[NYguy]

They just want in at the new tower…


https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-e...rf-development

The 16-page complaint makes claims that the Zeckendorf brothers were desperate to unload the last sponsor unit at the $1.3 billion, 35-unit project, and the priciest of the bunch to boot, as Extell’s plans became increasingly clear.

The first move by Extell to acquire office building 655 Madison Ave. for $159 million in a deal that closed Oct. 10 didn’t ruffle any feathers, according to the complaint. “This news,” the suit says, “did not concern buyer, nor should it have.”

Indeed, at 34 stories, No. 655, which has been approved for demolition, did not seem to come with enough air rights to allow a skyscraper tall enough to overshadow 64-story 520 Park, the suit says.

So the buyer went ahead and inked a deal to purchase the five-bedroom penthouse as well as a pair of fourth-floor staff apartments, the filing says. The buyer signed a contract for the units Oct. 29 before closing Nov. 20 in an all-cash transaction, according to the city register.

But the suit alleges that the Zeckendorfs purposefully neglected to mention that Extell President Gary Barnett was at the time negotiating to buy four additional sites that could allow him to make his tower much larger. The sites, 33, 35, 37 and 39 E. 60th St., which Barnett bought from the Goldman family for $103.3 million, went into contract Dec. 18, a couple of weeks after the penthouse sale.

The Goldman sale closed Feb. 26; Barnett applied to demolish the 5-story mixed-use buildings a few days later.