Sutton House Apartments

Sutton House is a three-building residential cooperative with a private garden at 415 East 52nd Street on the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The building was designed by John M. Kokkins and Stephen C. Lyras in the modern style and was built by Kolyer Construction Corporation, originally as a luxury rental building managed by Douglas Elliman and owned by seven owners, including Kokkins, Lyras, Greek executive Manuel Kulukundis. The 19-floor building C faces East 53rd Street, and is technically therefore part of the Sutton Place neighborhood, while the 12-floor buildings A and B face East 52nd Street. Constructed between 1954 (when the building plot was acquired) and 1956, Sutton House was developed to be a "Symbol of town Living for Perfectionists"", per its marketing brochure found at Columbia University New York Real Estate Brochure Collection.

As of 1815, the Sutton House area was farmland, likely owned by the Seaman family.

By 1879 a stoneyard had been developed and a planning mill had been erected where currently build C stands, facing E 53rd street, while townhouses faced 52nd st, in the area still owned by the descendants of Edmund Seaman. The 1891 map shows the planning mill replaced by a building owned by Consumers Ice Co, and the stoneyard still active, at the site of building C.

In 1930, the Sutton House site continued occupied by townhouses facing 52nd St, and by the Knickerbocker Ice Company ice house facing 53rd Street. Given that the Knickerbocker Ice company closed to the public in 1924, the area was not being utilized when construction started in 1954.

The three buildings are connected by a T-shaped glass walled lobby, approached through a landscaped entrance, facing 52nd St on the south. Open areas between the buildings are private parklike setting. The complex features a 2-story 160-car garage facing 53rd street, for easy access from FDR Drive, and totals 290 apartments, from suites to 5-bedroom penthouses. Most of the apartments feature balconies, and some include fireplaces. Sutton House is a white brick building designed in the modernist period, a style share with the contemporaneous Manhattan House, which regained popularity in the 2010s.

In November 1964, Chatham Associates purchased 76% of Sutton House, leaving 26% in the hands of Kulukundis. At that point in time, Kulukundis, once a shipping magnate, was already bankrupt. The purchasing company, Chatham Associates, was only a front for Alex DiLorenzo Jr., Sol Goldman's business partner.

With DiLorenzo's death in 1975, Sol Goldman and Alex DiLorenzo III (who inherited 74% of Sutton House from his late father), decided to split the old business partnership... with a coin flip. That said, there was a serious difference of opinion between the two about the value of Sutton House... which made Sutton House be sold in its entirety to Michael Kulukundis, for more than $7M. And with that, as of June 1979, Sutton House belonged entirely to Michael Kulukundis. Later in 1979, as the New York Times reported during the trial of Anthony Scotto, the American New York mobster and labor union racketeer in the Gambino crime family, it become public that Kulukundis had sold 13% of the corporation owning Sutton House for $26, while this portion of the building had been assessed to be worth $6.1M, and to have been sold to Mr Scoto for $7.1M in May 1978. On November 16m 1979, Mr Scotto sold his interest in the Sutton House Corporation.

On January 8, 1980, Sutton House was converted from a rental building into a cooperative.

The French restaurant Le Périgord, owned by Georges Briget operated at Sutton House from 1964 until 2017.

Site
Sutton House is located at 415 East 52nd Street on the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The 19-floor building C faces East 53rd Street, and is technically therefore part of the Sutton Place neighborhood, while the 12-floor buildings A and B face East 52nd Street.

As of 1815, the Sutton House area was farmland, likely owned by the Seaman family.

By 1879 a stoneyard had been developed and a planning mill had been erected where currently build C stands, facing E 53rd street, while townhouses faced 52nd st, in the area still owned by the descendants of Edmund Seaman. The 1891 map shows the planning mill replaced by a building owned by Consumers Ice Co, and the stoneyard still active, at the site of building C.

In 1930, the Sutton House site continued occupied by townhouses facing 52nd St, and by the Knickerbocker Ice Company ice house facing 53rd Street. Given that the Knickerbocker Ice company closed to the public in 1924, the area was not being utilized when construction started in 1954.

Notable tenants
Early notable tenants included Georges Briguet, who ran the Lé Perigord restaurant at Sutton House, among other restaurants in NYC, and lived in the building from 1964 until his death in 2022. Alex DiLorenzo III, son of Alex DiLorenzo Jr and partner of Sol Goldman, lived in the building in the 1970's.Judy Sheindlin (known professionally as Judge Judy) and husband Jerry Sheindlin lived in apartment 4CC from 1997 until 2005. Judge Richard C. Casey lived in apartment 12HC from 2006 until his death.