Feil Org revives Billionaires’ Row resi conversion, plans 47 apartments

UPDATED 5:45 a.m., April 4, 2025: Jeffrey Feil, CEO of the Feil Organization, submitted a major alteration application for the conversion of the 14-story office (B) building at 140 West 57th Street in Midtown West, Manhattan, to a 47-unit residential building. The plans don’t call for a change in height.

The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on March 27, 2025 under job number 124040616. The project is described in the filing as: filing herewith Alt-1 for conversion of an existing 14-story office building to a multiple dwelling. General construction work filed under separate DOBNOW application M00461800.

The building is owned by the Feil Organization which holds 40.625 percent, BLDG Management which holds 40.625 percent and Nakash Holdings with holds 18.75 percent.

The building known as the the Beaufort, the Studio Building or the Office Townhouse was constructed in approximately 1907 as apartment studios for artists, according to the 1999 landmark designation report. According to the report, “While this building was designed for artists and many lived there, they were not the only residents. Census records from 1915 and 1925 show that many professionals such as lawyers, stock brokers, and teachers lived in the building also.”

The Feil Organization bought the building on October 30, 2009, from Harry Macklowe’s Macklowe Properties for $58.9 million.

Feil Organization has swung back and forth with conversion plans for the building. In 2016, it planned to convert it to residential, then stopped and submitted plans to renovate the structure as commercial, as Yimby reported in 2020.

The initial job cost for this new project is $17 million, according to the alteration application M00461800, but subsequent filings can have their own costs associated with them so the complete cost is not known.

The building is next to GDS Development and Sabal Investment’s Metropolitan Tower at 142 West 57th Street.

The property

The office building in Midtown West has 90,000 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 80 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 8,000 square feet. The zoning is C5-3 which allows for up to 15 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is in the Individual Landmark. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $23.6 million.

Prior sales and revenue

The 90,000-square-foot property generated revenue of $6.3 million or $70 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on May 1, 2014.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation, $3,125 in ECB penalties, and $4,275 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 Midtown West, The majority, or 75 percent of the 75.9 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown West has the 2nd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.7 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown West is the most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 34.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 45 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 14 commercial properties representing 116,075 square feet of the 1,597,985 square feet. The two identified owners are Feil Organization and Hasan Biberaj. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Feil Organization owned at least 37 commercial properties with 1,084 residential units in New York City with 7,172,868 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.7 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $391.2 million in debt, with top three lenders as Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, and Capital One respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 56 percent of the 7,172,868 square feet of built space are office properties, with elevator properties next occupying 15 percent of the space. The bulk, or 60 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Queens next at 21 percent of the space.

The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Tim Case, head officer and Kevin Neuner, officer. The business entity is 140 W 57st Corp.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 140 West 57 Street, PincusCo identified 36 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those 36 items, 27 were sales above $5 million totaling $850.2 million. The most recent of the 27 was Steinway Hall 27 LLC which bought one condo unit in the 4,492-square-foot, 62-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 111 West 57th Street for $12 million from 111 West 57th Property Owner LLC on March 12, 2025. Of those 36 items, nine were loans above $5 million totaling $666.2 million. The most recent of the nine was Zar Property NY in which borrowed $36 million from JPMorgan Chase secured by the 112,147-square-foot, 80-unit office building (O6) on 119 West 57th Street on December 13, 2024.

UPDATED with additional owners BLDG Management and Nakash Holdings and their percents.

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