Gary Barnett
Gary Barnett
Founder and Chairman at Extell Development Company
Last year's rank: 20
Gary Barnett’s condo development spree is still not over.
Barnett’s Extell Development recently forged ahead with a Snøhetta-designed condo tower on the Upper West Side, a project that has received pushback from height-sensitive neighbors, by adding a new partner and tweaking the designs.
The 127 units planned for the site are just a fraction of Extell’s extensive portfolio of luxury rentals and condo units under development, which has seen mixed results over 2019 and through the pandemic.
Extell’s crown jewel, the $4 billion Central Park Tower, topped out in September, and the seven-story Nordstrom at its base opened in October. However, sales at the uber-luxury tower, where a unit is currently on sale for $63 million, have been lackluster, and zero apartments have sold since the pandemic-induced shutdown in March, according to City Realty.
Still, Extell’s 800-foot-tall One Manhattan Square on the Lower East Side was one of the best-selling condo developments in 2019 and has continued transacting throughout the pandemic months, after introducing a rent-to-own option as well as other concessions.
Things have progressed smoothly at Extell’s various other properties.
The firm secured a $700 million refinance for its luxury rental properties at 555 Tenth Avenue in the Hudson Yards neighborhood and 510 East 14th Street in the East Village (called EVGB for East Village’s Greatest Building); development has progressed at two more condo development projects: the 68-story Brooklyn Point in Downtown Brooklyn and the Lofts at Pier 15 in New Jersey, and Extell released plans for a nine-story office building at a site in East Harlem that Barnett assembled several years ago.
In December, Barnett said in an interview that barring any unforeseen shocks, prices had likely hit bottom, which given the circumstances, seems both prescient and ominous.—C.G.
