Extell Submits Plans for 71-Story Tower at 871 Seventh Avenue

Gary Barnett has big plans for his development project at Midtown’s 871 Seventh Avenue.

After filing plans in 2023 to build a 27-story, 208-key hotel at the former Wellington Hotel site, Barnett’s Extell Development now wants to expand those plans and build a 71-story mixed-use tower, according to a recent zoning application with the New York City Department of City Planning.

Extell’s proposed 484,213-square-foot tower would consist of 300,859 square feet — or 130 units — of residential space, and 183,354 square feet of commercial space, according to the filing. The commercial space would be split up into a 159,097-square-foot, 156-key hotel, and 24,257 square feet of ground-floor retail space. There would also be 55 parking spaces on the building’s second floor, as well as a 20-foot rear yard for the commercial portion of the building and a 30-foot rear yard for the residential portion.

In exchange for expanding its project at the property between West 55th and West 56th streets, Extell would “provide multiple transit improvements” at the 1 Train subway station at West 50th Street and Broadway, the filing said. The upgrades would include “constructing elevators accessing both the southbound and northbound platforms” and “increasing stair capacity at the station” to improve accessibility.

“The proposed development will introduce new residential use in Midtown Manhattan, reinforcing the area’s position as a premier global destination for living, working and visiting,” Eli Kopciel, senior vice president of development and commercial leasing at Extell, wrote in the filing.

The proposed improvements to the subway station would result in an additional 118,796 square feet of floor area for Extell’s development, as well as “bolster” the Metropolitan Transportation Authority‘s goal of making 95 percent of the city’s subway stations fully accessible by 2055, the filing said.

Extell bought the former Wellington Hotel site from BD Hotels LLC for $94.5 million in 2022 after the hotel closed during the pandemic, according to Crain’s New York Business, which first reported the news.

A spokesperson for Extell did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while a spokesperson for BD Hotels could not be reached for comment.

News of the project comes during a busy development period for Extell.

The developer is working on a major project at the former Walt Disney Company-owned ABC television campus on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Barnett purchased the entire campus — which includes 141 Columbus Avenue, 155 Columbus Avenue, 77 West 66th Street, 30 West 67th Street, 47 West 66th Street and 7 West 66th Street — from Silverstein Properties in 2022 for a total of $931 million and plans to build new residential buildings, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

Then there’s also Extell’s 29-story office and retail development at 570 Fifth Avenue, which will be anchored by Ikea and is set to be completed by the end of 2028.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.