[NYguy]

https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-e...ects-manhattan

From Ikea to residential towers: A look at Extell's expanding city portfolio


EDDIE SMALL
August 14,2025

Extell Development has long been one of the most recognizable names in New York real estate, but the company has been on a tear lately even by its own lofty standards.

The firm, led by Gary Barnett, has major projects in store at 570 Fifth Ave. in Midtown, 32 W. 48th St. near Rockefeller Center and the former Disney/ABC campus on the Upper West Side. And it appears to be behind the February purchase of the Midtown townhouse at 34 E. 61st St. as well, likely as part of its plans for a massive skyscraper at nearby 655 Madison Ave.

Knakal suggested Extell's current burst of activity is due to a combination of finding attractive properties on its own, fielding appealing offers from brokers and having other developers come to Extell directly before they put their portfolios on the market. Although many aspects of the city's real estate market are still in flux as it continues an uneven recovery from the pandemic, that may work to the advantage of well-capitalized firms like Extell.

"You ask any developer when they made the best buys of their careers and the best deals of their careers, they always say [it's] when they bought something that nobody else wanted," Knakal said. "Development isn't instantaneous. You buy today, you're not going to be trying to rent or trying to sell units in that building for three, four, five years."

Eastdil Secured's Will Silverman, who has worked with Extell on multiple deals, described Barnett as "idiosyncratic." The company's current wave of projects is likely due more to the right sites becoming available at the right time than to Barnett trying to take advantage of any broader trends in the industry, he said.

655 Madison Ave.

This big project from Extell seems to keep getting bigger.

The firm purchased the Midtown office tower for roughly $160 million in October and filed plans late in 2024 to tear it down and build a 37-story mixed-used development at the site. However, Extell then applied for a rezoning in July that would make the building even larger. It would stand 74 stories tall and span roughly 765,000 square feet with 154 residential units, along with office and retail space, if the rezoning goes through. Extell would aim to finish the project by 2031 and make improvements to the N/R/W subway station at Fifth Avenue/59th Street in exchange for the extra space.

And the company may have been behind the recent purchase of the roughly 10,000-square-foot townhouse at 34 E. 61st St. as part of the project. Extell just filed demolition permits for the property, which is located around the corner from 655 Madison Ave. and was sold earlier this year for $27.5 million. Albert Sultan of the commercial brokerage Kassin Sabbagh Realty signed the deed on behalf of the buyer, a shell company named 34E61 LLC. He declined to confirm whether Extell was the firm behind the limited liability company.