109 East 79th Street: A Steven Harris Condominium

109 East 79th Street is a 19-storey condominium by Steven Harris Architects on the north side of the street just east of Park Avenue, opened to residents in 2022.

Developed by Legion Investment Group on the site of five low-rise buildings, it borrows the proportions of the prewar apartment houses around it while selling as a condominium. Here is what buying there involves.

1. What the Building Is

109 East 79th Street stands on the north side of the street between Park and Lexington Avenues, a short walk from Central Park. Its Department of Buildings filing records 19 storeys and 209 feet, although apartment numbering skips the thirteenth floor and runs to a penthouse on the twentieth.

Legion Investment Group, led by its founder Victor Sigoura, developed the building, and Cauldwell Wingate was the general contractor. Steven Harris Architects designed it inside and out, one of only a handful of residential buildings the firm has designed in full, with interiors and landscaping by Rees Roberts + Partners.

The building is a condominium of about 145,000 square feet. City tax records list 32 residential units, while sales materials described 31 homes of two to five bedrooms, including five penthouses, the largest of them above 6,000 square feet. The structure topped out in May 2021.

The location is on Google Maps.

2. The Site and the Design

The building replaced five low-rise buildings that Legion began assembling in 2018, among them a mirror-image pair of French Renaissance limestone mansions at 107 and 109 East 79th Street. Designed by Foster, Gade & Graham and built in 1909, they were demolished after their salvaged interiors were offered for sale.

The design draws on Art Deco, Mid-Century and Bauhaus sources, and the floor plans take cues from the prewar apartments of Rosario Candela and J.E.R. Carpenter. The facade pairs fluted limestone with light-grey brick and large casement windows, and the entrance and crown are framed in Pietra di Torre stone inspired by Milan's Villa Necchi Campiglio.

At street level, slender bronze marquees recall Philip Johnson's canopy for the original Four Seasons restaurant, and an illuminated glass mural by the artist Mig Perkins sits above the front doors. Inside, ceilings reach up to 20 feet and select homes have step-down living rooms, a feature rarely built in New York in the past half century.

Ask for each candidate unit's floor plan with ceiling heights and outdoor areas stated separately.

3. Amenities and the Park Avenue Setting

Residents enter through a double-height lobby with a 24-hour concierge. A lounge and a library look onto the building's private garden, which has a water wall designed by Mig Perkins, and floor plans were oriented toward that garden and the neighbouring ones.

A double-height fitness centre includes a squash court with a retractable basketball hoop and a movement studio for private classes. There is also a spa with a sauna, a steam room, treatment rooms and a hair salon, along with a screening room, a golf simulator and a game room.

Park Avenue is just to the west and Lexington Avenue a short walk east, where the 6 train stops at 77th Street. City records list most of the older apartment buildings on this block and the next block north as cooperatives, where a board must approve every buyer.

Ask which amenities carry separate fees or booking rules before comparing monthly charges.

4. Buying Here as an Overseas Purchaser

109 East 79th Street is a condominium, so there is no co-op board approval, and a buyer abroad can purchase personally or, where the documents allow, through an entity. Some lenders offer mortgages to foreign nationals, but expect larger deposits and fuller documentation than a US borrower faces, so start the application before making an offer.

The buyer pays New York's mansion tax on residential purchases of $1 million or more, charged on the whole price at graduated rates from 1% between $1 million and $2 million up to 3.9% at $25 million and above. Since July 2026 the city has also levied an annual pied-à-terre surcharge on high-value apartments that are no one's primary residence, and its administration is before the courts.

On a later sale by a foreign owner, the buyer must withhold 15% of the gross price under FIRPTA unless an IRS withholding certificate reduces it. A non-resident who is not a US citizen has only a $60,000 US estate tax exemption on US-situs assets, so settle the ownership structure with tax counsel before contract.

Agree the buying entity with counsel before the contract is signed.

Recorded Sales: What the Public Record Shows

NYC's Department of Finance records every sale with its address and price. Between January 2023 and September 2026 it recorded 12 sales of apartments at 109 East 79th Street, at a median price of $16.18 million. Half of them closed between $9.17 million and $28.85 million; the highest was $35 million.

A median across a whole building mixes small and large apartments, low floors and high ones, so it describes the building rather than any one residence. Use it to see how often apartments here change hands and where the building's prices sit. Price a specific apartment from recorded sales on the same line and floor range, which can be pulled from the deed records before you make an offer.

These are recorded deed prices, not asking prices, and none of them is a Reinvent NY transaction. A sale appears in the record weeks after closing, and a deed price can include a parking space or storage unit bought at the same time.

Final Thoughts: Prewar Proportions Without a Co-op Board

109 East 79th Street offers what many of its older neighbours do not: condominium ownership in a building planned around high ceilings, formal rooms and a private garden. For anyone purchasing from abroad, the absence of a co-op board interview is as practical an advantage as the layouts.

The building is still young, with residents only since 2022 and a final certificate of occupancy issued in January 2026, so its operating history is short. Its extensive amenities are shared by about thirty homes, so their running costs fall on fewer owners than in a large tower.

Price a specific apartment from recorded sales on the same line and nearby floors, because homes range from two-bedroom apartments to full-floor penthouses. Then read the offering plan, its amendments and the latest financial statements before making an offer.

Request the offering plan amendments, the current budget and recent board minutes before your second viewing.

Figures here describe the building, not any one apartment. Asking prices, monthly carrying costs, tax abatement status and sublet rules are established unit by unit from the offering plan, the most recent financial statement and the managing agent.

Reinvent NY Inc. provides real estate and business expansion consulting in New York. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax or investment advice.

More buildings worth knowing: 100 Eleventh Avenue, 111 West 57th Street, 130 William. The full set is indexed under New York building profiles.