City Threatens To Revoke Extell's Permits For Upper West Side Skyscraper

Extell Development’s planned skyscraper near Lincoln Center has hit a roadblock.

The Gary Barnett-led firm is planning a 775-foot-tall residential building at 50 West 66th St., but the Department of Buildings has decided to take away its permit to build unless it provides an amended plan, NY1 reports. The company now has 15 days to provide a new approach for the height of the building, according to The Real Deal.

"This is a victory not only for the Upper West Side, but for communities all over the city that find themselves outgunned by developers who try to bend or break zoning rules,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who opposed the project.

Critics of the development said the architects had dodged zoning laws by finding a way to make the building taller than should be allowed.

In order to get the apartments up higher, the designers put upper floors on stilts — using a mechanical room with a 150-foot-high ceiling, which opponents of the program said was essentially an empty space used as a loophole to push up the height.

City Council members and others had previously railed against the building, but in December, the Department of Buildings rejected their complaints about the mechanical room, according to TRD. 

Extell, which just announced a new president and CEO, is developing other luxury skyscrapers, like One Manhattan Square on the Lower East Side and Central Park Tower on Billionaires' Row.

That ultra-luxury building is slated to be the tallest residential building in the world, but the developer moved to offer heavy concessions to buyers last year amid a slumping luxury market, The Wall Street Journal reports.