From left: Stuart Romanoff, executive vice president at Cushman & Wakefield, and a rendering of the International Gem TowerExtell Development President Gary Barnett has returned to his original plan for the $750 million International Gem Tower in Midtown, the New York Post reported, as he has decided to lease the top floors to traditional office tenants.

The 34-story, 745,000-square-foot tower planned for completion late next year at, 50 West 47th Street, will get a separate entrance at 55 West 46th Street for tenants of the top 14 floors to use as traditional office space. The first 20 floors are comprised of 400,000 square feet of condominiums dedicated for jewelry industry use. They are about 65 percent sold with an asking price of about $1,000 per square foot, the Post said. … [more]

545 West 25th Street, 139 Centre Street and 50 West 57th Street

The decision to rent or to buy isn’t one that only affects home-seekers. It’s also a dilemma that businesses face. And increasingly, New York businesses want to buy their office space, which has bumped up the demand for office condominiums. According to the New York Times, much of the shift is due to cultural preferences. While many American businesses in the city prefer to lease office space to accommodate future growth, changing market conditions and other factors, foreign businesses favor purchases. Margarette Lee, a principal at New York-based developer Youngwoo & Associates, whose founder hails from Korea, said that the Asian businesses, in particular, covet office condos. … [more]

From left: Extell’s Gary Barnett, Dov Hertz as well as the site at 153 West 21st Street

Just two weeks after unloading a development site in Soho, Gary Barnett’s Extell Development sold four brownstones comprising a single parcel in Chelsea at 153 West 21st Street, to Alfa Development Management for $17.14 million.

Alfa Development, based in the Flatiron District, went into contract in December and closed on the sale March 2, city property records published today show.

The row of four-story brownstones with 58,084 square feet of development rights, sold for $300 per square foot, according to figures from PropertyShark.com.
… [more]

Even as the land sales market has improved in Manhattan overall, the number of developers actively trying to put together sites remains just a handful, far fewer than during the boom. One of the city’s leading professionals in the business, Dov Hertz, an executive vice president at Gary Barnett’s Extell Development, spoke with Insights from The Real Deal about the current number of deals he believed are underway in Manhattan, and about the time someone backed out of a deal to sell air rights.

Hertz leads the acquisitions arm of Extell, one of the most prolific residential developers in the city. He has led or had a hand in Extell’s major assemblages, including two projects still under development, the 34-story International Gem Tower at 50 West 47th Street and the 74-story Carnegie57, at 157 West 57th Street, spanning the mid-block between Sixth and Seventh avenues and 57th and 58th streets. He has also put together sites for completed residential towers, including the 110-unit Lucida, at 151 East 85th Street; the Ariel East and West; and the 22-unit 535 West End Avenue.

In addition, Robert Knakal, chairman of investment brokerage Massey Knakal Realty Services, weighs in on how many sites are being assembled now, and where they are located…. [more]

Gary Barnett and 20 West 47th Street

Gary Barnett won the 14-story office building located at 20 West 47th Street at a judicial sale today in the rotunda of the State Supreme Court building at 60 Centre Street, with a winning bid of $73 million (note: correction appended).

Barnett, president of Extell Development, beat out multiple bidders, including Parkway Realty and Bluestone Group, for the building between Fifth and Sixth avenues.

“We think the price for a 150,000-[square-foot] building, close to Fifth Avenue, with a large jewelry exchange made sense for us to purchase,” Barnett said in an e-mail. “We expect the whole block to be upgraded once the International Gem Tower (which his firm is building on the same block at 50 West 47th Street) goes vertical, which will be within two months.”… [more]

Extell’s Raizy Haas and the Gem Tower

In response to dropping labor costs, Extell Development, which is building a new 35-story office tower in the Diamond District, is halting some of its work to renegotiate construction contracts. “We are out on the street trying to rebid all of the major trades,” Raizy Haas, head of the International Gem Tower project for Extell, told the Wall Street Journal. Haas said she believes that the savings on construction will outweigh the delays. The tower, at 50 West 47th Street, is being marketed as an office condominium project and is slated for completion by the end of 2012. Last month, the project was approved as a U.S. Foreign Trade Zone, a designation which eliminates customs duties for items imported into and then exported out of the zone — an attractive proposition for the jewelry companies to which Extell is catering — making it the only active foreign trade zone in Manhattan, a spokesperson for the New York City Economic Development Corp., said. [WSJ]

… [more]

Extell’s Raizy Haas and the Gem Tower

In response to dropping labor costs, Extell Development, which is building a new 35-story office tower in the Diamond District, is halting some of its work to renegotiate construction contracts. “We are out on the street trying to rebid all of the major trades,” Raizy Haas, head of the International Gem Tower project for Extell, told the Wall Street Journal. Haas said she believes that the savings on construction will outweigh the delays. The tower, at 50 West 47th Street, is being marketed as an office condominium project and is slated for completion by the end of 2012. Last month, the project was approved as a U.S. Foreign Trade Zone, a designation which eliminates customs duties for items imported into and then exported out of the zone — an attractive proposition for the jewelry companies to which Extell is catering — making it the only active foreign trade zone in Manhattan, a spokesperson for the New York City Economic Development Corp., said. [WSJ]

… [more]