Suit reveals Extell’s hurdles at 31-story Diamond District project
Construction at Extell Development’s 31-story Diamond District tower project is being hampered by a dispute with a neighbor which Extell claims is unreasonably refusing access to the neighboring property as required by law, according to a suit Extell filed Thursday. In addition, the court filings disclosed additional details about the project, at 27 West 47th Street.
Very few details of the project have been disclosed, beyond a description in the New York Post at the time Extell obtained financing in 2018, referring to it as a hotel with a “few hundred keys and stores.” The court papers say the project will be 31 stories, but does not disclose the use. Emails from an attorney representing the neighboring property state the Extell building will be a 436-foot-tall hotel building.
The court filings are allegations and have not been verified by PincusCo.
This project is a block north of another site Extell owns, where it borrowed $340 million from JPMorgan Chase Bank at 13 West 46th Street, 11 West 46th Street, 7 West 46th Street, 5 West 46th Street, 3 West 46th Street, and others in the Plaza District.
The neighbor, Elo Realty Corp., for its part, claims in emails disclosed in the litigation that Extell has slightly damaged its property at 29 West 47th Street (later repaired) and in addition the proposed project would encroach several inches onto Elo property which it asserts ownership over because of adverse possession.
The dispute centers around Extell’s plans to build a 31-story building at 27 West 47th Street, and Elo has refused to grant Extell access to its building at 29 West 47th Street so that Extell can monitor the work, protect the neighboring property and other functions.
Extell “has diligently spent nearly two years trying to obtain access to Respondent’s Property to no avail, other than to conduct a physical documentation survey on September 25, 2019,” according to the papers. “Respondent’s unreasonable conduct is fueled by Respondent’s desire to maintain illegal lot line windows on the east wall of its Property,” the Extell filings assert.
Elo’s attorney, in an email, wrote, “Consequently, [Elo] will not agree to your client’s construction of its new hotel up to the former property line but ONLY to the edge of the existing building improvements on 27 W 47. The open space must be preserved to the full height of the building at 29 W 47 but not above that plane so that your client’s hotel can be built out to the former property line above the plane of the top of 29 W 47. That would leave the full new building height above 256’ to the top of the proposed hotel building of 436’ to be built to its presently proposed full width to the former property line.”
-Adam Pincus