Extell proposes 71-story mixed-use tower with 130 apartments at Wellington Hotel site
Hotel Wellington. Photo by Jazz Guy via WikiCommons
Extell Development wants to nearly triple the height of its proposed tower at the site of Midtown’s former Wellington Hotel and make it residential. As first spotted by Crain’s, Gary Barnett’s firm filed plans with the Department of City Planning this month seeking to expand its project at 871 7th Avenue from a 27-story hotel to a 71-story mixed-use tower with 130 residential units, likely condos, and 156 hotel rooms. Extell is pitching upgrades to the nearby 50th Street subway station in exchange for a zoning bonus to allow for the 1,050-foot-tall tower.
In 2022, Extell purchased the 26-story Wellington Hotel from Richard Born’s BD Hotels for $94.5 million. According to Crain’s, the property was among the many New York City hotels that closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The following year, the developer filed plans for a 27-story hotel at the site spanning roughly 336,000 square feet and featuring 208 rooms, 35 parking spaces, a restaurant, office space, a lecture hall, and ground-floor retail. Beyer Blinder Belle is listed as the architect of record.
Zoning applications filed on October 1 by the developer look to secure a transit improvement bonus of 118,796 square feet of floor area to build a 484,000-square-foot mixed-use tower. According to the project description, the building would hold 301,000 square feet of residential use and 183,000 square feet of commercial space, divided between 159,000 square feet for the hotel and 24,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. The property would also include 55 parking spaces on the second floor, accessible via a two-car elevator.
To receive the bonus, Extell has proposed a series of improvements to the nearby 50th Street subway station. The upgrades include two new elevators—one at each of the southeast and southwest corners of West 50th Street and Broadway—providing access to the northbound and southbound platforms. The station currently lacks elevator access.
Additionally, Extell would add new entrance stairs and a fare control area on the east side of Broadway, just north of West 51st Street, where no entrance currently exists. According to the developer, the new entrance would improve pedestrian access to the station’s northbound platform.
Extell said the proposed transit improvements would help the Metropolitan Transportation Authority meet its goal of making 95 percent of city subway stations fully accessible by 2055, as required under a 2022 class-action settlement.
As Crain’s reported, Extell has recently made similar plans for its project at 655 Madison Avenue. Originally planned as a 37-story mixed-use tower, the firm is seeking to build it 74 stories high instead, for improvements made to the Fifth Avenue/ 59th Street subway station.
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