New Yorkers’s seemingly limitless appetite for luxury housing is nowhere more evident than on the Upper East Side, a neighborhood abuzz with new construction. Yesterday Skyline Developers announced that it purchased a site on Third Avenue and 79th Street to erect a 150,000 square-foot luxury rental building.

The developer assembled the site by acquiring five existing residential and commercial buildings for $36 million. Currently, two restaurants, Annie’s and Hunters, occupy the half-block parcel.

The President of Skyline, Orin Wilf, said construction on a high rise with family-size developments would begin next year.

Mr. Wilf ‘s decision to build a rental property rather than a condominium is somewhat out of keeping with recent development in the neighborhood. On 86th Street, the Extell Development Corporation is constructing the Lucinda, an 18-story glass-exterior building that will house 110 condominiums. One block east of the Lucinda, along Third Avenue, the Related Companies have begun work on a 22-story 206-unit condominium.

In a statement, Mr. Wilf said he is “taking a unique approach by building a luxury rental rather than a condominium” because “there is no other product today that addresses this market.”

Skyline is also working on another Upper East Side project at 170 East End Avenue. Mr. Wilf said yesterday that 90% of the units in that structure have sold, with sales totaling over $400 million to date.