Gary Barnett walked into a gathering of the Higher West Facet’s neighborhood board and — maybe as a negotiating tactic picked up over a few years — cracked a joke to set a pleasant tone.
Then he received all the way down to enterprise.
“I requested to come back right here and to talk a bit bit as a result of I’ve sort of been listening to rumors and second-hand statements that some individuals have been spreading about me and saying that I’m anti-affordable, I don’t like poor individuals,” mentioned the Extell Improvement chief, who a decade in the past riled up his critics by putting in a separate entrance — the “poor door” — for rent-stabilized tenants. “And it’s extraordinarily upsetting to me to listen to that sort of speak.”
Barnett was there to debate his newest skyline-defining mission: a 1,200-foot-tall condo tower on the location of the previous Walt Disney-owned ABC campus at 80 West 67th Avenue that — at practically the identical top because the Empire State Constructing — would be the tallest factor on the Higher West Facet.
The prolific developer isn’t any stranger to placing up tall buildings within the neighborhood, an space of the town that’s not shy about its opinions on such initiatives. He had come to the board to keep away from the sort of headache he skilled the final time he constructed within the neighborhood.
When Extell developed its 70-story rental constructing the subsequent block over at 50 West 66th Avenue a couple of years earlier, a local people group sued over the mechanical voids included with a purpose to increase the tower’s top.
(Other than its stately brownstones, the Higher West Facet’s new improvement market is the most popular within the metropolis, with Extell’s 50 West 66th Avenue leading the way alongside the Naftali Group’s Henry constructing and Rabina’s 393 West Finish Avenue.)
Extell ultimately gained the case, however on the expense of a two-year authorized battle. This time round, Barnett is providing the olive department of together with reasonably priced housing in his mission, though it’s not required for the as-of-right improvement. He acknowledged that his supply was an effort to clean issues over on this (and presumably future) initiatives.
“Would I do it by myself if I didn’t have some ulterior motives? No, I wouldn’t,” Barnett defined. “What I’m getting out of it actually … is simply peace. I’m not concerned with a combat.”
Barnett’s new Zen outlook comes at an attention-grabbing time in his profession. He turns 70 this month, and whereas that’s not precisely previous by New York actual property requirements, it’s not precisely younger both.
However he doesn’t seem to have a succession plan in place. Barnett has at the least 10 youngsters, however none of them appear to have ever labored at Extell or have any involvement within the enterprise. He does have a nephew who works for him, however individuals accustomed to the corporate mentioned it doesn’t seem like the nephew is being ready to take over.
Earlier this 12 months Extell employed Innovo Group’s Andrew Chung in March to function co-CEO alongside Barnett. However that additionally is probably not a long-term answer.
Barnett is arguably essentially the most consequential developer in New York of his age, and this all raises the query: What does Extell seem like after Gary?
Genius Bar
Barnett can usually be noticed carrying one thing black: a black turtleneck or long-sleeve T-shirt underneath a black go well with jacket. The uniform suggests singular genius, a la Steve Jobs.
Barnett’s public persona belies the fact that Extell is a giant group, not a person endeavor.
“That place is a machine,” mentioned one individual accustomed to the corporate’s internal workings. “There are individuals, groups on each mission, that clearly get a whole lot of steering from Gary. However these groups are extremely skilled.”
Since Barnett based Extell in 1989, he’s developed tens of hundreds of thousands of sq. ft and a few of the most notable buildings within the metropolis, like One57 and Central Park Tower.
Among the key individuals in Barnett’s internal circle are Marc Kwestel, Extell’s govt vice chairman of finance; Ahuva Genack, his normal counsel; and Barnett’s longtime govt assistant, Hepzi Schechter.
“Would I do it by myself if I didn’t have some ulterior motives? No, I wouldn’t. What I’m getting out of it actually… is simply peace. I’m not concerned with a combat.”
One other individual is his nephew Abba Barnett, Extell’s chief funding officer.
He spent about 10 years learning Torah after graduating highschool earlier than becoming a member of Extell in 2010, beginning off as an analyst within the improvement group after which transferring over to the acquisitions aspect the place he labored underneath Barnett’s longtime assemblage ace Dov Hertz. Abba took over as head of that group after Hertz struck out on his personal in 2016.
“Let’s say [we] purchase a bit of property after which we’re attempting to purchase the neighboring piece of property. That’s, sort of, one of many issues that we do a whole lot of,” Abba defined throughout a deposition in 2025. “In order that’s a really, very huge focus of the position: truly attempting to efficiently full these assemblages.”
Assemblages are a Barnett hallmark. He famously spent years stitching collectively his Billionaires Row websites, even outmaneuvering Steve Roth’s Vornado Realty Belief to shift the situation of its 220 Central Park West out of the way in which of Extell’s Central Park Tower’s views of the park. Extell is at present engaged on an assemblage on Park Avenue, the place Barnett is probably going planning to construct the boulevard’s subsequent huge workplace tower.
The constructing that can rise on the previous ABC campus will stand 86 tales tall and canopy some 1.2 million sq. ft. Demolition on the location is already properly underway.
More doorways
At a later assembly of Group Board 7’s land-use committee in March, Barnett’s supply of reasonably priced housing was the subject of dialogue.
The members had been mulling over three choices Extell had offered: one with 120 models of reasonably priced housing on-site on the West 67th Avenue mission and one other with 188 residences at an off-site location. (Extell hadn’t recognized the off-site property, however the firm has a vacant constructing at Broadway and West 96th Avenue that appears logical.) The third possibility would break up the distinction between the 2: 135 residences, some on the ABC campus and a few off-site.
The good thing about the off-site-apartments plan was clear: It might produce essentially the most reasonably priced models for the neighborhood. However the board members had been involved that in the event that they went that route, Extell may not prioritize the reasonably priced part to the identical extent if it constructed them together with the very worthwhile rental tower.
They’d been burned prior to now by builders who wriggled out of guarantees, and members famous initiatives like Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn which have didn’t ship on their reasonably priced commitments.
However they famous that Barnett has a robust monitor file of really getting issues constructed, and referred to him as a “frequent flyer” who has an additional incentive to stay to his phrase.
“The highly effective factor right here is that Gary Barnett is a repeat participant,” board member Adam Brodheim mentioned. “He is aware of this isn’t the very last thing he’s going to do in New York Metropolis. So to a point if he completely screws us, that can make it a lot tougher for him sooner or later.”
The board finally determined to advocate the combination of on-site and off-site.
Seema Reddy, co-chair of the board’s land-use committee, mentioned it’s clear Barnett’s gone out of the way in which to endear himself to the neighborhood this time round.
The final time Extell had a ULURP mission within the district that required direct involvement with the neighborhood board was with Riverside South 20 years in the past. However on this mission he’s rather more hands-on than he’s been prior to now, she mentioned.
“However that is the primary one which as of proper he’s been concerned, which is nice to see,” she mentioned.
And board chair Alex Bell famous that it’s not simply Barnett — Extell’s senior vice chairman of improvement Yehuda Gordon could be very current too.
Bell advised The Actual Deal that if Barnett had been to step down sooner or later, Extell would benefit from his repute and monitor file.
“I feel it will prolong past the person to the corporate,” he mentioned.
Next in Line
Succession could be troublesome in actual property.
Larry Silverstein, for instance, hand-selected Marty Burger to be CEO of his Silverstein properties in 2011. Burger held that place for greater than a decade till 2023 when he and the corporate unexpectedly parted methods — apparently as Burger clashed with Silverstein’s daughter (and now CEO), Lisa.
Barnett beforehand regarded outdoors Extell for a CEO in 2019, when he employed Westbrook Companions’ Sush Torgalkar for the position. However that lasted just a bit longer than a 12 months earlier than he left.
Even when you may get the precise individual to observe, succession requires cautious monetary planning. Sheldon Solow infamously didn’t plan his property correctly earlier than he died in 2020, leaving his son with a big tax invoice that finally needed to be paid by promoting off some huge properties.
However Barnett’s enterprise is primarily constructing and promoting condos. The fruits of his labor are largely money, not a portfolio of actual property he plans to go onto his heirs.
What’s extra, Barnett simply doesn’t view actual property as constructing an empire of property to carry onto.
“He appears at it as a commerce,” mentioned one individual accustomed to the way in which he works.
Other than the Higher West Facet mission and his Park Avenue assemblage, Barnett is at present working on a 32-story commercial tower at 570 Fifth Avenue anchored by the legislation agency Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and IKEA, in addition to a supertall condo-office tower at 655 Madison Avenue. And he’s received irons within the fireplace at many different assemblages throughout the town.
However Barnett isn’t resistant to the passage of time. He’s been constructing in New York for too lengthy, and the Higher West Facet neighborhood is aware of him now — even when they want he’d caught to Midtown.
The joke he advised at first of the CB7 assembly, to interrupt the ice, was about that precisely: how lengthy he had identified one of many members.
“One other 5 years collectively and we’ll be capable to have pie within the sky,” he mentioned to the room, showing to make reference to a British TV dramedy from the Nineties known as “Pie within the Sky.” The plot was a few police detective who plans to retire after 25 years to be chef at his spouse’s restaurant by the identical title.
The catch is that the detective will get pressured into staying on the drive, and he has to separate his time between each jobs.
Possibly Barnett was sending a coded message that he’ll keep on the helm of Extell longer than anybody expects, or that solely he can obtain “pie within the sky” developments however no successor ever might.
He hadn’t misplaced his potential to maintain a room guessing.
