Extell builds another Midtown Hyatt hotel

(brigitte stelzer)

Another shining tower is on the way to its Broadway debut.

Ending years of speculation, Extell Development Co. has begun building a major new Midtown hotel that some had predicted might never rise.

The long-in-coming, 53-story project at 135 W. 45th St. will be the Hyatt Times Square, Extell President Gary Barnett said.

The midblock site between Sixth Avenue and Times Square had sat dormant after Extell assembled the land and air rights and poured a foundation. But the arrival of a tower crane this month clearly indicated things were looking up.

“We’re moving forward rapidly,” Barnett told us.

Contrary to previous reports of a condo-hotel, the project will be all hotel, with a high-end ground-floor restaurant, a luxury spa and a rooftop bar.

Barnett estimated the construction cost as above $300 million. He declined to identify a partner Extell recently took on when it “sold” a group of Midtown sites, including the one for the Hyatt.

By forging savvy alliances, Extell has become the city’s most prolific developer at a time when many others continue to seek equity partners or await anchor tenants. Barnett’s firm is also building the Park Hyatt on West 57th Street and the International Gem Tower on West 47th.

Things bogged down at several other sites, however, and the future of 135 W. 45th St. remained unclear — especially after the note recently went on the market.

Since then, however, Extell essentially bought back its own debt, sources said. According to public records, the company last month “sold” the site, among others, to an entity called HHC TS.

Barnett wouldn’t comment on the project’s ownership structure except to say, “We’re very well capitalized.”

He said the hotel will enjoy a privileged site “near Times Square, but on the East Side of it,” unlike others along Eighth Avenue and farther west.