From left: former Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, 80 Riverside Boulevard and Gary Barnett, president of Extell Development

After nearly three years of litigation in multiple venues, a state Supreme Court judge ruled last week that former Attorney General Andrew Cuomo was correct in his 2010 order for the return of $16 million in disputed escrow deposits at the Rushmore condominium.

Justice Anil Singh, in a 15-page decision, ordered co-developers Carlyle Realty Partners and Extell Development, to return the deposits to 40 buyers at the 80 Riverside Boulevard tower. [more]

Gary Barnett, president of Extell Development, and the parking garage on West 44th Street

Gary Barnett’s Extell Development has purchased a 44,564-square-foot parking garage on West 44th Street for $29 million, according to public records filed with the city today.

The garage, at 332 West 44th Street, was was sold by Central Parking System. The company first put the property on the market amongst a batch of other Midtown parking sites in 2007. [more]

Riverside South

Just a handful of bidders remain for 1.35 million of Extell Development and Carlyle Group’s buildable square feet along West End Avenue, and final bids are due by the end of the month. But the New York Post reported that the site is burdened by several major restrictions.

The parcel, named Riverside Center, is located between West 59th and 61st streets, the southernmost part of the massive Riverside South complex. The portion for sale is slated for two residential towers of 43 and 44 stories. [more]

A rendering of One57

It’s no surprise that Extell Development President Gary Barnett said the $110 million he is asking for a penthouse in the forthcoming One57 condominium is a bargain, but according to Forbes there is some sales data to support Barnett’s seemingly wild claim.

For example, the $88 million Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev reportedly paid for 6,744 square feet at 15 Central Park West comes out to about $13,049 per square foot, whereas the $110 million penthouse has 10,923 square feet, rendering its asking price $10,070 per square foot. [more]

Extell Development purchased a 10,000-square-foot development site on East 50th Street for $61 million, the New York Post reported. The deal closed Dec. 1 and was recorded in city records this past Friday. The property, at 138 East 50th Street between Third and Lexington avenues, is currently a seven-story vertical parking tower flanked by the W New York and San Carlos hotels. [more]

Riverside South, the 77-acre former rail yard-turned condominiums between 59th and 72nd streets, is seeing an uptick in sales, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Aldyn, at 63rd Street and West End Avenue, is 50 percent sold, and the Rushmore, at Riverside Boulevard and 64th Street, is 90 percent sold, the Journal said. Both buildings are around 40 stories. In the third quarter of 2011 the average price for condominiums on Riverside Drive rose 19 percent, the Journal said, to $1,470 per square foot.
[more]

Clockwise from top left: Elizabeth Sample of Sotheby’s International Realty, One57 and Wendy Maitland, managing director of Town ResidentialExtell Development has raised the price of one of its penthouses by 12 percent to a whopping $110 million, according to documents filed with the New York state attorney general cited by the Wall Street Journal.

In what will be Manhattan’s tallest residential tower, the listing for the 10,923-square-foot, six-bedroom condominium on the top two floors of the 90-story building might be the borough’s priciest ever. The asking price of a 13,554-square-foot unit on the 75th and 76th floors was also raised to $105 million. Building wide, prices are about about 3.9 percent since the condo plan was first submitted. [more]

The Belnord and Extell’s Gary Barnett

Fitch Ratings today said it downgraded a pool of $4.53 billion in commercial real estate loans from JPMorgan Chase, led by the Belnord, a landmark Upper West Side rental building owned by Extell Development President Gary Barnett.

The Belnord loan, the biggest contributor to losses in the pool, at 7.9 percent, was harmed by the recent decision that affirmed the controversial Stuyvesant Town ruling that New York City landlords would have to refund rent overcharges in buildings that received J-51 tax benefits.
The ruling effectively means that landlords cannot raise rents on rent-stabilized apartments to market rates, and if those units were illegally converted, the tenants can get reimbursed for past overcharges. [more]

From left: A U.S. visa, the International Gem Tower and a rendering of the Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards

With financing conditions extremely tight, New York City developers have increasingly turned to the EB-5 program, which gives foreign investors visas in exchange for investment in job-creating projects, to land funding for their projects. But according to the New York Times, developers are bending the rules to make their projects more attractive for those foreign funds, and taking money away from other projects that need the funding.

The minimum investment to qualify for a visa under the program has always been $1 million — but the threshold is reduced to $500,000 if the project is in a rural area or a community where unemployment is 50 percent greater than the national average. [more]

The School Construction Authority of New York City will reveal plans for the new pre-K through 8th grade school slated for the Riverside Center development on the Upper West Side tonight, DNAinfo reported. The four-story school, which will be the first new school to be built in the area in decades, will open in 2015.

Riverside Center is a five-tower apartment and retail complex between 60th and 61st streets along West End Avenue that was approved by the City Council late last year. The contentious approval process was lengthened by Upper West Side residents’ concerns that the school, P.S./I.S. 342, be large enough to accommodate the growing school-age population in the neighborhood. [more]