Trump Park Avenue: The 1929 Hotel Delmonico That Trump Bought for $115 Million and Converted

By Solomon Rokowsky

Trump Park Avenue, 502 Park Avenue at East 59th Street. Photograph by Jim.henderson, via Wikimedia Commons. CC0.

Trump Park Avenue is the buff-brick tower on the northwest corner of Park Avenue and East 59th Street. Its address is 502 Park Avenue, and before it carried a Trump name it was the Hotel Delmonico. Donald Trump did not build it. He bought the old hotel in 2001 and converted it, and that difference matters for how its history should be told. This article covers what the building was, what Trump changed, where the sources disagree, and who owns it now.

What was the Hotel Delmonico at 502 Park Avenue?

The New York Times reported on September 8, 1929 that the Delmonico Hotel would open the following week, on September 15, as a 32-story apartment hotel with 525 rooms. The same article described a triplex apartment renting for $45,000 a year, and it said the new hotel had no connection to the old Delmonico's restaurant family beyond borrowing the name.

The Trump Organization's own page adds some of the building's later social history. It says the Beatles stayed at the Delmonico in the 1960s and that Christie's and Regine's were located there in the 1970s. Those are the owner's claims and this article repeats them as such. The sources read for this article do not give dates for each of those uses.

Trump Park Avenue seen across Park Avenue. Photograph by Jim.henderson, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

When was it built, how tall is it, and who designed it?

The sources do not agree, and the differences are small enough to be easy to miss.

Height. The 1929 and 2001 New York Times articles both say 32 stories. Hotel Business, reporting the 2001 sale, says 31 stories.

Date. The 1929 Times article describes the hotel as opening in September 1929, and the architecture site NewYorkitecture also gives 1929. Hotel Business gives 1927 for the construction, and a 2002 New York Post article refers to the building's "1927 innards." This article reports the dates as given and does not try to reconcile them.

Architect. Among the sources read, only NewYorkitecture names an architect, Goldner & Goldner. This article found no primary record, such as a building permit or a designation report, that confirms the architect, so treat that attribution as the single secondary source it is.

How did Donald Trump end up owning it?

The New York Times reported on November 30, 2001 that Trump bought the Delmonico for $115 million from the estate of Sarah Korein, after outmaneuvering three other bidders. The Times described the 32-story hotel as better known for its location, at the corner of Park Avenue and 59th Street, than for its architecture. Hotel Business reported the same deal that day under the headline "Trump to Buy Hotel Delmonico in NYC."

So the purchase price and the buyer are well documented. What Trump bought was an existing hotel with a long line of owners. NewYorkitecture counts the building's uses as hotel, rental apartments, co-op, hotel again, and finally condominium. The New York Post's 2002 article says William Zeckendorf Jr. was a previous owner and had lived in the 34th-floor penthouse. The Times said the hotel had been run for more than a decade by Elysabeth Kleinhans, the daughter of Sarah Korein, who told the paper she would be "quite happy to get out of here" and wanted to build a theater complex instead. Trump said he expected to close within 120 days, and the Post says he bought it "earlier this year," meaning 2002, so the sale closed after the November 2001 agreement.

What did Trump change?

The New York Post reported on May 12, 2002 that Trump planned to strip the interior "down to the steel" and sandblast the exterior brick. It named Costas Kondylis as the architect for the conversion and said the apartments were expected to sell for about $3,000 a square foot. Trump told the Post, "I want to build something lasting and incredible." The paper said he wanted the result to echo the co-ops at 720 and 740 Park Avenue nearby, that the lower facade would get more glass for storefronts, that all the windows would be enlarged and replaced, and that ten remaining apartment tenants were being moved to lower floors. It also reported he was considering a few full-floor residences of 4,000 to 7,800 square feet on the 20th to 34th floors, with smaller units below. Kondylis is also the architect credited with Trump World Tower in this series.

NewYorkitecture describes the physical result. The conversion added a seven-story glass box on the north side at the top of the building, and the condominium conversion was completed in 2004.

The Trump Organization's page now says the building has "over 120 luxury condominiums." The Real Deal reported in 2025 that the building has 122 condominiums in a 32-story tower.

Trump Park Avenue at East 59th Street, April 2024. Photograph by Deans Charbal, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

The 59th Street corridor with Trump Park Avenue. Photograph by Alex Proimos, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.0.

Is Trump Park Avenue a landmark?

The Trump Organization's page calls the building "a landmarked architectural wonder." This article could not verify that. The sources read do not show a designation by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission for 502 Park Avenue, and the commission's designation reports are the usual record of such status. It may be that the phrase is used loosely, but without a designation report the claim should be treated as unconfirmed. The same page says the building was "Built in the 1920's," which fits the 1927 and 1929 dates above.

What do apartments here sell for?

The Real Deal reported on August 27, 2025 that a penthouse unit, number 27, sold for $7.3 million, down from $14 million when it last sold in 2016. The report said Trump never lived in that unit. It also said Trump sold his own 24th-floor penthouse in the building for $21 million, that Michael Cohen owns a unit on the 10th floor, and that Trump kept some units. It cited research by Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh and CityRealty finding that price per square foot in the building fell 23 percent from 2013 to 2023, while buildings that removed the Trump name saw prices rise 9 percent.

Those figures come from one trade publication reporting on a small number of sales, so they show a direction rather than a market rate. A 2021 Patch article, citing a 2013 Real Deal report, said Trump Palace and Trump Park Avenue were "mostly co-ops that Trump himself does not own." Trump Park Avenue is a condominium by the Trump Organization's own description and by the 2025 Real Deal report, so that wording looks loose, but it supports the point that most apartments are owned by individual residents.

Upper floors of Trump Park Avenue. Photograph by Ajay Suresh, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

Can you eat or shop at Trump Park Avenue?

The ground floor has a store rather than a restaurant. Scully & Scully, a home furnishings and gift retailer, lists its location as 504 Park Avenue and says it began in 1934 in a storefront at that address. Its website gives store hours of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and says it is closed on Sunday. No public restaurant, lounge, bar or cafe at this address turned up in the official sources read. The Trump Organization's building page does not list one.

Who owns Trump Park Avenue today?

The building is a condominium, so individual owners hold their apartments. The Trump Organization's page presents it as part of the company's residential portfolio, and the Real Deal report says Trump kept some units after selling others. No source read states who owns the commercial space or the building's common elements, so this article does not name an owner for them. The Trump name remained on the building in all the 2021 to 2025 reports read.

Sources

• The New York Times, The Delmonico Hotel to Open Next Week (September 8, 1929)
• The New York Times, Trump Buys Hotel Delmonico for $115 Million (November 30, 2001)
• Hotel Business, Trump To Buy Hotel Delmonico In NYC (November 30, 2001)
• New York Post, Delmonico Goes Trump: Gut Rehab to Restore Former Hotel's Glory (May 12, 2002)
• NewYorkitecture, 502 Park Avenue (February 10, 2015)
• The Real Deal, Trump Park Avenue Condo Sold For Half Its Last Sale Price (August 27, 2025)
• Patch, Could Upper East Side Buildings Ditch Trump's Name? (January 25, 2021)
• The Trump Organization, Trump Park Avenue
• Scully & Scully, Contact Us (store hours)
• Scully & Scully, About Us