multiple units in the building. In 2013, he sold one of the units for $21 million to Carlos Rodriguez-Pastor, a scion of a Peruvian banking family.
Nassef Sawiris and Sherine Magar
Unit price: $70,000,000
Nassef Sawiris is an Egyptian construction tycoon and a scion of the Sawiris family, which controls a media and construction conglomerate in Egypt. He set a record for the highest price ever paid for a co-op in NYC with the purchase of the apartment of the late Edgar Bronfman.
Carlos Rodriguez-Pastor
Carlos Rodriguez-Pastor
Unit price: $21,000,000
Carlos Rodriguez-Pastor is a businessman and philanthropist. As a child, his family fled Peru under threat of persecution following a coup d’état. His father was Peru’s central bank chief. Rodriguez-Pastor created the financial services and retail conglomerate Intercorp, as well as private equity firm Nexus Group.
John Sullivan Jr. and Nonie Sullivan
Unit price: $4,200,000
John Sullivan Jr. is a scion of the Sullivan-Gerli family, whose members made their fortune in the textile industry. He serves as chairman and chief executive of Gerli & Co. Eleanor (Nonie) Clay Ford Bourke Sullivan is a scion of the Ford family (as in Ford Motor Company).
Bijan and Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani
Unit price: $15,000,000
Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani is a philanthropist and an oil and gas executive. Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani is a philanthropist, author and partner at Goldman Sachs. As of 2016, she was the chief investment officer of the private wealth management group there.
Emilia and Jose (Pepe) Fanjul
Emilia and José (Pepe) Fanjul
Unit price: $1,900,000
Pepe Fanjul and his brothers jointly own Fanjul Corp., a conglomerate in the sugar and real estate industries in the U.S. and the Dominican Republic. Emilia May Fanjul is a philanthropist. She serves as a trustee of Glades Academy, a public charter school in Florida.
Mathew and Ann Wolf
Unit price: $2,500,000
Mathew Davis Wolf is a rancher, the son of oil tycoon Erving Wolf,
a trained lawyer and an oilman. Ann Weltchek Wolf received an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University. The Wolfs married in 1990 and have three children, Daisy,
Henry and Benjamin.
Gustavo and Patty phelps de Cisneros
Unit price: undisclosed
Gustavo Cisneros is a Venezuelan-born media mogul, hospitality tycoon and philanthropist. His father made his fortune by securing the concession to sell Pepsi in Venezuela. Patty Cisneros is an art patron and philanthropist. Patty sits on the board of the Museum of Modern Art.
James Krugman and Connie Simmons
Unit price: Undisclosed
James Krugman is a corporate executive and a lawyer by training. His career includes stints as chief executive of several companies. Connie Simmons is an artist, entertainment lawyer and a producer of public television programming about the visual arts.
James Coleman Jr.
Unit price: $795,000
James Coleman Jr. is a Louisiana businessman and lawyer. He is the former chairman of International Matex Tank Terminals, which transports oil and liquid fertilizer, established by his father. The family’s interest in IMTT was bought out. He serves as managing partner of a New Orleans law firm, Coleman, Johnson, Artigues & Jurisich.
James and Marie Marlas
Unit price: $7,100,000
James Marlas is a buyout tycoon and lawyer by training. He is the co-founder and chairman of Union Capital Corporation, a private equity firm. Marie Marlas is a philanthropist and former actress. She was a doctor in the 1992 movie “Lorenzo’s Oil.” She was awarded France’s Legion of Honor.
Henri and Marsha Wedell
Unit price: $4,800,000
Henri Wedell is a retired businessman, investor and philanthropist. He invests in private prisons. Marsha Wedell is a historian, author and philanthropist. She is an alumna of the Louise S. McGehee School, an all-girls private school in New Orleans. The Wedells donated $1 million to the school in 2013.
Peter and Laurie Grauer
Unit price: $2,400,000
Peter Grauer is a private equity executive and a former investment banker. He has been chairman of the board at Bloomberg, the financial data and news provider, since 2001.
In 2016, Grauer joined the board of directors of private equity firm The Blackstone Group. Laurie Grauer is a philanthropist.