New UES Tower Will Build Around Holdout Residents, Plans Show

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — After months of court battles and strained negotiations, the developer Extell is moving ahead with plans to construct a new tower spanning most of a First Avenue block.

But the company will need to work awkwardly around two buildings it was unable to acquire because of holdout occupants, city records show.

Extell filed plans Wednesday to construct a 22-story building on First Avenue between East 85th and 86th streets — a site that the developer has spent years piecing together by buying and demolishing its low-rise tenements, one by one. The 215-foot-tall mixed-use building will include 543 apartments — including affordable units — and some commercial space.

But rather than spanning the full block without interruption, plans show that the building will be cut out in two places: at the mid-block on First Avenue and at the corner of East 86th Street, where holdout owners and a single tenant, respectively, have refused to give up their buildings to Extell.

In the case of the corner building, rent-stabilized tenant Greg Marshall faced months of legal pressure from Extell to vacate his home in the six-story building, which Extell bought in 2014. But a state judge finally ruled in Marshall's favor last week — and Extell filed plans for the new building just eight days later.

"He feels great, he feels gratified," Marshall's lawyer, Fred Seeman, told Patch on Friday. "If you’re a rent-stabilized tenant you should be able to live there."

The other holdouts, at 1645 First Ave., were the Podolsky brothers: a pair of infamous landlords whose other buildings have been plagued by violations and who refused to sell their building to Extell despite the company's generous offers, according to its chairman. The development plans show that Extell has apparently given up on acquiring the building.

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Designed by SLCE Architects, the new building will have an address of 1637 First Ave., with an L-shaped design that will run midway down East 86th Street. Extell is using air rights from three existing buildings at 332-340 East 86th St. in order to build taller.

Extell did not respond to a request for details about the plans, including when construction would begin. News of this development comes just weeks after Extell revealed plans for a 30-story medical tower a few blocks south on First Avenue.

Seeman, the attorney for the holdout tenant, had been unaware of Extell's plans to weave its new building around his client's home. Seeman laughed out loud when a reporter described the project on Friday.

"That's great," he said. "I guess they've decided to leave him alone."

Previous coverage:

• Lone Tenant Battles Extell Over Upper East Side Development
• Infamous UES Landlords Stymie Extell's Next Development: Report
• More Demolitions Coming To Vacant UES Block As Development Looms
• Three More Buildings On Vacant UES Block To Be Demolished

Have an Upper East Side news tip? Email reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com.