Barnett’s Extell Development is in contract to buy a building site at 227 Cherry Street for about $175 million, Crain’s reported. The parcel, which is north of the Manhattan Bridge, is zoned for up to 1 million square feet of housing and used to be the site of a Pathmark Stores Inc. grocery, which closed at the end of last year.
Extell will most likely construct a high-rise rental tower on the lot, adding to the trend of residential development in the area as more people move in.
“A lot of renters have been pushed to the Lower East Side in search of value as rents have risen in areas like the West Village and Tribeca,” Massey Knakal Realty Services broker James Nelson told Crain’s. “Bruce Ratner’s 8 Spruce Street is only about 10 blocks south of there and he was able to get $80 per square foot rents, which was a rate that no one thought could be achieved there just a few years ago.”
Barnett, who has yet to comment on the Cherry Street deal, has his plate full with billionaire nesting spot One57 and another luxury residential building down the road at 225 West 57th Street, which will be anchored by the city’s first Nordstrom store and become New York’s tallest skyscraper upon completion.
