Corcoran Sunshine Director of Sales Dan Tubb and new renderings of One57

About 30 percent of the apartments at One57 are under contract, according to Gary Barnett, founder of Extell Development Company, the developer behind the 95-unit luxury condominium tower.

Barnett, who would not discuss which units are finding buyers or what kinds of prices they are paying, was at the One57 off-site sales office today for a press-only panel discussion on the architecture and design of the 90-story tower at 157 West 57th Street. [more]

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]

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]

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]

One57 and Extell President Gary Barnett

While Extell Development’s bet on One57 might seem quite risky, the ultra-luxury market has actually never been better, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The 90-story development, which currently rises about 50 stories into the skyline, will ask nearly $100 million for penthouse units, the Journal said. And although the $1.4 billion project requires massive borrowing, Extell President Gary Barnett is confident in what he tells the Journal is an ever-growing number billionaires and multi-millionaires across the globe. [more]

From left: One57 and Extell Development President Gary Barnett; the Touraine and Toll Brothers CEO Bob Toll; and 737 Park Avenue and Harry Macklowe

In an effort to increase control and decrease costs, big condominium developers are increasingly using their own sales teams for new projects rather than hiring outside brokerages to market the units, according to the Wall Street Journal.

For example, Extell Development, which relied on the Corcoran Group to market most of the condos it built throughout the last decade, has hired its own sales staff for its massive One57 development.

“To be frank, there is an awful lot of money in sales commissions and we want to get a piece of that ourselves,” Extell Development President Gary Barnett said. [more]

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]