Yoko Ono Sells Former Loft in SoHo for $5.5 Million to Mysterious Japanese Firm
Yoko Ono has sold the SoHo apartment-where she and John Lennon lived in the 1970s before moving to the Dakota-to a Japanese firm.
| 11 Oct 2024 | 06:37
Yoko Ono, pictured here in 2011, has sold the SoHo loft where she and John Lennon lived for 2 years after The Beatles broke up. (
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Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s former SoHo loft on 496 Broome Street, where they lived in the early 1970s, (
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Yoko Ono and her son, Sean Ono Lennon, have sold the SoHo loft building Ono once lived in with John Lennon for $5.5 million to a Japanese company.
The new owner was identified in NYC Department of Finance filing as Azabu Building K.K., a relatively new company., but little could be learned about their future plans for the site. According to Bizapedia, Azabu Building K.K. was filed as a New York Foreign Business Corporation only two months ago.
The Dun and Bradstreet Business Directory lists them as being in the “traveler accommodation industry.” Efforts to reach Riku Kato, who is listed in the D&B Business Directory as the owner, were not successful by press time.
According to real estate website PincusCo, the Broome Street loft has “3,832 square feet of built space and 3,675 square feet of additional air rights for a “buildable” total of 7,500 square feet should the new owners seek to expand....The sale price per built square foot is $1,435 and the price per buildable square foot is $733.” Jonas Herbsman acted as the signatory for Yoko Ono and Sean Ono Lennon, who is also a musician.
The SoHo apartment’s deed was transferred to Sekhmet Productions, which was once owned by Ono’s former boyfriend, but was then given to Ono and her son, according to the New York Times. This is the first time the property has been sold since the ownership rights were acquired by Ono through Ono Music Inc. in November 1971, city property records show.
John Lennon and Yoko lived at the 496 Broome Street residence for two years—between 1971 and 1973—shortly after 1970 break-up of the Beatles and before their move into the famed Dakota on the UWS across from Central Park.
In addition to having a full bathroom, an eat-in kitchen island, and a living space on the second floor, the property has a recording studio, which Lennon and Ono used while they lived there.
Unlike the nondescript SOHO building, the Dakota has hosted scores of celebrities over the years including Judy Garland, Lauren Bacall, Leonard Bernstein, Rosemary Clooney, Connie Chung and Maury Povich, to name a few but it most famous former inhabitants remain Yoko and Lennon. Lennon was murdered on a street right outside its front door in December, 1980.
Ono, facing both health issues and the pandemic, left the Dakota, which overlooks Central Park from its spot on 1 W. 72nd St, in 2023 for a 600-acre rural farm in upstate New York, near Franklin after living there for 50 years. In author Philip Norman’s biography of Lennon (“John Lennon: The Life”), he states that Ono and Lennon purchased the farm in 1978, as well as 122 cows and 10 bulls.
Ono moved out of the Dakota apartment—which overlooks Central Park from its spot on 1 West 72nd Street—in 2023, after living there for 50 years. The Upper West Side building, while famous for the place where the lyrical legend John Lennon once lived, is also known as the place where Lennon was murdered, in December 1980.
Ono, facing both health issues and the pandemic, left the Dakota for a 600-acre rural farm in upstate New York, near Franklin. In author Philip Norman’s biography of Lennon (“John Lennon: The Life”), he states that Ono and Lennon purchased the farm in 1978, as well as 122 cows and 10 bulls.