VNO, Extell Shake Hands on Parcel Sale

NEW YORK CITY-Vornado Realty Trust has completed the assemblage for its 220 Central Park South residential development development site, buying land and air rights from Extell Development Co. for $194 million. The sale also marks the resolution of all legal disputes between the two companies, according to a statement from Extell.

“We are thankful that our differences with Vornado have been resolved amicably,” says Gary Barnett, president of Extell. “We wish them great success.” Extell is already developing its own luxury apartment tower nearby, One57, where buyers have paid more than $90 million for upper-floor duplexes, and the company intends to build another.

It was Extell's other 57th Street tower, planned to rise at least 1,400 feet at 225 W. 57th, that figured in a longstanding dispute between the developer and VNO. Beginning in 2005, when VNO bought an existing rental apartment building at 220 CPS with the intent to develop on the site, the two companies had sought to block one another's neighboring developments from going forward, according to the New York Times.

Citing unnamed sources, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2011 that Extell held a lease on the parking garage underneath the existing 220 CPS rental building and refused to sell it to VNO.

Some months ago, the Times reported, Extell and VNO began negotiating a deal. Under terms of that deal, VNO shifted its site slightly to the west, while Extell did likewise in the opposite direction.

The agreement signed Tuesday gives VNO land and air rights for 137,000 zoning square feet, thus allowing development to begin on 220 CPS. The REIT plans a 920-foot condo tower with uninterrupted views of Central Park, to be designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects.