215 East 79th Street

Fifteen storeys and a penthouse in brick, mid-block, on a plot just under 100 feet wide and just over 100 feet deep. The building sits back from Third Avenue by roughly 200 feet, which is the position that governs its light: the lower floors are enclosed by the block's fabric, the upper floors clear it, and the penthouse level and its terraces sit above everything nearby. The house rules contemplate terraces, penthouse terraces, and roof plantings under written agreement, which is a reliable signal that outdoor space exists on the upper lines and is regulated rather than incidental.

Apartment composition follows the 1947 plan and its subsequent editing. As offered, 85 apartments and 287 rooms; today, 84 on paper and fewer in fact, with combinations concentrated on the mid and upper floors. Original apartments in a building of this vintage carry defined foyers, separated kitchens and real closet volume — stock that renovates well but that also means most trading inventory falls into one of two clearly distinct conditions: unrenovated original, or comprehensively combined and rebuilt.

Two ground-floor professional units complete the plan. They are owned by the corporation and leased out; the reviewed statements report roughly $200,000 in annual rent, which requires updating for current leases, collections and expenses. The offices bring medical and professional visitors into the lobby — the house rules address this directly, prohibiting patients and clients from waiting in the lobby.

Full service at a modest scale. A doorman announcing guests at the inner lobby, a live-in superintendent, a union staff covered by the Local 32BJ collective bargaining agreement, a central laundry, basement storage, and resident access to the roof area at the top of the building and to the rear yard under board-set procedures. There is no garage, no gym and no pool. The reviewed statements report payroll and benefits near $770,000 against roughly $1 million of operating expenses. The reporting year is not specified here; those figures do not establish today's budget or whether future labor changes will matter more than utilities or capital costs. Obtain current expenses and contract obligations.

Capital work in recent cycles has covered exterior repairs, plumbing upgrades, elevator upgrades and HVAC equipment, and the boiler was converted to gas in 2012 with a stainless chimney lining. The Local Law 11 rhythm is visible in the permit record: heavy-duty sidewalk sheds filed in 2000, 2004, 2022 and again in April 2026, with lintel replacement, masonry repair and waterproofing in 2004. One recent year also carried significant water-damage repair work substantially offset by insurance proceeds. A buyer should ask specifically what the 2026 shed is supporting and whether that scope is funded, assessed or financed.

The policy details are set out above. Three of them carry consequences a buyer or seller should weigh before anything else.

Subletting is a hardship regime, not a seasoning-and-fee regime. The demonstrated-absence requirement, the two-year cap and the 25 percent maintenance fee together mean this is an owner-occupant building and should be underwritten as one.

The washer/dryer rule is a condition of sale, not merely a house rule. No new machines are approved, and an existing machine must be removed at the shareholder's expense before the corporation consents to a transfer. Surface it before a listing goes live, not at contract.

The smoking prohibition lives in the proprietary lease. Because the shareholders adopted it as a lease amendment in 2016 rather than as a board rule, it is stronger in effect and harder to reverse than the policies most neighbouring buildings have adopted.

Alterations — structural work, plumbing and heating changes, electrical additions, new windows, air-conditioning devices and non-standard floor coverings — all require written consent under a formal alteration agreement, with work hours limited to 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays.

Financing and other purchase requirements: The management schedule dated September 4, 2026 states maximum financing of 75% of purchase price, implying at least 25% toward the price before closing costs. Confirm applicability and obtain written requirements for liquidity, pied-à-terre use, trusts, LLCs, co-purchasers, guarantors and gifts; reconcile them with the governing documents and valid amendments.

Recent sales

Recent transfers at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.

Market read. Most recent trades (2026 to date) cleared a median $802/sf (floor-adjusted) across 2 sales. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 2.6% 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 1-01525-0009). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. 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.

Assume you will live here. The sublet policy is a hardship policy, not a rental policy. If there is any prospect that you will need to let the apartment within a few years, this is the wrong building and it is better to know that before you spend on diligence.

Ask about the washer and dryer before you fall in love with the apartment. No new machines are approved, and an existing machine has to come out before the board consents to a transfer. If the apartment you are seeing has one, ask when it was installed and under what agreement.

Confirm the financing and liquidity requirements. The September 4, 2026 management schedule reports a 75% financing ceiling. Confirm it for the transaction and obtain any additional minimum cash, post-closing liquidity and debt-to-income requirements in writing.

Read the reserve position honestly. The documented January 2021 financing was interest-only, swapped to 2.631% for ten years; neither those terms nor the historical reserve balance establishes present financial strength. Your attorney should ask what the current sidewalk shed is supporting, whether an assessment has been voted or discussed, and what the board has done about the professional-unit leases, whose scheduled base rents in the statements on file ran only through 2024.

Note the professional units. Two ground-floor offices operate in the building and their income is a real part of the budget. That means lobby traffic during business hours and it means the corporation carries commercial re-letting risk.

The block matters. East 79th between Second and Third is unlandmarked Yorkville: no historic district, no designation, and the Second Avenue subway a short walk east. Walk it at the hour you would actually come home.

Surface the washer/dryer condition on day one. If a machine is in the apartment it must be removed before the board will consent to the transfer. Discovering that at contract costs time and leverage; disclosing it at listing costs nothing.

Market to owner-occupants. The sublet regime, the smoke-free lease amendment and the pet cap define the buyer, and the sublet limits rule out a buy-to-rent purchase. The board's pied-à-terre posture is not published; confirm it with the managing agent before accepting or turning away a part-time buyer.

Present the documented financing and current updates. Supply the January 2021 interest-only loan and 2.631% swap terms alongside the latest statements, current balance, maturity and capital plan. Compare actual financing terms without asserting a neighborhood advantage.

Budget the flip tax. 1.5 percent of the gross sales price comes out of your side. Run the Seller Closing Cost Calculator with it included before you set a reserve price.

Price condition, not the line letter. After five decades of combinations, no two apartments on a floor are necessarily comparable. Run the Renovation Cost Calculator against the honest condition story.

If you're considering 215 East 79th Street, also evaluate:

• 229 East 79th Street — the 1930 prewar cooperative on the same block; the closest like-for-like in tenure and scale
• 1523 Second Avenue — the 1957 cooperative at the corner of the same block
• 201 East 79th Street (1391 Third Avenue) — the 1963 cooperative at the Third Avenue corner
• 180 East 79th Street — the 1929–1930 prewar cooperative west of Lexington; the prestige step-up on the same street
• 333 East 79th Street — a 1961 two-building cooperative complex under a single apartment corporation
• 200 East 78th Street — mid-1960s full-service cooperative one block south
• 205 East 78th Street — late-1920s prewar cooperative converted in the 1980s
• 201 East 83rd Street — Saxon Towers; the larger 1964 cooperative alternative to the north
• 300 East 79th Street — the ground-up condominium on the same street; the deed-ownership alternative