Gary Barnett’s Extell Plans 37-Story Madison Avenue Tower

Gary Barnett’s Extell Development has filed plans for a residential tower to replace a Midtown office building.

The firm is proposing a 193,000-square-foot building at 655 Madison Avenue that will include 62 residential units and commercial space, according to property filings. Maxwell Pau of Beyer Blinder Belle is the architect. The existing 200,000-square-foot office building would be demolished.

Barnett, in a brief phone call, declined to comment except to say he plans to build “the usual stuff.” Barnett is known for developing luxury condominiums, such as Central Park Tower.

Extell purchased the property between East 60th and East 61st streets in October for nearly $160 million from Williams Equities. The Midtown building was already slated for demolition. Tyko Capital, which is backed by Elliott Investment Management, financed the acquisition.

The price works out to about $800 per square foot, an indication that Barnett planned to raze the building and build a residential building, perhaps with ground-level retail. But his new building’s zoning floor area is only 161,000 square feet. By that metric, he paid about $1,000 per square foot, noted Duane Burress, a land and air rights expert.

Built in 1951, the 24-story building at 655 Madison was last renovated in 2005 and charged office rents between $54 and $66 per square foot, according to CoStar estimates. Tenants have included flexible office space provider Knotel.

Williams principal Michael Cohen said in an April interview with Commercial Observer that the building was one of several in the area that would be replaced, “probably by a mixture of retail, hospitality and residential.”

It is a block from the southeast corner of Central Park, offering Barnett a chance to build apartments with commanding views of the park. It’s a formula that Extell and others have employed to sell units for tens of millions of dollars.

Extell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.