Gary Barnett’s Extell Development Co. is taking a third bite out of a prominent West Midtown block where it already owns two major development sites.
Extell is buying the former Carnegie Deli building at 854 Seventh Ave., sources told us. The deal is likely to close this week, perhaps as early as Tuesday.
The price for the six-story address isn’t known, but it’s said to be even less than the $9.1 million that Extell paid former Carnegie Deli landlord and operator Marian Harper Levine for the tenement’s air rights in 2015.
The beloved old-style deli was famed for gigantic sandwiches, like the 4-inch-high “Woody Allen” made with pastrami and corned beef. The building — vacant except for a few rent-controlled tenants — is a mere morsel compared with Extell’s giant nearby projects such as One57 and the Nordstrom tower. But its change of hands can matter more than a mouthful to both buyer and seller.
Barnett already controls two sites on the block bounded by Broadway and Seventh Avenue and by West 54th and 55th streets. He plans a 60-story hotel-condo project at now-empty 1710 Broadway. He also owns an assemblage that includes 842-846 Seventh Ave. at the blockfront’s south corner, although an insider said that previously reported plans for a 29-story apartment building there are “dormant — they’re not doing anything right now.”
It wasn’t immediately known what, if anything, Barnett plans to do with No. 854, where the famous yellow Carnegie Deli sign was quietly taken down early Monday. Extell doesn’t own either of the buildings that sandwich the deli site, Nos. 850 and 856 Seventh Ave.
Barnett might have Betvole his eye on one day buying them to create a third assemblage on the block.
Or he could keep the Carnegie site off the market to prevent another developer from putting up a building that would block views from Barnett’s new tower at 1710 Broadway.
However, an insider claimed, “He grabbed the Carnegie building just because it’s there. The price is peanuts for Extell, although it’s probably worth a fortune to Levine.”
In fact, a different source said that unloading it will enable Levine to pay off various expenses, debts, fines and fees run up by her ex-husband, Sandy Levine — whom she accused in divorce papers of embezzling from the restaurant and of hooking up an illegal gas line for which the Carnegie was temporarily shut down by the city. (Settlement terms are confidential.)
In 2015, a judge ordered Sandy to pay $2.6 million to workers who said he cheated them out of wages. But labor beefs continued to dog Marian even after she reopened the deli without Sandy in early 2016. Some unionized workers were picketing on the sidewalk last week, even though the place closed last month and employees had been given the legally required three months’ notice.
Barnett declined to comment. Marian’s rep, Cristyne Nicholas, declined to comment on or confirm the impending sale to Extell.
She did, however, say of Marian in a statement, “While she is in the process of taking inventory of all memorabilia and cataloging items for posterity, the Carnegie Deli neon sign will need to be reconditioned and refurbished.”
Nicholas added that other memorabilia, including framed celebrity photos, “will be saved for potential exhibitions or future auctions.”
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