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Gary Barnett finally wants to give up his pawn in a high-stakes game on West 57th Street.
The developer, who has been selling many noncore assets, is placing the entirely vacant 16-18 W. 57th St. on the market and expects to get back the $80 million he paid in 2011 while outbidding Sheldon Solow — who would be the logical buyer.
Barnett has hired the investment marketing team led by Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan at CBRE to sell the five-story, 24,000 square-foot building, which comes with 75,000 square feet of air rights, The Post has learned.
“He was getting unsolicited offers at very strong pricing, so he was tempted,” said a spokeswoman for Barnett, confirming the assignment.
Barnett told The Post in February 2012 that he was “planning to develop the property [at 16-18 W. 57] with a super high-end hotel.”
Just steps off Fifth Avenue, the structure is sandwiched between 10-14 W. 57th and 20-22 W. 57th St., which are both owned by Solow, as is 6-8 W. 57th.
Some say Solow, an irascible billionaire octogenarian, has kept these properties semivacant to ensure nothing blocks the views of his 9 W. 57th office tenants, who pay well over $100 to $200 a square foot to enjoy both Central Park and city views.
But it is more likely that the secretive Solow is glomming onto a site of his own and Barnett’s buy was made to stall a redevelopment while his own One57 down the street was being completed.
Residential units at One57 are in contract for as much as $45 million per floor.
Barnett is similarly holding up Vornado Realty Trust’s 220 Central Park South by refusing to give up a garage lease while his own Nordstrom building goes up behind it.
The addition of 16-18 would give Solow 237.5 feet of frontage and a plot of 23,750 square feet for a tall building of 356,250 square feet.
His spokesman did not return a call for comment.