22-Story Tower To Rise On Empty Upper West Side Lot, Records Show

UPPER WEST SIDE, MANHATTAN — The same developers behind a controversial 35-story tower on West 66th Street have plans to build a 22-story building in an empty lot near West 96th Street, records show.

The application for the 276,578-square-foot residential building, which the Real Deal reports the firm Extell Development is behind, was filed this week for the 2551 Broadway lot.

The building will bring 130 apartments to the now-empty property, which includes a lot at 262 West 96th St. which once held a Gristedes supermarket. Extell bought that lot for $80 million in 2017, the Real Deal reported.

About 9,000 square feet of the building will be used for commercial space and the other 216,000 or so square feet will be made up of the residential units, records show.

The building plans come the same week that another Extell Development property at 50 West 66th St.got the OK from the Board of Standards and Appeals, who sided with the developers in objections aimed at stopping the controversial proposal.

The 35-story tower on West 66th Street would become the tallest building in the Upper West Side and has drawn the ire of residents and elected officials who say it will destroy the character of the Special Lincoln Square District where it will be built.

The latest vote asked the board to decide whether Extell is "appropriately occupying" the mechanical floor space in the tower, which opponents say the developers are using only to jack up the heights of its apartments, according to Crain's.

Extell plans to use the "mechanical space" inside the building to store mechanical equipment. These types of systems are no longer built underground because they could be compromised by severe weather such as flooding.