Extell sells International Gem Tower’s retail condo to Turkish jeweler Gulaylar Group

Gulaylar Group, a Turkish jeweler and property management company, has purchased the retail condominium on the West 47th Street side of Extell Development’s International Gem Tower, the New York Post reported.

The storefront at the three-story, 12,000-square-foot retail condo, located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, is valued at $6,000 per square foot. Gulaylar plans to use the space to create a “world-class jewelry exchange,” company’s vice president Mehmet Gulay told the Post. “We Have Been On 47th Street for 15 years, and we know the street very well,” Gulay said. 

Though Extell president Gary Barnett had initially considered using the tower’s lower floors as a restaurant space, the deal is in line with the tradition of having a jeweler on the lower floors of what is known as the “Diamond Block.” The building was reviewed last year by The Real Deal’s architecture critic.

In December, Extell secured its first two office condo clients at the 34-story 750,000-square-foot building at 50 West 47th Street, jewelers Malca-Amit USA and Kuperman Bros. Diamonds USA.

More than 70 percent of the tower’s 400,000-plus square feet of condo space has been sold, Extell executive Raizy Haas told the Post, with sale prices north of $1,000 per square foot. [NYP]  –Hiten Samtani