John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Iconic Soho Loft Hits Market After 50 Years For $5.5 Million
The iconic two-story Soho building bought by legendary “Beatles” singer John Lennon and Yoko Ono hit the market for the first time in 50 years. The loft-style residence was bought by the couple in 1971, a little after The Beatles broke, and two years before the duo moved to the Upper West Side’s Dakota, where Lennon was shot dead. Since then, Ono has retained control of the property and now she and her son Sean Ono Lennon have listed it for sale with an asking price of $5.5 million, as reported by the New York Times.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono's first home in New York City is for sale for the first time in 53 years. https://t.co/yMmYOC4uLW
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) May 29, 2024
The late Beatles member reportedly lived at the penthouse with his assistant and mistress, May Pang, in the mid-1970s when he was estranged from his wife Yoko Ono.
Here's All About John Lennon’s Soho Property
Built in 1885, the brick, bluestone, and terracotta structure was the first property bought by Lennon and Ono together in New York City. The loft in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, features a gallery-like ground-floor space with 14.4-foot ceilings.
The elegant stairs provide access to an open kitchen plus a bedroom loft in the rear and the top floor has another large live-workspace and recording studio. The property measures just over 3,800 square feet, with an allowance for the construction of three additional floors, which would take the total to about 7,500 square feet. This is subject to approval, according to the JLL’s Capital Markets Team, which has listed the property.
"The building on Broome Street was sort of like a base for their artistic ventures," Philip Norman, the author of "John Lennon: The Life," told the New York Times.
Meanwhile, the listing says the building is “ideal for an end-user looking to create a unique home/office, restaurant, retail, art gallery in the heart of SoHo.”
Developed by Bing and Bing and designed by architect Emery Roth, the apartment building is pet-friendly and offers a full-time doorman and landscaped gardens, as per PEOPLE.
"496 Broome St. is both a unique piece of New York history and popular culture and a prime investment opportunity for the right buyer," Paul Smadbeck, managing director of JLL Capital Markets Investment Sales and Advisory said in a release obtained by FOX Business.
Smadbeck added that the property is located in a versatile zoning and its location is in one of the city’s most desirable and trendsetting neighborhoods.
Ono, who previously sold properties owned by the couple, now lives at her sprawling Catskills farm. At one point, she and Lennon had five co-op units there in the Dakota.
Earlier in 2020, one of Lennon’s former properties, an oceanfront Palm Beach estate sold for a record $36 million, a person with knowledge of the deal told the Wall Street Journal.
The duo had bought the estate in around 1980, according to the book "Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon" by Robert Rosen. Lennon was shot dead a few months later, and the couple's plans to renovate the property didn’t come through.
However, Ono reportedly renovated the property and sold it in 1986. Since then it has changed hands quite a few times with the latest sale happening in 2020.