Gary Barnett’s Extell Buys 165 East 56th Street for $39M

Gary Barnett is seemingly unstoppable in Midtown, as he’s acquired yet another property ripe for redevelopment.

Barnett’s Extell Development purchased the eight-story office building at 165 East 56th Street for $39 million, according to city records made public Tuesday and sources close to the deal. The sale is part of Barnett’s buying spree along or near the East 55th Street corridor, where he recently bought the Friars Club building and is in talks to acquire two more properties.

Extell purchased 165 East 56th Street, on the corner of Third Avenue, from the American Jewish Committee (AJC), which had owned the property since 1959 and which will move its offices to a new location, a source said. The nonprofit’s future address is unclear.

Barnett himself signed the deal for the buyer, while Elissa Fishman, chief financial officer at AJC, signed for the seller, records show.

A CBRE team led by Daniel Kaplan, Doug Middleton and Justin Arzi brokered the deal for the seller, while Extell had no broker representation. CBRE declined to comment, while spokespeople for AJC and Extell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

News of the deal comes after AJC put its building — which has an alternative address of 936 Third Avenue — up for sale in October 2025, with hopes to get roughly $40 million for the property, Crain’s New York Business reported at the time. The nonprofit said at the time it no longer made “economic sense” to own its building, according to the outlet.

Barnett’s exact plans for the property were not disclosed, but the CBRE team marketed the property as an opportunity for an office-to-residential conversion eligible for tax abatements. A new residential building on the site could span about 89,000 square feet, while a mixed-use building could cover roughly 112,000 square feet, Crain’s reported. The project also comes with the opportunity for a transit improvement bonus if the developer improves a nearby subway station, according to the outlet.

Besides AJC, other current tenants at 165 East 56th Street include Flagstar Bank and religious organization the Tikvah Fund.

The new deal is one of many recent Midtown acquisitions for Barnett, and it appears to be the latest part of the developer’s plans to redevelop East 55th Street. Barnett purchased the Friars Club building at 57 East 55th Street for $19 million in April, and he’s in talks to buy 110 East 55th Street and 111 East 54th Street. Extell also bought 123,000 square feet of air rights over Saint Thomas Church at 678 Fifth Avenue for $36 million last year.

While it’s not yet clear what Barnett intends to do with his growing stack of properties, the developer is known for his ambitious projects in Midtown. Those include his $1 billion, 600-foot-tall office building at 570 Fifth Avenue, his 1,200-foot residential tower at the former ABC campus at 77 West 66th Street and his 70-story condominium project at 50 West 66th Street, among many others.

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