Extell Development closed Tuesday on the $80 million purchase of the centerpiece of an Upper West Side assemblage, advancing its plans to build condominiums on the site.
Gary Barnett’s firm purchased the two-story corner building at 262 West 96th Street, also known as 2551-2555 Broadway, according to Eastern Consolidated, which brokered the deal. The property, which housed a Gristedes supermarket until June, offers more than 151,000 buildable square feet with inclusionary air rights.
The assemblage Extell is gathering at the southwest corner of West 96th Street and Broadway would span well over 200,000 buildable square feet and result in a total of more than $100 million in purchases, sources said. Extell has been negotiating to buy air rights from nearby co-op Buildings Along 95th Street, including one set that is in contract for north of $300 per square foot, sources said. The developer entered contract in the spring, as The Real Deal first reported in May.
Now that the deal has closed, Barnett, who could not be reached for comment, is planning to demolish the corner building and develop a mixed-use condo property. Chase Manhattan, which still occupies the corner building, has a termination lease agreement.
The sellers were philanthropist and real estate investor Susan Carmel Lehrman, widow of the late real estate executive Robert Carmel, and Robert’s brother, Kenneth Carmel. Robert Carmel, who died in 1996, was a member of one of the three real estate families whose holdings formed the core of GVA Williams, the predecessor to Colliers International.
Eastern Consolidated’s Brian Ezratty and Peter Hauspurg represented the seller and Ezratty found the buyer.
“We started handling this in April 2016 and Extell jumped into it in December, when the market turned and prices were dropping,” Ezratty said.
Ezratty also brokered Extell’s $100 million sale of a NoMad development site at 30-36 East 29th Street to Rockefeller Group in May.
Aside from megaprojects One Manhattan Square – which topped out Thursday — and Central Park Tower, Extell is also piecing together several assemblages elsewhere in the city and buying one-offs. Last week, Extell bought a seven-story drug rehabilitation clinic on West 57th Street, adjacent to CBS’ massive campus.
(To view more commercial sales transactions from Extell Development, click here)