From left: Vornado CEO Michael Fascitelli, 680 Madison Avenue and Extell President Gary Barnett

Vornado Realty Trust is in contract to purchase all 33,389 square feet of retail space at 680 Madison Avenue, formerly the Carlton House Hotel, for $280 million, according to the New York Post. The retail is at the base of a condominium conversion planned by Gary Barnett’s Extell Development and Angelo, Gordon & Co. The deal works out to about $8,235 per square-foot. [more]

The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously signed off today on a gut renovation of the Carlton House Hotel, according to an announcement from Extell Development, which is overseeing the project with partner Angelo Gordon & Company.

The partners picked up the property from the Helmsley estate last March for $170 million, closing it this past February in order to prepare for a conversion.

Originally built in 1951 as the Helmsley Carlton House, the building at 680 Madison Avenue currently contains 157 hotel and residential units, which were being vacated by the developers as their leases expired. Among the changes now planned: a two-story addition and two new infill buildings on the building’s north and south sides, an upgrade to its 32,000-square-foot retail space and a restoration of the exterior façade, Extell said today. – Sarabeth Sanders… [more]

The Carlton House Hotel, a 16-story building at 680 Madison Avenue and East 62nd Street, will close at the end of the year to undergo a massive renovation and conversion into an apartment building, Crain’s reported. In March, Angelo Gordon and partner Extell Development purchased the 160-unit building from the Helmsley estate for $170 million. About half of the building is already comprised of apartments, but they will be emptied when their leases expire next year. “I never thought they’d open it as a hotel [after the renovation],” said Thomas McConnell, senior managing director of Cushman & Wakefield Sonnenblick Goldman. “It was pretty apparent that for the [high] price they paid, it was going to be a residential conversion.” The owners filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification on Friday with the state Department of Labor, indicating that the property will close Feb. 14, 2011. The building was first conceived as a residential property when it opened in 1953 and was called the Helmsley Carlton House. The new owners renamed it this year. Construction will take about two years to complete. [Crain's]

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