Extell Development, one of the city's most active developers in recent years, gave up its development site at 366 Tenth Avenue August 11, 2010, to its lender, Barclays Capital Real Estate "after an unidentified European partner refused to keep funding the project, according to an article yesterdat at therealdeal.com by Adam Pincus.

The article said that Extell, which is headed by Gary Barnett, assembled the site, which is between 30th and 31st Streets, for "at least 44 million" and its first mortgage with Barclays was valued at $28.8 million.

The article quoted Mr. Barnett as stating that "we were supporting it for quite a while and we had a partner who did not want to do that any longer, so we gave it back."

Despite evidence of an improved real estate market in Manhattan, one of the city's most prominent builders, Extell Development, last week lost a major West Side development site it assembled for at least $44 million to its lender, likely the first time ever the company has lost a property through a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

Gary Barnett's Extell gave up the parcel near Hudson Yards at 356-366 10th Avenue, priced just over the first mortgage value of $28.8 million, to its lender Barclays Capital Real Estate after an unidentified European partner refused to keep funding the project, Barnett told The Real Deal.

"We were supporting it for quite a while and we had a partner who did not want to do that any longer, so we gave it back," Barnett, the company's president, said.

Extell turned over the site, between 30th and 31st streets, to Barclays Aug. 11, city property records show.

Extell had planned a 61-story, 774-foot-high, mixed-use tower for the site designed by Steven Holl. Mr. Barnett told therealdeal.com that the project was not "viable in today's market," adding that "it was too big."

Extell, however, is the developer of a much taller proposed mixed-use tower across from Carnegie Hall on West 57th Street that has been designed by Christian de Portzamparc who has also design a five-tower mixed-use complex for Extell known as Riverside Center between 59th and 61st Street west of West End Avenue.

Barclays filed suit in New York State Supreme Court in October 2009 to foreclose on a $28.8 million loan made to Extell in September 2005. The lender claimed in legal papers that Extell defaulted on the loan after failing to make an interest payment in June 2009.

"Insiders blamed Extell's loss to the overall lack of financing for hotel projects as well as the long wait before the No. 7 train extension reaches the West Side," the article said.

The site is at the northern end of the High Line Park and Mr. Holl had indicated it would contain about 200,000 square feet of residential space, about 400 hotel rooms and art gallery and retail spaces. The tower would have several setbacks and its slender silhouette would has somewhat resembled an elongated, angled "S."

Mr. Holl is famous for his collaboration with Perry Dean Rogers Partners Architects on the very impressive design of the Simmons Hall student residence building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That project is distinguished by its 18-inch deep windows and cut-out forms.

Mr. Holl has also won widespread praise for his recent major, luminous expansion of the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum in Kansas City, Missouri and a huge residential complex in Beijing in which eight towers are connected by bridges at about the 20th floor, one of which contains a swimming pool.