US real estate company Extell Development, headed by Gary Barnett, is close to completing the acquisition of around 87,000 square feet of air rights for its planned office tower at 570 Fifth Avenue. The development rights originate from the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, a listed Episcopal church situated at 145 West 46th Street in Manhattan's Midtown Times Square neighbourhood.
A purchase agreement entered into between the parties back in December 2025 was submitted to the New York Supreme Court on Friday for judicial approval, as reported by industry news service PincusCo. The transaction volume totals 23.93 million dollars. According to court records, no brokerage firms were involved in the agreement.
The sale has already been approved by the church's board of trustees, the Protestant Episcopal Church in New York, and Bishop Diocesan Matthew Foster Heyd. This represents the parish's final remaining contingent of unused development rights. Previously, 131,000 square feet had already been transferred to the Durst Organization's office building at 114 West 47th Street.
Major tenant and completion of the Fifth Avenue project
The acquired development rights will be channelled directly into the construction of a Class A office and retail tower between West 46th and West 47th Street, located just one block east of the church. Prominent law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett will act as the anchor tenant, having signed a lease for 916,000 square feet of office space in May. In the building's base, development partner Ingka Investments plans to open an 80,000-square-foot Ikea store. Completion of the complex is scheduled for late 2028.
Extell had assembled more than a dozen parcels over two decades to prepare the site on Fifth Avenue. The site assembly reached provisional completion in 2025 with the acquisition of a corner plot for 175 million dollars. Originally conceived as a 78-storey skyscraper, the scope of the project was subsequently scaled back during planning.
Extensive construction and acquisition activity in Midtown
In parallel, Gary Barnett is pursuing his expansive acquisition strategy in Manhattan. Most recently, the developer acquired the 19-storey office building at 110 East 55th Street for 65 million dollars from the Parkoff Organization. This property adds to an assemblage that includes an entire block at 405-417 Park Avenue, the Friars Club building at 57 East 55th Street, and 123,000 square feet of air rights above St. Thomas Church at 678 Fifth Avenue.
Extell is also advancing the 740 Eighth Avenue project, a planned hotel tower in Times Square known as The Torch, for which 1.25 billion dollars in construction financing was secured in September. Added to this are residential developments on the former ABC campus on the Upper West Side around 77 West 66th Street, as well as further projects at 655 Madison Avenue and on the site of the former Wellington Hotel at 871 Seventh Avenue.
