Extell adds 25-story tower to Upper West Side’s former ABC campus redevelopment
Streetview of 37 West 66th Street © 2024 Google
After a busy year, Extell Development is planning a major new residential project at the former Disney Campus on the Upper West Side. The firm has filed plans with the city’s Department of Buildings (DOB) to construct a 25-story, 58-unit tower at 37 West 66th Street in Lincoln Square, as reported by Crain’s. Extell has already begun redeveloping the site, including a 90-story skyscraper at 77 West 66th Street that would become the neighborhood’s tallest, surpassing the firm’s existing controversial building across the street at 50 West 66th Street.
The 355-foot-tall structure would span roughly 231,000 square feet and include ground floor retail space in addition to the residential portion. Extell filed plans to demolish the 14-story, nearly 300,000-square-foot commercial building at the site in early 2025.
Previously housing ABC, including broadcasting facilities for ESPN and several ABC television shows, Extell purchased the lot in 2022, along with a nearby site at 54 West 67th Street, for a combined $931 million from Silverstein Properties and Seven Valleys, according to The Spirit.
That March, the developer secured at least $900 million acquisition financing from Guggenheim Partners and Aquarian Holdings. Later that year, Extell unveiled its first blueprints for the site, featuring multiple towers, the tallest rising 1,577 feet. However, the proposal stalled, and the firm indefinitely scrapped the project, as 6sqft previously reported.
Overall, the lot spans roughly 50,000 square feet and is slated to deliver 158 residential units, suggesting that Extell has one more building planned for the site. Other buildings slated for the site include a 9-story, 50-unit building at 30 West 67th Street, and a 7-story, 31-unit building at 7 West 66th Street.
The project has not been without controversy in recent years. When Extell’s Gary Barnett first filed permits for 50 West 66th Street in 2017, lawsuits challenging the height of the building’s oversized mechanical floors—designed to inflate its overall height—delayed construction. In 2020, however, the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals approved Extell’s project, allowing work to move forward.
To avoid similar legal pushback to his tower at 77 West 66th Street, Barnett met with Manhattan Community Board 7 in May and announced plans to include 100 affordable units across two smaller buildings as a “gesture of peace” with the community. He emphasized that the inclusion of affordable housing was entirely voluntary, as 6sqft previously reported.
Extell had an exceptionally active 2025 in real estate. In November, the firm purchased $36 million in air rights from the landmarked St. Thomas Church at 678 Fifth Avenue in Midtown. While it’s unclear which project the firm will apply the rights to, Extell is currently developing several nearby sites, including the former Wellington Hotel and 655 Madison Avenue.
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