City green-lights demolition for Extell project in East Village

Extell Development is tearing down a sizable chunk of an East Village block to make way for a new retail and residential development.

On Thursday the Department of Buildings gave Extell permission to demolish five one and two-story buildings on the corner of East 14th Street and Avenue A, according to city records.

The development giant is likely planning to rebuild the block with a residential and retail space, according to a listing with retail brokerage RKF.  City records show that Extell hasn’t filed an application to build it yet. A representative for RKF was not immediately available for comment.

The development will have seven stories, with a 24,710-square-foot span on the ground-floor and a 14,600-square-foot lower level, totaling 39,310 square feet of commercial space, according to the listing.

Seven stories may be less ambitious than Extell’s other projects — its towering flagship One57 at 157 West 57th Street is a prime example – but fits with the height restriction for new developments in the area.

The project will rise in a spot that area residents call “Blarney Cove,” which sits kittycorner to Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, a prime location for shopping.

Solil Management, the company led by the heirs of the late real estate mogul Sol Goldman, owns the properties, which they leased to Extell along with three other properties at the end of 2012 for $35.1 million.

It was a rare deal for Solil at the time, which had largely sat on its hundreds of New York City assets since Goldman passed in 1987, as The Real Deal previously reported. But lately Solil has picked up the pace, leasing five significant properties in the past two years. Still, that’s only a small portion of Solil’s $6 billion portfolio.

A representative of Extell declined to comment on the property or confirm involvement. 500 East 14th Street is slated for completion in the first quarter of 2016, according to the RKF listing.