Safehold Inc. files plans for 32 apartments on single floor of office building in Midtown West

Elisha Blechner of Safehold Inc. submitted a major alteration application for the conversion of a single floor of the commercial office (COM) building at 135 West 50th Street in Midtown West, Manhattan from commercial to 32 apartments. The plan was filed on May 12, 2026. It calls for work in the 248-foot-tall, 23-story building and was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number M01400622. The project is described in the filing as: MPP project-000000631. Filing for conversion of the 12th floor from commercial to residential use as shown, no change to the rest of the building. The applicant is the Registered Architect Ambrose Aliaga Kelly of Gensler. This is the first such application to convert a portion of the building to residential, a PincusCo review shows.

In October 2024, PincusCo reported that Texas-based Thakkar Developers through the entity TD 135 West 50 LLC paid $8.5 million to UBS Realty Investors through the entity 135 West 50th Street Lessee LLC for the ground lease that controls the office building (O4) at 135 West 50th Street in Midtown West, Manhattan. The fee is owned by Safehold Inc.

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 3rd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $4.4 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown West is the 2nd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 38.8 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 51 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the two commercial properties representing 2,828,659 square feet of the 2,828,659 square feet. The two identified owners are Rockefeller Group and Thakkar Developers.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The Owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Thakkar Developers owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 865,759 square feet and a city-determined market value of $332.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single office property. It is located in Manhattan.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 135 west 50 street, PincusCo identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months.
Of those four items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit issued on August 14, 2025 for the $1.5 million renovation of 2,759,779-square-foot building at 787 Seventh Avenue.
Of those four items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $803.5 million. The most recent of the three was CommonWealth Partners in which borrowed $780 million from CalPERS secured by the 1,633,544-square-foot, 48-unit office building (O4) on 787 7th Avenue on February 13, 2026.

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