Gary Barnett, overlord of megadeveloper Extell, is a busy, busy man, gobbling up properties all over the city to build more and more condo towers. The latest property to come under his control is the Congregation Habonim, a synagogue located just half a block from Central Park at 44 West 66th Street. The Real Deal reports that the house of worship will be replaced by a condo tower, but Barnett is not alone in the deal. Extell is developing the site in partnership with Megalith Capital Management, which owns the neighboring buildings at 36-40 West 66th Street. Yep, they'll be razed, too.
Court filings show that the synagogue will be given a new home and a condo unit in the new tower, while the rest will be filled with an unspecified number of residential units, plus a garage. The filings indicated that the synagogue expects its new home to be complete by 2018 or 2019. It's unclear how large the new building will be, but the footprint measures 15,000 square feet. The final size of the tower could measure between 150,000 square feet to a whopping 400,000 square feet, depending on a variety of factors.
The base development rights allow for a building up to 180,000 square feet, if the development team decides to use the inclusionary zoning bonus that's available to the site since it's in the Special Lincoln Square District. The tower could balloon to 400,000 square feet if the team buys an adjacent property on West 65th Street purchased air rights from a landmarked building at 52 West 66th Street. Those are two hefty "ifs," but anything is possible when it comes to condo towers in this town.
· Extell, Megalith will partner to build UWS condo tower [TRD]
· All Extell coverage [Curbed]
· Losing Our Religion archives [Curbed]
Photo via PropertyShark
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