The Pierre’s $2B Drama and the Rare World of Co-ops Selling the Whole Building
The Pierre is back in the headlines, and not for its famous parties or hotel suites. This time it’s the residents of the legendary co-op tower on Fifth Avenue who are in open revolt. The reason? A plan to sell the entire building for a jaw-dropping $2 billion.
According to The Real Deal, billionaire Howard Lutnick—who owns the penthouse and a big chunk of the co-op shares—has been pushing the idea.
The potential buyers include the Khashoggi family with management by the Dorchester Collection, owned by the Sultan of Brunei. It’s the sort of deal that makes headlines, but it’s also dividing neighbors like never before.
And then there’s the politics: selling a co-op isn’t like selling a condo. You need a supermajority of shareholders to agree, and in a building this size, that’s no easy feat.
When Co-ops Cash Out
The idea of an entire co-op selling itself off sounds wild, but it’s not totally unheard of in New York. It usually happens in much smaller buildings, where getting everyone on the same page is a little less like herding cats.
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A SoHo Loft Building: In 2017, a seven-unit co-op on Crosby Street decided to dissolve and sell. The land was worth far more than the aging building, and with only a handful of shareholders, everyone agreed. They walked away with millions each, but it was manageable because the group was so small.
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1025 Park Avenue: A boutique co-op where the few owners agreed to put the whole place on the market. In the end, the deal didn’t happen—but it showed that in small, tightly held buildings, the math can sometimes make sense.
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Other cases: From time to time, small co-ops in prime neighborhoods agree to sell and let developers knock the building down or convert it. But these are almost always under 20 or 30 apartments, not sprawling towers full of different personalities and agendas.
That’s what makes The Pierre such a unicorn: a massive, historic, ultra-prestigious co-op even considering a sale of this scale is almost unheard of.
Why The Pierre Fight Is Different
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Too many voices: It’s one thing to convince seven loft owners in SoHo. It’s another to wrangle dozens of wealthy, strong-willed Fifth Avenue residents with wildly different priorities.
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Home vs. payday: Some residents see dollar signs. Others see decades of memories and a community they don’t want to lose.
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History and prestige: Living at The Pierre isn’t just about square footage. It’s about legacy. That makes the emotional side of this deal even harder to overcome.
The Lutnick factor: One shareholder holding a lot of shares can tilt the balance, but that can also breed resentment and resistance from neighbors who feel steamrolled.
What Happens Next?
For a building-wide sale to actually happen, shareholders need to hit a very high approval threshold—usually two-thirds or even three-quarters. That means a lot of arm-twisting, and it only works if the financial offer is so good it outweighs the heartbreak of leaving.
Past examples show that these deals are only successful when everyone feels they’re getting a windfall. Otherwise, a handful of holdouts can shut the whole thing down.
Bigger Picture
The Pierre fight is really about something larger: what happens when the value of a Manhattan building becomes greater as an investment than as a home? As maintenance bills climb and foreign buyers dangle billions, even the most prestigious co-ops could face this dilemma.
But if history is any guide, most of these “let’s sell the whole thing” plans fizzle out. People don’t just live in New York real estate—they live in it. And no amount of money makes walking away from your home, your neighbors, and your city views an easy decision.