Extell Development’s Gary Barnett
Three months after Gary Barnett, president of Extell Development, said his Carnegie 57 condominium and hotel tower would be “going vertical in three weeks,” the project has yet to rise above grade. But that doesn’t mean the project is off-track, Barnett told the Post’s Steve Cuozzo this week. While the foundation and basement level have taken “longer than we expected,” Barnett said, the project is nonetheless “going forward” and should hit ground level within two or three weeks — this time, for real. The 74-story, Christian de Portzamparc-designed tower, which is bounded by Sixth and Seventh avenues, 58th Street and the middle of 57th Street, is slated to contain a five-star Park Hyatt Hotel in addition to high-end condos. Barnett said his company is in “active negotiations” for a loan to cover the construction of the $1.3 billion tower. He expects the loan to come through in two months’ time, though he said he still could and would build without it. “Our partners would fund it all-cash, but I don’t want to do it that way,” Barnett added, referring to Abu Dhabi’s Aabar fund, which put in $133 million for a stake in the project last year. [Post]