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Development
New York

Extell sues Diamond District neighbor over lot line dispute

Disagreement centers on windows that would be blocked by developer’s 31-story hotel

Gary Barnett with 27 and 29 West 47th Street (Google Maps, iStock)
Gary Barnett with 27 and 29 West 47th Street (Google Maps, iStock)

For nearly two years, Extell Development’s efforts to build a hotel at 27 West 47th Street in the Diamond District have been hampered by an uncooperative neighbor who has denied access to his property, according to a new lawsuit.

Details of the dispute, as well as the project itself, were revealed last week in a suit filed by Gary Barnett’s firm against Elo Realty Corp., PincusCo reported. The petition seeks a court order giving Extell access to Elo’s office building at 29 West 47th Street, in order to install and maintain code-compliant protections.

“Despite the need for these protections, [Elo] has, for nearly two years, denied access to [Extell],” the developer’s lawyer wrote in an affidavit, adding that Elo’s “sole purpose” in doing so is to force Extell to surrender a section of land adjacent to its lot in order to preserve the 16-story building’s “illegal lot line windows.”

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“It has become quite evident that [Elo] will delay any access, and the negotiation of a fair access agreement, in the hope that forcing [Extell] to delay its project due to the lack of access granted by [Elo] will result in more favorable terms – more money and more property,” the affidavit continues.

According to emails included in court filings, Elo claims that Extell slightly damaged its property, and also that air conditioning units on the east wall of Extell’s planned development extend into the air above its building.

Extell has already taken Elo to court once before over this dispute, and in December secured a court order giving it access to the neighboring property for the purpose of carrying out demolition work, but not construction.

Extell plans to build a 31-story hotel on the site, which Barnett told the New York Post would have a “few hundred keys” and retail space. It sits one block north of a 13-part assemblage for which Extell secured a $440 million financing package late last year. [PincusCo] — Kevin Sun