303 East 77th Street (The Isis)

The building occupies a corner lot of just 3,243 square feet, which governs everything about the plan. With frontage on both East 77th Street and Second Avenue, the residences get two exposures rather than the single street elevation an interior lot would allow — the significant compensation for a very small footprint.

The stack is simple. Two apartments per floor, an A line and a B line, from the second floor through the sixteenth, with four penthouse residences above. On the upper floors the A line runs near 1,697 square feet and the B line near 1,621; the lower floors carry smaller plates from roughly 1,205 to 1,439 square feet, so the building's price-per-foot spread is driven as much by which third of the stack a unit sits in as by exposure. PHA is the largest of the penthouses at roughly 2,559 square feet; PHB, PHC and PHD are smaller, between roughly 1,291 and 1,652, which is the reverse of the pattern buyers usually expect from a penthouse floor and is worth confirming on the floor plan rather than assuming.

The two combined residences — Unit 4 at roughly 2,629 square feet and Unit 15A/B at roughly 3,318 — are the only full-floor homes below the penthouse level, and they are the only apartments in the building with light on every exposure the plate offers. There are two of them, and no third can be created without another combination.

Materially, the façade is a Trespa rainscreen over a stone base. That is a maintenance profile worth understanding: panel systems age differently from masonry, with joint sealant and attachment as the recurring items rather than pointing and lintels. Ask for the most recent façade inspection cycle and any related capital work.

The Isis runs a full-service model at boutique scale: a 24-hour attended lobby, a full-time superintendent and porter, video intercom security, a bicycle room and two common roof decks. There is no fitness center, no pool and no garage, which is the honest trade at 51,000 gross square feet on a 3,243-square-foot lot — the building spent its area on apartments.

For a 30-residence condominium that staffing model is a meaningful fixed cost spread across a small denominator, and common charges per square foot will read high against larger full-service buildings on the avenue. That is arithmetic, not mismanagement, but it should be evaluated against the operating budget rather than against the amenity list. Ask the managing agent for the current budget, the reserve position, any live assessment, the façade inspection status and the building's Local Law 97 position before fixing a monthly number.

The commercial unit at the base, addressed 1480 Second Avenue and running to roughly 1,751 square feet, is a separate condominium unit with its own common-charge obligation. Confirm how commercial-section costs are allocated and what the unit's use restrictions are — on a Second Avenue corner with residential floors immediately above, that answer matters.

Ownership form: Condominium. Purchases close through a right of first refusal rather than a cooperative board approval, which produces faster and more predictable timelines — 30 to 45 days is typical.

Pets: Permitted per management-sourced records. Limits are not documented in public records; confirm in the house rules.

Pied-à-terre, subletting, LLC, trust and foreign ownership: All permitted under the standard condominium framework. Minimum lease terms and any lease-application fee should be confirmed with the managing agent.

Financing and minimum down: No condominium-imposed minimum. Because the building is well past its sponsor period and fully sold, secondary-market lending is straightforward; a lender will still want the current budget and reserve figures.

In-unit washer/dryer: Standard in the residences.

Flip tax: Not documented in public records, and no offering plan for this building was located in either library at the time of writing. Confirm any resale capital contribution with the managing agent before pricing a sale.

Real estate taxes: No exemption appears on any residential unit lot in the FY2027 assessment roll. Whatever benefit may have applied at the original closings has run off entirely. Underwrite the full bill on the specific unit.

Recent sales

Recent closings at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. 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 (2025) cleared a median $1,810/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 6.8% 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 1-01452-7501) 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.

Get the unit count right. Thirty-two residences were declared; thirty exist today after two combinations. City data reports 30 and Department of Buildings filings report 32. Neither is a mistake, and any model that treats one as an error will misstate common interests and per-unit costs.

Underwrite full taxes from day one. No exemption of any kind appears on the residential unit lots. This is the single largest gap between a headline price and a true monthly number here.

Ask about the façade. A Trespa rainscreen over a stone base has a different maintenance profile from masonry. Get the most recent inspection cycle, the scope of any completed work, and whether further work is scoped.

Check what is above and below. The commercial unit at the base fronts Second Avenue. Understand its permitted uses and how its common charges are allocated.

Second Avenue is a working avenue. Bus routes, retail loading and heavy traffic are part of the address, and the corner exposures that give these apartments two sides also give them the avenue. Visit at rush hour.

Lead with the plate, not the amenity list. Roughly 1,620 to 1,700 square feet in a two-per-floor building with two exposures is the product. There is no gym and no pool to sell, and pretending otherwise invites the wrong comparison.

Price against condominiums. The surrounding cooperatives are a different asset. Use the small set of Upper East Side condominium comparables, and adjust for the absence of amenities honestly.

Be direct about the tax posture. Buyers will find it. Presenting the full unabated figure alongside the True Monthly Carrying Cost analysis produces better outcomes than letting it surface late.

Same-building comparables are thin and tiered. Thirty residences across three effective size tiers means the honest anchor is the same line on a nearby floor, not the building average.

If you're considering 303 East 77th Street, also evaluate:

• 300 East 77th Street (The Seville) — condominium directly across the street; the closest peer by address and the most direct alternative
• 255 East 77th Street — new-construction condominium on the same street; the newer, higher-specification alternative
• 150 East 78th Street — 2021–2022 new-construction condominium a block north; boutique scale, contemporary finish
• 109 East 79th Street — 2020–2021 new-construction condominium; the current-vintage comparison at a higher price tier
• 215 East 80th Street — full-service condominium a few blocks north; postwar economics at a lower carrying cost
• 175–177 East 77th Street — converted condominium on the same street toward Lexington; prewar idiom, different policy stack
• 1628 Second Avenue — Second Avenue condominium in a prewar building; the smaller-scale alternative on the same corridor
• 301 East 80th Street (Beckford Tower) — 2019 ground-up condominium; the full-amenity alternative and the clearest contrast on service model
• 201 East 77th Street — postwar cooperative on the same street; the co-op alternative with a board approval and lower carrying cost
• 1498 Second Avenue (Lenox House) — Second Avenue cooperative one block north; a more accessible entry in the same submarket