The Midtown workplace tower that turned heads with its rock-bottom sale on the web public sale website Ten-X is poised for a second act.
McKinney, Texas-based Thakkar Developers, homeowners of the 925,000-square-foot constructing at 135 West fiftieth Avenue, is planning to transform a lot of the property into residences, co-founder Sam Thakkar informed The Actual Deal.
“We’re working to complete up the diagrams and people issues required to transform that constructing to residential,” Thakkar mentioned, including that early architectural research present the prevailing footprint can accommodate between 550 and 700 residences.
The undertaking would mark a dramatic pivot for the 23-story constructing, which traded at a steep low cost in 2024 after a two-day public sale on the web platform Ten-X. The Thakkar family acquired the leasehold for $8.5 million — roughly 97 p.c lower than the $332.5 million that UBS paid for the property in 2006.
The deep low cost mirrored the complexities of the deal. The property is encumbered by a floor lease, with Safehold proudly owning the land beneath the constructing and commanding a considerable floor lease.
Now, the Thakkar household is betting on residential demand to reposition the 1963 constructing, which is 35 p.c occupied, in accordance with CoStar knowledge. Whereas the higher flooring are slated for conversion, Thakkar mentioned the constructing will possible retain a mixture of makes use of, with some decrease flooring persevering with as workplace area and the prevailing retail tenants remaining in place. The residential conversion wouldn’t require any rezoning, in accordance with the Division of Metropolis Planning.
Floor-floor occupants embody Singapore road meals middle City Hawker and Bobby Van’s Grill. Accounting agency Forvis Mazars is the most important workplace tenant, occupying about 89,000 sq. toes on flooring 16 by means of 19 below a lease that expires in 2036, in accordance with CoStar.
Thakkar mentioned the agency is contemplating whether or not to faucet into state tax incentives, which might contain designating a portion of the items as inexpensive. It’s hoping to start out preliminary demolition work as early as July, although the broader buildout is extra prone to kick off in early 2027.
The conversion could be the household’s first office-to-residential conversion and its first actual property undertaking exterior Texas.
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