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About Arcadia, 408 East 79th Street
Air-rights transfers - the exchange of unused development rights from one property to another – are not unusual in New York City, but they are seldom used to build directly above the other property. Usually the properties are adjacent lots that may be legally merged for new construction on the combined lot.
This 20-story condominium apartment building, however, has used the air-rights from the low-rise apartment building with fire escapes immediately to its east to cantilever part of its bulk over that building, a rare phenomenon in the city. (A somewhat similar plan was followed in a high-rise apartment tower not far from the United Nations near Turtle Bay.)
The building has a doorman, a concierge, a health club, a children's playroom, a library, a screening room, wine cellar, and storage and is pet-friendly.
Construction on the new building began in 2004. It is cantilevered at its seventh floor on its east side. The building, which has 84 units, has a setback above its 13th floor. The developer of this building is Jelee LLC.
Costas Kondylis was the architect.
The building is across the street from a newsstand and Saint Monica’s Catholic Church and is on the former site of Phillips auction house. It is adjacent to a slightly taller but setback apartment tower on the southeast corner at First Avenue.
This location is not convenient to subways but there is good bus service on 79th Street and York Avenues and there is an downtown entrance to the FDR Drive at the east end of 79th Street.
Carl Schurz Park and a couple of the city’s top schools for girls are a few blocks away to the east and north.
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