The low-rise walkups at 242 East 71st Street are officially history, and in their place a Robert A.M. Stern Architects-designed condo tower is starting to stake its claim on the Upper East Side. Crews have broken ground at the southwest corner of Second Avenue and East 71st Street in Lenox Hill, where a 22-story condominium building is set to bring storefront retail, an enclosed parking garage and roughly 50 high-end homes to a once-sleepy mid-block stretch.
Demolition wrapped late last year, and what was a cluster of walkups has turned into a full-on construction zone, with earthmoving equipment and piling rigs now taking over the lot.
Site Work And Timeline
Site work is in full swing at 242 East 71st Street, where crews are pushing ahead with earthwork and piling for a roughly 172,000-square-foot tower that will include about 50 condominium units, ground-floor retail and enclosed parking, according to CityRealty. The nearly 10,000-square-foot parcel was fully cleared after demolition concluded at the end of October 2025, and wooden construction boards now ring the site as foundations start to take shape.
Project signage and on-site renderings point to a summer 2028 completion, so neighbors are in for an extended stretch of foundation work before the structure starts climbing above street level.
Design And Details
A developer sketch on Avdoo’s site shows a classic RAMSA playbook at work. The design leans into warm limestone cladding, arched windows, Juliet balconies and twin columns of bay windows, with setbacks and loggia cutouts breaking up the massing and carving out private terraces for residents.
Inside, New York YIMBY reports that the lobby will be lined with marble and will feature a fireplace, adding a bit of old-school grandeur to the Second Avenue corridor. The porte-cochere is set to come with a coffered ceiling and cove lighting, while the bulkhead will carry ornamental aprons, pointed pediments and horizontal flaps to help screen mechanical equipment from view.
Neighborhood Context
The project sits a short stroll from the northern entrance to the 72nd Street subway station, dropping new residents right into the heart of the Upper East Side commute. It also joins a growing wave of developments reshaping the mid-blocks off Second Avenue, as smaller buildings give way to taller, amenity-heavy towers.
CityRealty lists the property as a 22-story condominium with a planned 2028 delivery and 50 units, while New York Real Estate Journal reported that Avdoo paid about $52 million for the multi-lot assemblage in early 2025.
Developers say new tree-lined sidewalks and ground-floor retail will face East 71st Street, giving the block a more polished streetscape once the dust settles. For now, though, locals can expect a long run of construction fencing, heavy equipment and early-morning noise as the latest limestone giant starts its slow climb into the Lenox Hill skyline.
