Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost’s Park Avenue Bargain

Any real-estate broker will tell you that the best deals are in co-ops, particularly the elite, Upper East Side buildings with rigid rules and palatial apartments that have largely been abandoned by the moneyed and powerful in favor of blingy condos. But Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost, both native New Yorkers, were apparently not too put off by the arcane board application to score a real-estate deal. The couple has purchased a 6,000-square-foot penthouse at 1220 Park Avenue, The Wall Street Journal reported. And they got a great price: Johansson and Jost paid just $13 million, half the original asking price, and the same amount that sellers Craig and Deborah Corgut paid in 2006.

The penthouse, a triplex in the Rosario Candela–designed prewar co-op, has six bedrooms, six and a half bathrooms, six wood-burning fireplaces, and 65 windows with four exposures, as well as terraces on the top two floors. It looks epic, even if the décor is a little stodgy (it’s very Upper East Side). The listing says that the apartment underwent a two-year renovation, although it doesn’t say when it was completed, but even with high-end renovation prices of $1,000 per square foot, the apartment would still be a bargain. And if the renovation was recent, it may only need some aesthetic changes.

The six-bedroom co-op on Park Avenue was purchased for $13 million, the same price that the sellers bought it for in 2006.
Photo: Douglas Elliman

The apartment has 65 windows and four exposures, offering plenty of light. The oak-paneled library also has a wood-burning fireplace.
Photo: Douglas Elliman

Previously, the Hollywood couple toured a 4,179-square-foot penthouse at the Wales, a condo conversion also in Carnegie Hill that sold to another buyer for $19 million and was, frankly, far less impressive, although it also had two floors of terraces. While Johansson may have grown up downtown, and some might have guessed that she and Jost would choose something there or even in Brooklyn, the Upper East Side, which for years had a reputation as a stuffy, old-fashioned neighborhood, has of late experienced something of a resurgence, with downtown restaurants, members’ clubs, and revitalized old-Establishment spots opening around the neighborhood. So far, many of the wealthy new buyers have gravitated toward new-development condos like the Wales.

While the Park Avenue apartment was on the market for 69 days at this price — a relatively quick period for co-ops — it has been on and off the market since 2018. Many similar co-ops have sold for prices on par with what they traded for in the early aughts, and 50 percent price cuts are not at all rare. John Thain, the former Merrill Lynch executive, sold the 740 Park penthouse he paid $27.5 million for in 2006, then renovated, for $28 million last year. Another co-op sale at 4 E. 66th closed last week for $39 million; the apartment had been on the market since 2022 and started out asking $55 million. And real-estate developer Edward Minskoff sold his Park Avenue apartment for less than half his initial $17.7 million asking price after two years on the market, netting just $7.4 million.

The triplex was on the market for 69 days, a relatively quick time span for units of this type.
Photo: Douglas Elliman