Albert Srour files 6th application to convert a floor of Garment District building to resi

Landlord Albert Srour filed his sixth Department of Buildings job application in a long-term process that is converting floors of a 133,948-square-foot, 16-story mid-block office building at 248 West 35th Street from commercial use to residential. This application seeks to convert the 10th floor from office use to eight residential apartments. With this filing, M01241762, dated June 16, 2025, Srour has applied to create a total of 42 units on six floors of the building.

The work in this application is for an area totaling 5,951 square feet, according to the job application. The building has a footprint of 7,406 square feet. The 10th floor is the last floor of the building occupying the entire footprint before setbacks.

The first application was for eight units on the seventh floor, M00904205 on August 21, 2023; then eight units on the fourth floor, M00999328 on March 2, 2024; the eight units on the eighth floor, M01031644, on May 20, 2024; five units on the 16th floor, M01135591, on November 19, 2024; then five units on the 15th floor, M01209067, on May 9, 2025.

Albert Srour submitted a major alteration application for a $480,000.00 rehab of commercial (COM) building at 248 West 35 Street in Garment District, Manhattan. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on June 16, 2025 under job number M01241762. It call for a rehab of the 16-story building. The project is described in the filing as: conversion of an exist. commercial floor( 10th. floor) to residential use as per article 7b of mdl.

The property

The office building in Garment District has 133,948 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 75 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,406 square feet. The zoning is M1-6 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $18.9 million. The most recent loan totaled $26.4 million and was provided by New York Community Bank on September 13, 2022.

Prior sales and revenue

The 133,948-square-foot property generated revenue of $3.5 million or $26 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received one housing violation and $2,150 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Garment District, The majority, or 69 percent of the 52.3 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 13 percent of the space. In sales, Garment District has the 9th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.1 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Garment District is the 5th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 9.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 18 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 19 of the 27 commercial properties representing 1,516,925 square feet of the 2,262,329 square feet. The largest owner is Albert Srour, followed by Cayre Equities and then Circle Realty Group. On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 196,772 square feet. The largest is a 300-unit, 157,517 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by Chetrit Group and filed by Meyer Chetrit with plans filed April 5, 2016 and permitted August 21, 2017. The second largest is a 27,048 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Churchill Real Estate Holdings and filed by Jake Borden with plans filed April 26, 2016 and permitted December 10, 2018.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Albert Srour owned at least 15 commercial properties with 479 residential units in New York City with 822,765 square feet and a city-determined market value of $84.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $135.1 million in debt, with top three lenders as Signature Bank, New York Community Bank, and Investors Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 44 percent of the 822,765 square feet of built space are elevator properties, with office properties next occupying 25 percent of the space. The bulk, or 80 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 20 percent of the space.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 252 West 35 Street, PincusCo identified 12 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those 12 items, three were for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. They were three permit applications with a total initial cost of $2.9 million. The most recent of these three items was the filing on May 15, 2025 for a 112,578-square-foot residential (R-2) building with nine residential units at 255 West 36th Street. Of those 12 items, four were sales above $5 million totaling $78 million. The most recent of the four was Cayre Equities which bought the 106,642-square-foot, 14-unit industrial (F5) on 254 West 35th Street for $16.1 million from Bremen House and Gonca Tekiner Chelsea on November 29, 2024. Of those 12 items, five were loans above $5 million totaling $313.6 million. The most recent of the five was Kaufman Organization in which borrowed $8 million from Citizens Bank secured by the 152,667-square-foot, 37-unit office building (O6) on 242 West 36th Street on May 28, 2025.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.