Sunnyside Co-op Is First to Shatter the $1 Million Ceiling

There goes another neighborhood. With the average Manhattan rent topping $5,000 a month, and with affordable housing becoming the increasingly elusive Holy Grail throughout the city, a co-op apartment in Sunnyside, Queens, is on the market for $1.1 million. Local real estate agents believe is a first time a co-op in the middle-class enclave in the heart of Queens has been put on the market for more than $1 million, The Sunnyside Post reports.

The apartment is a combined 3.5-bedroom unit on the top floor of the Oxford, a handsome six-story prewar building located on the corner of 41st Street and 43rd Avenue.

“This is the largest apartment on the market [in Sunnyside] as two apartments have been combined and gut renovated from top to bottom,” says Bonnie Milcarek, an associate broker with Welcome Home Real Estate who listed the apartment.

Milcarek says the apartment is over 1,500 square feet, larger than many 2-family houses in Sunnyside Gardens. “It’s a special unit," she adds. "It feels like a Brooklyn loft when you walk inside.”

The highest listing prices for co-ops in Sunnyside until now, according to Milcarek, have fetched in the mid $700,000 range. A 2-bedroom, 1,124 square foot unit in Sunnyside Towers, located at 46-01 39th Ave., was recently listed for $739,000 and has just gone into contract. A large co-op at 45-08 40th St. sold for $748,000 earlier this year.

Milcarek says the attraction of the co-op at the Oxford is its size and that it’s on the top floor with great lighting. She said that three-bedroom co-ops—let alone 3.5 bedrooms—are a rare find in Sunnyside.

The Oxford has a live-in super and porter, laundry room, bike storage, storage lockers for rent and a common courtyard. There is no flip tax, and sublets are permitted after 2 years of occupancy. The maintenance for the apartment is $1,517 per month, which includes heat, water and gas.