When you think Gary Barnett, you think Billionaires’ Row penthouses, not run-down rental buildings. But Barnett’s Fifth Avenue air rights deal offers a solution for rent-stabilized properties in crisis. Barnett’s Extell Development is acquiring 135,000 square feet of air rights from the Metropolitan Club on Fifth Avenue for his mixed-use project at 655 Madison Avenue — a deal made possible by the City of Yes. The club’s 790 Fifth Avenue is a landmark. Before City of Yes, it could sell air rights to a very limited number of properties next to it, but because the market was microscopic, a deal […]

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