Extell and Ikea Planning 29-Story Office Building at 570 Fifth Avenue
Proposed building will have a nearly 80,000-SF Ikea location at its base
By Abigail Nehring September 10, 2024 6:55 pm
reprints
Ikea’s new home at 570 Fifth Avenue is nearly ready to assemble.
Gary Barnett’s Extell Development filed plans for a new 29-story office and retail building on a vacant site spanning most of the block between West 46th and West 47th streets, according to records made public Monday and first reported by PincusCo.
If all goes according to plan, the Swedish furniture brand will open a retail store on two lower-level floors of the building by 2028 — putting Ikea on the growing list of retailers looking to own their own slice of real estate on New York’s most prestigious shopping corridor.
The building will also have retail space above Ikea up for grabs on the first and second floors.
Most of the space above the third floor of the building, which will also cover the lot at 574 Fifth Avenue, will be leased to office tenants, according to the plans. But that’s not all. Underneath Ikea, the developers dedicated two more floors for a subterranean gym, including a pool, basketball court and even a juice bar.
Inkga Group, Ikea’s majority franchisee, struck a deal in July to buy a one-third stake in 570 Fifth from Extell for between $300 million and $500 million in exchange for about 80,000 square feet of retail space at the bottom of the building, as CO previously reported.
Spokespeople for Inkga and Extell did not respond to requests for comment.
The partners brought on Andrew Cleary of architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox to draw up the plans for the 637,312-square-foot tower, which will be set back 30 feet from the property line, records show.
Before Ikea came into the picture earlier this year, Barnett struggled to put together a viable plan for the Fifth Avenue site.
Extell bought two buildings on the block from SL Green Realty for $125.4 million nearly a decade ago and snapped up about a dozen of their neighbors in the following years.
The developer weighed several ideas, including a shopping mall, before unveiling a 78-story office tower in 2021. But the developer needed to get the block rezoned to build such a tall building, and the proposal died while undergoing public review.
In the interim, Extell demolished several brick buildings on the site in 2022, and it’s been vacant ever since, New York YIMBY previously reported.
The Department of Buildings is currently reviewing the plans and must issue permits for work to get underway.
Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.
