Gary Barnett

As the developer who basically founded Billionaires’ Row — an eye-popping span of uber-luxurious Manhattan skyscraper condominiums on 57th Street that sprouted in the 2010s — Gary Barnett has had a rather subdued decade thus far in the 2020s. 

After opening the 75-story One57 in 2014 and the 136-story Central Park Tower in 2019, Barnett came back down to Earth a bit in 2023 with a focus on more practical real estate projects: a hotel in Midtown and a medical office on the Upper East Side.

Extell Development secured $220 million in construction financing in December to build an unnamed luxury hotel at 32 West 48th Street. The development is expected to span more than 213,000 square feet and feature 534 keys. With a foundation just steps from Rockefeller Center, it stands to reason that the new hotel will benefit from the thousands of tourists who crowd the plaza’s famous ice rink and shops during the holiday season.  

Then there’s 1522 First Avenue, a brand-new, 30-story medical office building featuring 400,000 square feet of usable space that opens next year. More than 200,000 square feet and eight floors of the $425 million development will be occupied by the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), an orthopedics and musculoskeletal hospital which signed a 32-year-lease in 2021. 

Moreover, Barnett’s new luxury condominium development at 50 West 66th Street on the Upper West Side topped out in February 2024, despite a years-long war with some locals who aimed to stop its construction. That 70-story tower with its 127 condo units is expected to open in 2026. 

But it wasn’t all roses. This past January, Barnett learned that the battle with a rent-regulated tenant at 1651 First Avenue must continue. The property stands in the way of another Extell residential project that might otherwise have to wrap around 1651 First. Opponents enlisted powerful state Sen. Liz Krueger as an ally. She introduced a bill this spring that makes it harder for owners to evict tenants prior to demolition or development.