William Lauder has sold a NYC co-op for $37.5M off-market

William Lauder, the ousted executive director and longtime chairman of Estée Lauder Companies — and a scion of the cosmetics empire — has sold his prized co-op at 998 Fifth Ave. for $37.5 million in an off-market deal.

News of that transaction was first reported by the Real Deal. And it comes as the billionaire is looking to shed some homes from his portfolio.

The buyer for the 998 Fifth residence is Evan Cheng, the co-founder and CEO of Mysten Labs, a blockchain infrastructure firm. Cheng, a former senior engineering executive at Meta, paid a significant premium over the $23.5 million Lauder spent on the unit in 2017 — netting the cosmetics heir a $14 million gain over eight years.

The apartment, Unit 6W, is located in one of the most storied buildings along Fifth Avenue, a limestone landmark completed in 1912. 

The unit has four bedrooms and five bathrooms, with a gracious eat-in kitchen and oversize windows framing views of Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

The sale marks the latest move in a broader property reshuffling for Lauder, who has been quietly trimming his property portfolio.

He is currently marketing a 12th-floor apartment at 778 Park Ave. — once owned by former Revlon chief Ronald Perelman — for $25 million, a slight drop from the $27 million asking price he initially set last year, StreetEasy shows. He’s reportedly looking to sell it in a downsizing effort.

Lauder acquired that unit for $24 million in 2023 and also owns another apartment in the same building, purchased in 2008 for $27.5 million. That home was once listed for $45 million, but failed to sell.

Outside of Manhattan, Lauder is eyeing a record-breaking sale in Palm Beach. There, he had reportedly found a buyer in recent months for a $178 million pair of oceanfront parcels, but it’s not immediately clear if the deal fell through. 

If those properties ultimately sell for anywhere near asking, the deal would set a new residential sales benchmark for Florida.

Lauder purchased the adjacent estate from the estate of conservative broadcaster Rush Limbaugh in 2023 for $155 million.