A handsome Dakota co-op next to Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s home lists for $6.2M

Imagine there’s no heaven. It’s easy if you buy.

At New York City’s storied Dakota co-op at 1 W. 72nd St., a four-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom residence is available for sale asking $6.2 million. But this is no ordinary listing. This unit stands next to the longtime home of Yoko Ono — the one she shared with her late husband John Lennon — The Post has learned.

The for-sale seventh-floor unit, last owned by a man named Paul H. Epstein, according to property records, is now available for its next generation following his death in 2022, just weeks shy of his 82nd birthday. Epstein purchased the dwelling in 2012 with his husband, Garry Parton, though the transfer tax recorded with the city Department of Finance doesn’t mention the price they paid.

Epstein, a lawyer whose clientele included the likes of Leonard Bernstein — who was also a Dakota resident — and Rodgers & Hammerstein, was a significant figure in the city’s artistic community. His work in copyright law helped shape the careers of some of the 20th century’s most celebrated composers and choreographers.

The unit, like the building’s signature ornate exterior, offers a grand sense of style. A formal gallery flows into the eight-room residence, showcasing one of the home’s five fireplaces.

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The spacious living room, complete with another fireplace, offers sweeping views over the rooftops of the Upper West Side. Adjacent to this is a library, currently serving as a formal dining room, which holds a hidden wet bar.

Additional perks include soaring 13-foot ceilings, intricate moldings and wainscoting that dress the walls, plus a dining room that looks out onto the Dakota’s courtyard.

This unit — represented by Daniela Kunen of Douglas Elliman — is the only home up for sale in the 93-unit address, where turnover is famously rare. Indeed, the only sale in the building so far this year was Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow’s purchase of a three-bedroom unit for $4.99 million in April, records show.

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While Yoko Ono may no longer reside in the Dakota full-time, she remains its most famous occupant.

At 90, the artist and peace activist has since retreated to a sprawling 600-acre farm in Franklin, New York, a property she and Lennon acquired in 1978,.

Despite her departure from the city, Ono’s connection to the Dakota endures. She first moved into the building in 1966 and stayed even after Lennon’s death in 1980, when he was gunned down outside the Dakota’s entrance.

For decades, Ono’s presence at the Dakota was a beacon for fans and curious onlookers alike, contributing to the building’s mystique. The couple’s residency — which at one point included five units used as guest accommodations, storage and a studio for Ono — made them fixtures of the Upper West Side.

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The living space and studio alone encompassed nearly 6,000 square feet, underscoring the massive scale of their footprint in the building. It’s unclear how much money was spent total over the years carving out her home there.

The Dakota’s history is also as rich as its architecture. Built in 1884, it was America’s first luxury apartment building, offering efficient opulence at a time when grand Gilded Age mansions were becoming a cumbersome thing of the past. The Dakota was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, who later designed the Plaza Hotel , in a German Renaissance style.

Over the years, the Dakota had also become synonymous with names like Lauren Bacall, whose nine-room apartment fetched $21 million in 2015, a year after her death.

Dolly Lenz, a longtime luxury broker, said these units represent “the best deals in the city, especially considering the significant provenance associated with living at the Dakota,” she previously told The Post.

Though the building may lack the modern amenities of newer luxury developments, it offers something far more valuable: a direct link to the city’s cultural and architectural heritage.

The Dakota “doesn’t need to appeal to everybody,” Scott Cardinal, an architectural historian who has published several books on the building, also previously told The Post. “All it needs is 100 people who think it’s awesome. I don’t think it will ever have trouble finding people.”

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