In the latest twist for what has become one of New York City’s more high-profile buildings, Airbnb has bought 201 Park Avenue South for $81.5 million to expand its Big Apple and East Coast presence.

Sources confirmed the deal to buy the six-story building from RFR closed on July 8, beginning a new chapter for a more than 42,500-square-foot Beaux-Arts landmark building with a long, vivid history.

This is the first building that San Francisco-based Airbnb has bought in New York City, although it already has operations here.

The structure, once listed as high as $135 million and more recently for $120 million, was marketed extensively, among other things, as a chance for a large corporation to have a headquarters or hub.

The contract price works out to about $2,000 per square foot, according to The Real Deal, which called that “a big premium” compared to Olmstead Properties’ recent purchase of 373 and 381 Park Avenue South for $104 million or about $300 per square foot.

SERHANT (Ryan Serhant and Bernadette Brennan) and Avison Young (James Nelson and Alexandra Marolda) were the listing brokers.

The deal boosts Airbnb’s New York City presence as the company still faces highly restrictive New York City regulations, making it difficult to do short-term rentals. 

NYC is “part of our story”

“New York City has been part of our story since the earliest days of Airbnb,” Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said. “This building reflects our long-term commitment to the city and will be home to one of our largest employee hubs outside of San Francisco. We’re excited to keep investing in the city and the people who make it extraordinary.”

RFR, which in 2014 reached a deal to acquire the building, was founded by Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs in the early 1990s, and today employs more than 180 with over 100 properties including office, residential, hotel and retail. 

RFR US – led by Aby Rosen, Gaby Rosen, and Charlie Rosen – oversees operations across key U.S. markets such as New York City.

“We were heavily marketing the building for the last year,” said Bernadette Brennan, executive director of SERHANT Commercial. “They wanted to make sure whoever was going in would continue the legacy of the building.”

SERHANT, she said, on its Netflix series “Owning Manhattan” spent “a whole season going back and forth talking about that building,” filming scenes and shooting there, as well as marketing it to 13 million users on its various platforms.

“We marketed it heavily, starting with the launch on Netflix for season two,” Brennan said of “Owning Manhattan.”

They also marketed it through Realtor conferences and events, involving performers and sponsors as well as more private efforts. “We activated the building,” Brennan added. “We did an extensive marketing campaign.”

Ryan Serhant in a Jan. 28, 2026 Instagram video described it as a “Beaux Arts building delivered vacant for the first time in a very long time.”

Designed by Robert W. Gibson and Edward J. Neville Stent, it was commissioned by donors including Cornelius Vanderbilt and J. Pierpont Morgan and built in 1894 as the Church Missions House,

The building served as the Episcopal Church’s Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society for many years,  designated as a New York City landmark in 1979 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

RFR reached a deal to buy the building for around $50 million in 2014. Fotografiska New York, part of Swedish photography museum Fotografiska, leased the building from 2019, before leaving in 2024.

Located at East 22nd Street in the Gramercy Park neighborhood, it includes two full kitchens, two passenger elevators, one freight elevator, and one serving the 2nd floor restaurant space that once housed Stephen Starr’s Verōnika restaurant.

The landmarked chapel features 25-plus foot vaulted Gothic ceilings and stained glass windows.

Starring in “Inventing Anna”

The building itself was one of the stars of a Netflix mini-series titled “Inventing Anna,” where Anna Sorokin, pretending to be German heiress Anna Delvey, used forged financial documents to try to buy it.

The Netflix series attracted attention to the building, boosting its profile, potentially increasing awareness.

Airbnb, a global giant employing around 8,200, had an $84.84 billion market capitalization as of July 8, with over $12.65 billion in revenue and $2.52 billion in earnings in fiscal 2025.

The company for the first quarter of 2026 grew revenue 18% year-over-year to $2.7 billion as nights booked on its app grew 22% year-over-year, accounting for 63% of total nights booked, up from 58% a year ago. 

New York City has a restrictive policy for short-term home stays, which Airbnb has been seeking to loosen, as it makes some headway with hotel listings.

Airbnb Chief Financial Officer Ellie Mertz in a first quarter earnings call said they are “scaling the number of great, high-quality boutique and independent hotels” on their platform, making it “much easier for consumers to find hotels if that’s what they’re looking for.”

“It allows us to satisfy demand in markets where, for regulatory or other reasons, we don’t have sufficient supply,” she said, without mentioning New York City.

Chesky in the call said “if you were to search right now in New York City, it (hotel and home listings) is co-mingled,” adding in the long run people who only want hotels should be able to see only hotels and those only seeking homes should only see homes.