The collapse yesterday of a building owned by the Extell Development Company has served to harden the views of some Upper West Side residents against the developer.

Residents critical of the company’s building of 31- and 36-story towers at Broadway and West 99th Street have said the real estate developer who heads Extell, Gary Barnett, has done little to win over the Upper West Side community.

“It looks to us like all he’s doing here is maximizing his profit, not maximizing the benefit for the neighborhood,” one resident, Cynthia Doty, who is a member of Westsiders for Responsible Development, said.

The events that have unfolded on the Upper West Side are a sharp contrast to Extell’s image in Brooklyn.

A week ago, the developer became the darling of those who oppose plans by Forest City Ratner Companies to build high-rise towers and a Nets stadium in Brooklyn after it submitted a competing bid for the air rights to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Vanderbilt Yards, a critical component to the development.

The bid offered buildings no higher than 28 stories – smaller than the Ratner bid. Unlike the Ratner bid, it would not invoke the use of eminent domain.

On the Upper West Side, residents have begun to lob the same criticisms at Extell’s development at Broadway and West 99th Street that the Brooklyn opponents of Forest City Ratner have used: that Extell’s high-rises would ruin the intimate flavor of the neighborhood.

Much to the chagrin of area Upper West Side residents, Extell purchased the air development rights from St. Michael’s Church on Amsterdam and 99th Street, which are transferable to Extell’s development, allowing them to build higher than normal zoning would allow.

The district manager of Community Board 7, Peggy Ryan, said the company was within its right to develop the building as it is, regardless of public outcry.

“We are going to be discussing these issues at a land use committee meeting next Wednesday, but at this point nothing can be done,” she said.

Mr. Barnett has made headlines recently with other deals. Last month, Extell, along with private equity firm the Carlyle Group, purchased three buildings and a tract of land on the Upper West Side between 59th and 65th streets from Donald Trump for $1.76 billion. Mr. Trump has since sued his partners, Hong Kong investors led by Henry Chen, for $1 billion, alleging they sold the property to Extell without entertaining better offers.

Within hours of the collapse, local legislators and residents had returned to the scene to continue their ongoing protests against Extell, the latest of which had occurred Wednesday night. Assemblyman Keith Wright said the collapse endangered the company’s bid to win development rights for the MTA’s Vanderbilt Yards, commonly referred to as the Atlantic Yards.

“Certainly, if Extell is bidding for Atlantic Yards, this accident needs to be taken into account,” he said.

A vice president of the Real Estate Board of New York, Michael Slattery, disputed that notion. He said the bid would likely be evaluated on its merits, separate from the Department of Buildings’s investigation into the collapse.

A candidate for a vacant city council seat on the Upper West Side, Inez Dickens, asked why Extell’s Upper West Side development plan did not provide for any affordable housing, as had the company’s bid with the MTA.

A spokesman for Extell, Robert Liff, said the company, which attended a community board meeting last month, would “continue to meet and consult with the community as we proceed on this as-of-right development, but this is not the day for political candidates to try to make hay out of a tragedy. Lets get through today and we can fight again tomorrow.”

That fight could extend across the East River. A member of the city council, Letitia James, a Democrat of Brooklyn, had embraced Extell’s Atlantic Yards bid, which she told The New York Sun last week was “sensitive and considerate.” Although she was unprepared to comment on the Upper West Side development, the recent protests against Extell by area residents gave her pause.

“Obviously it gives me some concern,” she said. “Any development should be done in consultation with the community.”

Meanwhile, the collapse offered worried neighbors some relief regarding concerns that Extell was moving fast to develop the site before an effort could be mobilized against it. Yesterday, the commissioner of the Department of Buildings ordered a temporary building moratorium on the site.