1780 Broadway

Extell Development is closer to erecting an 88-story tower at 225 West 57th Street after the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved partial demolition of the BF Goodrich building, Crain’s reported.

The panel’s decision allows Extell to perform excavation and foundation work for the development. The building will have 220 apartments, a hotel and a Nordstrom department store at ground level. [more]

Gary Barnett

Extell Development’s Gary Barnett is selling a vacant building at West 57th Street and expects to get the $80 million he paid for the property two years ago, the New York Post reported.

The developer, who has been streamlining his portfolio by selling off non-core assets, has tapped CBRE’s Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan to sell the five-story building at 16-18 West 57th Street. The property, just off Fifth Avenue, has 24,000 square feet and comes with 75,000 square feet of buildable air rights. “[Barnett] was getting unsolicited offers at very strong pricing, so he was tempted,” an Extell spokeswoman told the Post.  [more]

From left: a rendering of the International Gem Tower and Extell president Gary Barnett

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.  [more]

From left: Gary Barnett of Extell Development, Frank Ring of F.M. Ring Associates and 251 Park Avenue South

A state court judge signed an order on Thursday requiring the auction of a 16-story office building co-owned by Extell Development and brothers Frank and Michael Ring, located in the core of the strong Midtown South office market, court records show. [more]

Gale International founder Stan Gale, Extell’s Gary Barnett and 19-25 West 20th Street

A major impetus for Gale International’s purchase of 21 West 20th Street from Extell Development was that the seller had done significant work on the development before it was stalled, thereby saving Gale a lot of time and expense, the New York Times reported.

In January, Gale closed on the $9.75 million acquisition of the development site, and revealed plans to build a 15-story, 12-unit luxury condominium tower, as The Real Deal first reported.The investment and development firm also acquired air rights for the project, which is expected to be completed in 2014. [more]

From left: Yorkville area in the UES and Gary Barnett

Gary Barnett’s Extell Development has expanded its holdings on a stretch of the Upper East Side, paying $8.63 million for a mixed-use building at 1685 Third Avenue to landlord Ogrin Associates, on the same day that Extell sold Ogrin a property at 1570 Second Avenue for less than half the purchase price, city records show. The deal appears to be part of a larger move by Extell to acquire, and possibly develop, the stretch of Third Avenue between East 94th and East 95th streets. [more]

Gary Barnett

From the February issue: Ask most people in the industry today and they’ll tell you Gary Barnett is the most aggressive of the large real estate developers in Manhattan. His appetite for risk among his peers is second to none. But given how many projects he has in the works — his firm, Extell Development Company, is currently working on roughly a dozen, including building two of the tallest residential buildings in the Western Hemisphere — and with the level of media attention he gets, you might think he would be more frenetic and in-your-face. [more]

227 Cherry Street

Gary Barnett‘s Extell Development is in contract to purchase a former Pathmark supermarket on the Lower East Side  – as The Real Deal first reported — for about $175 million, Crain’s confirmed today. The plot, at 227 Cherry Street, between Rutgers Street and Pike Slip, is zoned to allow a nearly 1 million-square-foot development, Crain’s said. The building will in all likelihood become a high-rise rental tower with both market rate and affordable apartments, according to Crain’s. [more]

From left: the exterior of 535 West End Avenue, Atoosa Rubenstein and the interior of the unit

Former women’s magazine maven Atoosa Rubenstein and her securities trader husband have purchased one of the last remaining sponsor units at Extell Development’s 535 West End Avenue, according to records filed with the city today. The five-bedroom, five-bathroom spread — the last of the “A” line, per the listing — went for $8.9 million, about $500,000 less than the last asking price, according to Streeteasy.com. [more]

Gary Barnett

While Extell’s One57, located on West 57th Streets between Sixth and Seventh avenues, caters to 1 percent purchasers who can afford, say, a $54 million full-floor unit, the developer will go farther west to develop a 725,000-square-foot rental property — one-fifth of which will be reserved for low-income tenants, the Wall Street Journal reported. Extell has filed plans for a 600-unit property earlier this month to be located at West 41st Street and 10th Avenue. [more]