By Gus Saltonstall
The Upper West Side looks to be adding a new super-tall building to the neighborhood.
This week, Extell Development filed a new permit with the city proposing to build an 86-story residential property at 80 West 67th Street, on the corner of Columbus Avenue, which is the former home of the ABC campus site.
The building proposed by Extell, now owner of the property, calls for a 1,182-foot-tall building. For comparison, that is around 275 feet shorter than the Empire State Building, and would be easily taller than the current tallest building on the Upper West Side, a different Extell 775-foot tower at 50 West 66th Street.
The new 86-story building would be nearly double the height of the controversial 200 Amsterdam Avenue residence, which critics said was too tall for the neighborhood.
The new building would have 430 residential units, amenity space, roughly 25,000 square feet of retail space, and a garage with 187 parking spots, according to the permit filed by David Rothstein, an executive vice president at Extell.
What is not clear from the building permit filed this week for 80 West 67th Street is the number of affordable units that the address might include. Under the current zoning regulations that cover the former ABC site, Extell is not required to build affordable housing, but Gary Barnett, the founder and chairman of Extell Development, told Upper West Side Community Board 7 in May 2025 that he was willing to allocate some of the Extell site — on West 66th and 67th streets from Columbus to Central Park West — to affordable housing.
As for the height of the project, there are few guardrails that would limit how tall Extell can build within this specific site.
On the former ABC site, there is an enclave of addresses, including 80 West 67th Street, that do not fall within an historic or special district and also have no landmark status, which could impose height limits on a project. The diagram below shows that this former ABC campus site sits outside of the black bolded line, which represents the Lincoln Square Special District.
Not only do these addresses fall outside of any special district, they are also zoned differently.
The area on West 66th and 67th streets, from Columbus to Central Park West, has commercial zoning laws similar to Midtown, where there are not the same height-limit rules that exist in the adjacent blocks of the Lincoln Square Special District.
Besides the zoning situation, Extell can use air-rights rules to build a taller structure. When a single entity owns multiple buildings on the same site in New York City, they are able to combine the unused air rights of other properties to make one building as tall as possible.
It is unclear when construction of the new 86-story building will begin.
Read More:
- What’s to Come for ABC’s Former UWS Campus? It’s Up in the Air…
- Negotiations About ABC’s Former Upper West Side Facilities Still Under Wraps
- CB7 Pushes for Affordable Housing at Former UWS ABC Campus, But Developer Plans Still Uncertain
- Extell Chairman Says He Willing to Include Affordable Housing at Former UWS ABC Site
- Demolition Work Sparks Complaints at Former UWS ABC Site: Possible 1,200-Foot Building on the Way
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Hope they “86” this plan.
As someone who supports more building, it really is quite tall and possibly so tall it’s rather out of context for a residential area. Or at least the border between a residential and commercial area.
I don’t understand how this special district — which was intended for a commercial development — can transform into residential super tall, but here we are.
*grabs popcorn and opens comments*
That will cast a long shadow.
“When a single entity owns multiple buildings on the same site in New York City, they are able to combine the unused air rights of other properties to make one building as tall as possible.” This single sentence invalidates all building height zoning limits.
Good. We desperately need more housing. If you don’t like tall buildings, you can always move to the suburbs.
The UWS has roughly 220,000 residents packed into 3 square miles. That is a crazy level of population density. We do not need more housing in this tiny neighborhood.
Enough.
Kinda crazy to think that this will be 86 stories considering how the ABC building was only about 14. But hey, the UWS doesn’t need sunlight, especially in the morning. Extell is doing us all a favor. Anyone complaining is just another ungrateful NIMBY whiner who wants to live in the past.