Legion Investment Group’s Victor Sigoura On Building Top-Tier Manhattan Condos

When developing a building in Manhattan, you’re not just piecing together bits of glass and steel. You’re carving out a place for yourself in the history of a city that is defined in part by the glittering towers that make up its skyline. 

Building something that will be spoken about for decades, in a city where it isn’t easy to impress people, is what drives Victor Sigoura, founder and CEO of Legion Investment Group, a development and investment firm that focuses on luxury residential buildings in Manhattan. 

Sigoura, a 49-year-old married father of four and a 2001 graduate of the Cardozo School of Law — his first day at law firm Greenberg Traurig was on Sept. 10 of that year — had planned to start his career in the real estate department. He would instead first spend about two years in Greenberg Traurig’s litigation practice. It was not an area he wanted to focus his career on, as he’d always had a passion and an interest in real estate. 

Eventually, Sigoura would go on to establish a career in real estate that would be defined by impressive deals, legendary mentors and iconic buildings.

Commercial Observer recently caught up with Sigoura to discuss his career beginnings, the founding of Legion, the projects his firm is involved in, and his thoughts on the Manhattan luxury condominium market in general. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Commercial Observer: How did you go from litigation law to real estate?

Victor Sigoura: I started as a first-year associate at Greenberg Traurig and, prior to officially starting, I was slated to work in the firm’s real estate department. But, at that time, real estate was pretty slow, and they needed people in the litigation department. I think that everything happens in life for a good reason. So I said, “You know what? I’ll go into the litigation department to start.” 

I ended up getting close with a securities litigation partner, and I didn’t like the concept of litigation that goes on for 10, 12, 15 years sometimes, and so I gravitated to this securities litigation partner, and he and I ended up working closely together for about two years. The good part of that was that it was a lot of mediations and arbitrations. So it was more about resolving lawsuits. 

I had a really great experience there, but I had always wanted to be in real estate and thought I could use the law as a springboard to that. While I was in the litigation department, I stayed in touch with people I had known in real estate circles. And I ended up bringing some business to the firm, which for a first- or second-year associate is not that common, and I stayed in touch with the real estate people.

So, finally, after about two years, I went to the real estate partner at the time, and I said, “I brought in some business. And frankly, I don’t know much about real estate, but, if I knew more, maybe I could bring in more business.” Sure enough, I moved into the real estate department. One of my first deals that I worked on as an associate was actually the acquisition of the Plaza Hotel by Miki Naftali’s El Ad Group.

What did working on the $675 million sale of the Plaza Hotel in 2004 teach you?

The Plaza deal was great in terms of getting that full exposure to a lot of different parts of development. Obviously, we were renovating the entire building, but it contained a whole bunch of different components.

We had residential condos, we had retail, and we had a hotel. I was working on all parts of it,  and so I got great exposure to all those different parts of real estate. The most challenging part of that was trying to figure out the retail component because the retail — and what today is a food hall — was all below grade. And we had this challenge with all of this retail space. That was because we took a very large hotel and we lessened the amount of rooms, and increased the residential side. And so we had a challenge of figuring out how the retail could work. 

So there were some starts and stops with that. It wasn’t successful right off the bat, but, when we decided to go to a food hall concept, it was really successful.

I spent a lot of time going through the landmarks process. I spent a lot of time working with the unions on the hotel side. I spent a lot of time working with Fairmont, who was the management company of the Plaza Hotel. And, again, a lot of time on retail and food and beverage. So I really got a very broad view of real estate development. 

What was the inspiration for you to found Legion Investment Group?

In mid-2014 and early 2015 there was a lull in the market, and, after a while, I started to think maybe it was time to give this a shot on my own. I had previously gone through the process of founding something when I started with Naftali Group, and seeing those growing pains. 

So I was aware of a lot of the things that I needed to do and be prepared for. And I thought that would be a great challenge.

Where did the name come from?

I was reading a book about leadership and I cannot remember the name, but it was around the time I was starting the company. I remember that in a particular part of the book the author was discussing how he’d gone to visit Ralph Lauren [the firm]. He was describing the visit and how successful Ralph Lauren was, and, as he was describing it, he said it seemed like “a legion of people working together towards a common goal.” And I said, “Oh, well, that could be a good name for a company.”

What was Legion’s first project?

Just a little while after we started the company, we put together an assemblage at 109 East 79th Street, and as Legion, that was our first large condo development. We started it pre-COVID-19 and finished post-COVID. It was 145,000 square feet with 100 feet of frontage on 79th Street. We put together what was essentially five townhouses — well, four townhouses, plus one multifamily building with rent-stabilization — so it took us some time to put together. 

But, once we did, we built 32 units and we were pretty much sold out prior to our first temporary certificate of occupancy. We sold its units for a little bit over $4,000 a foot, and for a mid-block building that was unique. Today we’ve turned over the building to the condo board, and everything seems to be going well. After that, we acquired some other properties at other locations. Several of them were assemblages, like 1122 Madison Avenue. 

What was the assemblage process like for 1122 Madison Avenue, and what’s the status of the project today?

It was a five-parcel assemblage, plus air rights, plus dealing with a multifamily building with a rent-stabilized tenant. And, actually, that is a very nice story. There was a tenant, she was a 92-year-old woman, and she was living in that walkup building on either the third or fourth floor, and the steps were so steep. I mean, I walked up them and I was tired. So we worked with her nephew to move her into another, more accessible building, and her nephew sent us a very nice email thanking us for treating her so well.

But there was a lot to do to get us to the finish line. We bought air rights from a co-op adjacent to us. We bought a light and air easement from them. We bought air rights from another townhouse on 83rd Street. So it took us a while to assemble the property, but, thankfully, we did it. 

As of now, we’ve completed the superstructure and we’re enclosing the building, so the windows are almost entirely up right now. We hope to start delivering in the fall of next year. We opened up our sales office on Jan. 15 and we’re selling very well. We have four units left to sell out of 26. After putting this together since 2018, it’s really gratifying to see people reacting to the building this way. 

And one of the penthouses at 1122 Madison was sold for a record $89.5 million, correct?

Yes, that was very exciting for us! It is the highest-priced condo sale ever on the Upper East Side. However, there have been one or two co-ops that were priced higher. The buyer is a local New York buyer, and the unit itself has some very interesting features. It’s about 9,300 square feet and has about 2,000 square feet of outdoor rooftop space. It has beautiful views of Central Park, and the living room has a 20-foot ceiling.

What’s the story at 38 Gramercy Park East?

That was a very interesting assemblage. We bought six parcels. First, we bought four that were basically on 21st Street and Third Avenue, and then went half the block toward Gramercy Park, and we bought two parcels. One was a co-op of 34 different shareholders, and one was a multifamily building with two rent-stabilized tenants. 

And we ultimately put that together in such a way where we were able to close essentially on almost everything simultaneously. We assembled the six parcels and we’ve now demoed those, and we’re doing excavation and foundation work.

It’s going to be the first ground-up development on Gramercy Park in over 100 years. Gramercy Park is a historic district, so our property actually is right on the border of the Gramercy Park Historic District. So we’re able to build ground-up. It’s a very exciting addition, I think, not only to Gramercy Park, but for Manhattan as a whole.

And you get to be part of New York City’s history.

Yes! That’s a big part of the development side of things.  Once you develop something, you’re really making a mark on the city, that — God willing — will be there forever. That’s a really important feature and a reason why I love to do this. 

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.