Inside a $28 Million Fifth Avenue Penthouse With 3 Terraces

For about a year before moving across the Atlantic in 1956 to become Her Serene Highness the Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly lived in an elegant apartment at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 80th Street. Then still a rental building, the address was home to the Hollywood icon—best known for her starring roles in a series of Alfred Hitchcock films and her Oscar-winning performance in The Country Girl—who reportedly paid $633.69 a month for the 4,000-square-foot residence spanning the entire seventh floor. 

The 14-story Italian Renaissance–style building, designed by noted architect J.E.R. Carpenter and clad in limestone with a rusticated base, was converted to a condominium in the early 1980s and remains one of the few condo buildings on Fifth Avenue. Residents of 988 Fifth Ave. have historically held on to their homes for years, making sales rare; some apartments have remained in the same hands for more than a decade, and a few for more than 40 years. 

Still, the building has seen an unusual amount of activity recently. Tax records indicate that two units traded in 2025, selling for $16.25 million and $17.5 million, respectively. Before that, a decade had passed without a recorded transfer. Now, two residences are on the market, including the distinctive duplex penthouse, listed for $27.95 million with Noble Black, Jennifer Kaufman Stillman, and Jeffrey Gageby of Corcoran. 

Dark wood floorboards anchor the corner living room that spills onto a wraparound terrace.

Evan Joseph for Corcoran

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When former Loro Piana (USA) CEO Pier Luigi Guerci first came across the penthouse, it was little more than a confusing warren of staff rooms that had remained largely untouched since the 1920s. He has since transformed it into a quirky yet cohesive retreat—luxurious but relaxed, and filled with natural light, antique rugs, and vintage leather club chairs. The elevator door and the wardrobes lining the dressing room are sheathed in blue and red cashmere, while walls of glass on both floors slide open to stone-balustraded wraparound terraces with sweeping views of Midtown’s supertalls and much of Central Park. 

Between the corner living room and separate dining room is a sleek, efficient kitchen of stainless steel and frosted glass that opens to the terrace and features a row of glass ceiling panels. A powder room for guests is discreetly situated off the foyer. There are two guest bedrooms: a larger suite just off the dining room with a spacious bath and steam room and a smaller bedroom with a private bath tucked beneath a skylit cathedral ceiling at the top of a wooden staircase. Both open directly onto terraces.

Mahogany wardrobes trimmed in Loro Piana cashmere line the primary suite’s dressing room.

Evan Joseph for Corcoran

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A pair of carved wood doors from an Indian palace opens into the two-level primary suite. Just off the bedroom—which shares a double-sided fireplace with the living room—is a built-in office nook. The spacious bathroom features a hammam-style shower, and just beyond the dressing room is an unexpected rarity in Manhattan: an outdoor shower with views over Central Park. A corkscrew staircase rises from the mahogany dressing room to an L-shaped reading lounge and gym with a sauna. 

Outside, beneath an old water tower, are a wet bar, a pergola, and a second open-air shower. At one end, the terrace hovers above the roof of the Met before winding to a more secluded corner outside one of the guest bedrooms, where there’s a third alfresco shower.

Just outside the gym, an outdoor workout area includes a wet bar and shower.

Evan Joseph for Corcoran

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In all, the residence offers about 6,000 square feet of combined indoor and outdoor space. The indoor and outdoor spaces are outfitted with modern comforts and conveniences, including museum-quality central heating and air-conditioning, automated irrigation, and a centralized lighting system. 

Besides Guerci, tax records show that owners in the building include the Republic of Italy, a married pair of prominent attorneys, one of New York’s most successful commercial real estate brokers, the widow of a dot-matrix printing pioneer, and a biotech-focused venture capitalist.

Click here for more photos of the Manhattan aerie.

Evan Joseph for Corcoran

Authors

Mark David

Mark David got his start writing about real estate with the saucy cult-favorite blog The Real Estalker, on which he obsessively tracked the secretive world of celebrity property transactions. A much…

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