UPDATED, 4:57 p.m., May 18: Victor Sigoura’s Legion Investment Group has put together an assemblage on the Upper East Side for a ground-up residential condominium project, The Real Deal has learned.
Sigoura’s firm paid more than $62 million total for the sites, in three separate transactions that give the developer about 72,000 buildable square feet. One of its investors on the project is Gindi Capital, the investment arm of the Gindi family.
The first purchase, at 117 East 79th Street just off of Park Avenue, was made by a Gindi-controlled entity for and closed back in October for $15 million. Sigoura’s involvement was not revealed at the time. The other two parcels, 113 and 115 East 79th Street, closed over the past week, according to sources familiar with the transaction. Legion is in talks to buy inclusionary housing certificates that would bring the total buildable square feet to 72,000.
Representatives for Legion declined to comment. Kassin Sabbagh Realty’s Ceasar Salama and Joseph Ash, who brokered the assemblage deals, declined to comment. The seller at 113 East 79th was the estate of the late Richard Feigen, who bought the property in the 1980s; the sellers at 115 East 79th were Edward Grombacher and Ilona Swaring, who bought the property in 2002.
Legion, sources said, is talking to brand-name architects to design the project, which follows notable buildings in the area such as the Brodsky Organization’s 135 East 79th Street, which was designed by William Sofield, and Spruce Capital Partners’ 151 East 78th Street, designed by Peter Pennoyer. Average sales prices at both buildings exceeded $3,000 per square foot, according to CityRealty data.
Sigoura is the former chief investment officer of the Naftali Group, the development firm headed by Miki Naftali. He left in 2016 to form a new venture named Highpoint Property Group with another former colleague, Drew Popkin. The two sued Naftali that month over a share-of-profits dispute, but Sigoura dropped his suit and formed Legion in the fall of that year. This March, Sigoura launched Legion’s first project, at 282 Nassau Avenue in Greenpoint, where Nest Seekers International’s Ryan Serhant is handling sales there.
Legion also recently hired Sean Zalka, who was previously at Cape Advisors as director of development. At Legion, Zalka will be executive vice president of development and marketing, helping to oversee Legion’s projects such as the one on 79th Street. Before Cape Advisors, he was co-developer of 7 Harrison, a boutique condo project in Tribeca.
Christian Bautista contributed reporting.
This story was updated to include the Gindi family’s involvement in the project and to correct the closing date of one of the parcels.