Extell Launches Diamond District Tower

NEW YORK CITY-A ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday featuring city officials and real estate executives marked the formal launch of construction on Extell Development Co.’s 34-story International Gem Tower at 50 W. 47th St. First announced three years ago, the 750,000-square-foot project in Manhattan’s Diamond District will be given over primarily to commercial condominiums housing gem and jewelry industry tenants.

In a release, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who officiated at Tuesday’s ceremony, says the businesses comprising the city’s jewelry industry “are a valuable part of the local economy. But the center of the industry–the 47th Street Diamond District–has seen modest private investment in recent decades, and there is little space for international companies that want to locate here or local businesses that want to expand. The International Gem Tower will offer that space.”

Extell expects to complete the $300-million first phase of construction by year’s end; foundation work had begun last year. It will include three underground levels containing gem industry vault operations, utility infrastructure, parking facilities and retail. The entire project, which will house up to 250 tenants, is expected to be completed by 2011 at a total cost of $750 million. At a news conference Tuesday, Bloomberg expressed confidence that Extell would be able to come up with the balance of the financing. Tishman Construction Corp. is serving as construction manager, working from a Skidmore, Owings & Merrill design that features a curtain wall of embedded diamond shaped steel medallions.