Extell battles Pinnacle Group over future management of Midtown West hotel

Gary Barnett’s Extell Development filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court yesterday laying out a fight with joint venture partner, Joel Wiener of Pinnacle Group, over the future management of the under-development hotel at 32 West 48th Street, in Midtown West, Manhattan.
The hotel will be named Kimpton Rockefeller Center, under the brand of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, according to the Commercial Observer and press releases. Neither Kimpton nor its affiliates are mentioned in the suit or involved in any of the allegations.
The suit says that Barnett suggested an Extell-affiliated company should manage the property, charging a 2 percent base management fee, which the suit says is below the 3 percent or more managers generally charge. But, the suit alleges, Wiener has withheld his consent, and has suggested he participate in management. The dispute is over the granting of the consent.

Court filings represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.

Case LINK

Joel Wiener is battling for a large portion of a vast multifamily portfolio. He placed properties containing several thousand units into bankruptcy in May 2025, as PincusCo first reported. Despite that, this suit does not appear to be related to such financial pressures.

The 534-unit, 33-story hotel (R-1) project, job 121208987, was submitted by Extell Development and filed by David Rothstein with plans filed November 20, 2020 and permitted December 28, 2022.

According to the complaint, “Extell, as the sole original member of N47 JV LLC (the “Joint Venture Company” or “Company”), executed an original limited liability company operating agreement for the Company dated as of August 2, 2017. Roughly one year later, Defendant Plaza Arcade Realty LLC, an entity owned and controlled by Defendants Joel and Sherry Wiener, joined the Company as a 49.68% member pursuant to an Amended and Restated Limited Liability Company Operating Agreement dated as of October 26, 2018 (the “Joint Venture Agreement”), with Extell as the Company’s 50.32% member.”

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received $37,150 in ECB penalties in the last year.

The property was involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a money judgment concerning a adverse possession filed on November 8, 2023, by Extell Development against Jack Elo, that was later resolved.

The neighborhood

In Midtown West, The majority, or 75 percent of the 75.9 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown West has the 2nd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.8 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown West is the most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 35.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 46 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 21 of the 35 commercial properties representing 1,122,002 square feet of the 1,866,158 square feet. The largest owner is Abramson Brothers, followed by Fatollah Hematian and then Sunkar Satvaldiyev. On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 227,777 square feet. The largest is a 534-unit, 168,897 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Extell Development and filed by David Rothstein with plans filed November 20, 2020 and permitted December 28, 2022. The second largest is a 58,880 square-foot mercantile (M) building submitted by Michael Mcmenamin with plans filed June 1, 2016 and it has not been permitted yet.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Extell Development owned at least 68 commercial properties with 676 residential units in New York City with 2,881,961 square feet and a city-determined market value of $831.1 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $7.2 billion in debt, with top three lenders as Guggenheim Partners, Blackstone Group, and JVP Management respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 37 percent of the 2,881,961 square feet of built space are specialty properties, with elevator properties next occupying 20 percent of the space. The bulk, or 96 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 4 percent of the space.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 27 West 47 Street, PincusCo identified 10 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those 10 items, four were sales above $5 million totaling $112 million. The most recent of the four was Dharmanandan Diamonds which bought one condo unit in the 7,431-square-foot, 104-unit mixed-use building (RC) on 44 West 47th Street for $9.6 million from Leo Schachter Diamonds on May 8, 2025. Of those 10 items, six were loans above $5 million totaling $4 billion. The most recent of the six was Avner Davidov and Ofir Benshimon in which borrowed $10 million from BankUnited secured by the 5,643-square-foot, 26-unit mixed-use building (K2) on 25 West 47th Street on June 12, 2025.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.