Extell to Buy $24M in Air Rights From Episcopal Church for 570 Fifth Avenue Tower
Gary Barnett’s Extell Development has nearly secured 87,000 square feet of air rights for its 570 Fifth Avenue office tower project.
The rights currently belong to the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, a landmarked Episcopal church at 145 West 46th Street in Midtown’s Times Square neighborhood. A December 2025 purchase and sale agreement between the parties was filed with the New York Supreme Court on Friday for approval, according to PincusCo, and totals $23.93 million.
The sale of the air rights has secured approval from the church’s board of trustees, as well as the Protestant Episcopal Church in New York and the diocese’s bishop, Matthew Foster Heyd, according to the filing. It marks the final slice of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin’s air rights, another 131,000 square feet of which was previously transferred to the Durst Organization’s 114 West 47th Street office tower.
No brokers were connected to the sale agreement, according to the filing. The offices of the diocese and the church’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
The unused development rights will go directly toward developing Extell’s Class A office and retail tower between West 46th and West 47th streets, located one block east of the church. Law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett will anchor the office portion of the tower with a 916,000-square-foot lease signed in May, and development partner Ingka Investments will open an 80,000-square-foot Ikea store at the tower’s base. Delivery is expected by the end of 2028.
Extell undertook a decades-long buying spree to secure more than a dozen parcels of land for the Fifth Avenue tower, wrapping up with the $175 million acquisition of a corner lot in 2025. Once slated as a 78-story supertall, the project has since downsized.
Elsewhere in Midtown, the acquisitions keep coming.
Barnett recently purchased the 19-story 110 East 55th Street from the Parkoff Organization for $65 million, Commercial Observer reported in August, adding to an assemblage that includes a block-long development site at 405-417 Park Avenue, the Friars Club building at 57 East 55th Street and 123,000 square feet of air rights over St. Thomas Church at 678 Fifth Avenue.
The developer is also behind plans for a striking Times Square supertall hotel at 740 Eighth Avenue, known as the Torch, which secured $1.25 billion in construction financing in September.
Extell is also cooking up residential towers at the Upper West Side’s former ABC campus, including 77 West 66th Street, as well as towers at 655 Madison Avenue and 871 Seventh Avenue — the former Wellington Hotel.
A spokesperson for Extell did not respond to a request for comment.
Emily Davis can be reached at edavis@commercialobserver.com.
Source: commercialobserver.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.