Extell inks $70M contract to drop East Harlem dev site

Unknown buyer picking up planned resi project at 180 East 125th Street

Extell Drops East Harlem Project for $70M

A photo illustration of Extell Development’s Gary Barnett along with 180 East 125th Street (Getty, LoopNet, Extell Development)

After pivoting from office to residential for an East Harlem development, Extell Development is now pivoting away from the development entirely.

Gary Barnett’s firm is in contract to sell the site at 180 East 125th Street for $70 million, according to filings with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange reported by the Commercial Observer.

The agreement was first reported by PincusCo. Extell would reap $64 million in net revenue from the sale, according to the filing, which also disclosed that bids were welcome through Sept. 23 and a one-and-a-half month extension could be added to that deadline.

No buyer or buyer LLC was named in the filing. One possibility is JCS Realty’s Jacob Schwimmer, who recently created a shell company named after the site’s address; Schwimmer didn’t respond to the Observer’s request for comment.

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Extell acquired the 43,000-square-foot parcel a decade ago, spending $39 million on the land and another $21 million to buy out a supermarket lease, much to the chagrin of the community. Barnett planned an office project, going so far as to bring Cushman & Wakefield in for the property’s marketing, before the commercial downturn during the pandemic.

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Early last year, Barnett swapped out an office development for a 415,000-square-foot apartment project. The 15-story building was planned to have 25,000 square feet of commercial space and 543 apartments; the Brooklyn Fare grocery was eyed for ground floor space.

If the mystery buyer goes through with Barnett’s latest plans, they would be matched in height by a neighboring site, also formerly owned by Extell. In 2023, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority paid $82 million for 160 East 125th Street, ostensibly a key facet in the MTA’s long-gestating extension of the Second Avenue subway and a site linked to a possible terminal.

Holden Walter-Warner

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