177 East 79th Street

The building is a slim, dark brown-brick infill tower — the kind of narrow mid-block apartment house that 1980 East Side development produced when a single lot came available between pre-war neighbors. A canopied entrance marks the address. The architecture is utilitarian rather than ornamental; the value is entirely inside, in the layouts.

The 15 residences are organized for privacy. The lower floors are single full-floor apartments, one per landing, reached by a keyed elevator that opens directly into the home. The upper floors are configured as duplexes, giving those residences two levels of living space with internal stairs. Every apartment is a through-floor plan with light on multiple exposures, generous proportions for a building of this size, and the modern conveniences — in-unit laundry chief among them — that distinguish it from the neighborhood's pre-war co-ops. A video intercom serves each residence.

177 East 79th Street is a small cooperative operated for privacy and predictability. A live-in superintendent handles day-to-day building management, with part-time door staff covering weekday mornings; there is no full-time doorman, which keeps the maintenance structure efficient for a 15-unit building. The keyed-elevator system means common-area circulation is minimal — another reason carrying costs stay contained relative to a staffed full-service tower.

On board policy, the cooperative permits financing up to 75% of the purchase price and charges a 2% flip tax, paid at closing. The building is pet-friendly, and pied-à-terre purchases are permitted — a notable and buyer-friendly stance, since many East Side co-ops prohibit non-primary-residence ownership. In-unit washer/dryers are already installed throughout, removing a common renovation hurdle. As with any cooperative, purchases require a board application and interview, and the small share count means each transfer matters to the building's financial picture.

Recent sales

Recent transfers at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. Apartment-level facts are independently verified before publishing; sale prices reflect the recorded transfer amount at the NYC Department of Finance.

Market read. Most recent trades (2023) cleared a median $1,000/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 1.1% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01508-0130) and verified listing data. Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified by The Roebling Team research desk. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price; square footage on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

You are buying privacy and format. The keyed-elevator, full-floor (or duplex) plan is the headline — no shared hallways, your own private landing, light on multiple sides, and in-unit laundry already in place. The financing allowance of 75% is reasonable for the neighborhood, the 2% flip tax is standard and falls to the seller, and the building's acceptance of pied-à-terre ownership and pets widens its appeal to buyers who would be screened out elsewhere.

Underwrite it as a small co-op: review the financials, reserves, and any planned capital work — facade, elevator, mechanicals — in your board package, since fixed costs in a 15-unit building are spread across few shareholders. Expect a board application and interview. For a buyer who wants a private floor in Carnegie Hill without a townhouse's maintenance burden, and who does not need a 24-hour doorman, this building delivers a configuration that is genuinely hard to replicate.

Sell the floor-through privacy and the policy flexibility. The keyed elevator opening into a single private residence, the full-floor or duplex layout, in-unit laundry, pet-friendliness, permitted pied-à-terre use, and 75% financing together describe a building that competes for a specific, motivated buyer — and there are very few comparable products nearby. Scarcity is your ally: with 15 apartments, supply is structurally limited.

Benchmark to full-floor and duplex co-op residences in Carnegie Hill and the surrounding East 70s and 80s, not to standard line-by-line apartments in larger buildings. Emphasize light, the private-landing arrival experience, and the move-in practicality of a post-war building in a pre-war neighborhood. A well-presented listing with a clean board-package narrative tends to find its buyer efficiently given how rarely these homes come available.

If you're considering 177 East 79th Street, these nearby Carnegie Hill and East 70s–80s cooperatives offer useful points of comparison:

• 173 East 79th Street — cooperative on the same block
• 151 East 79th Street — Carnegie Hill co-op a few doors west
• 161 East 79th Street — East 79th Street cooperative nearby
• 136 East 79th Street — pre-war East 79th Street co-op
• 180 East 79th Street — full-service co-op directly across the street

The Roebling Team at Compass specializes in Carnegie Hill, the broader Upper East Side, and Manhattan's small and boutique cooperatives. We publish this profile because buyers and sellers at distinctive buildings like 177 East 79th Street deserve building-specific intelligence — the keyed-elevator format, the financing and flip-tax policy, the pied-à-terre stance, and how full-floor inventory here prices against its Carnegie Hill peers.

If you're considering a purchase or sale here, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.