Joyland pays $26.2M to Cayre Equities for 166-unit resi conversion in Garment District

Joel Wertzberger’s Joyland Management through the entity 254 West 35 Holdings LLC paid $26.2 million to Cayre Equities through the entity CS Midtown 35 LLC for the loft building (F5) at 254 West 35th Street in Garment District, Manhattan. The expected use is conversion from commercial to 166-unit residential building.

Simultaneously with the purchase, Joyland borrowed $27 million from Levon Capital, and also signed a 99-year ground lease as landlord with Mendel Fleischman, as tenant. That ground lease was valued at $6.8 million, city records showed. It was unclear what portion of the building was covered by the ground lease.

This sale comes just 14 months after Cayre Equities bought the property for $16.1 million, with plans to convert it to storage.

An individual named Jack Poll submitted the major alteration application for the conversion of the (COM) building at 254 West 35 Street in Garment District, Manhattan. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on January 7, 2026 under job number M01340670. It calls for a conversion of the 16-story building. The project is described in the filing as: application filed to convert existing sixteen (16) story building to residential use as per plans.
The sale closed on February 2, 2026 and was recorded on February 5, 2026. The property has 106,642 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $245 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The seller bought the property on November 20, 2024, for $16.1 million. The signatory for Cayre Equities was Kenneth Cayre . The signatory for Joyland Management was Joel Wertzberger . The contract date was July 21, 2025.

Prior sales, articles and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Joyland Management purchased two properties in one transaction for a total of $30 million and sold six properties in two transactions for a total of $108.1 million over the past 24 months.
The seller Cayre Equities purchased two properties in two transactions for a total of $35.4 million and sold one property in one transaction for a total of $50 million over the same time period.

The property

The industrial building in Garment District has 106,642 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 $16.4 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received 23 DOB violations and $780 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

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 $1.4 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Garment District is the 6th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 11.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 21 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 21 of the 27 commercial properties representing 2,022,864 square feet of the 2,262,329 square feet. The largest owner is Circle Realty Group, followed by Jenel Real Estate and then Kaufman Management Company.
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 majority, or 75 percent of the 2.3 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 16 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Cayre Equities owned at least 12 commercial properties in New York City with 767,682 square feet and a city-determined market value of $128.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $194.9 million in debt, with top three lenders as Bank Hapoalim, Santander Bank, and TD Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 70 percent of the 767,682 square feet of built space are industrial properties, with office properties next occupying 22 percent of the space. The bulk, or 63 percent of the built space, is in Manhattan, with Brooklyn next at 20 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Joyland Management owned at least two commercial properties with one residential unit in New York City with 37,372 square feet and a city-determined market value of $7.5 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $43.8 million in debt, borrowed from Levon Capital and Dime Community Bank. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 100 percent of the 37,372 square feet of built space are office properties, with development properties next occupying 0 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

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