Midtown Tower Owners Facing Possible Eviction

When the Texas-based Thakkar Developers purchased 135 W. 50th St. for $8.5 million in 2024, it was viewed as a steal. Now, they are facing possible eviction.

Just 18 years earlier, the building sold for $332.5 million, meaning UBS Realty Investors, the former owners of the tower, sold it for just 2.6% of what the company paid in 2004. This sale was a warning sign of the trouble that came with the building and the uphill battle Manhattan office spaces are currently facing.

Now, Thakkar Developers are facing possible eviction after allegedly failing to pay $28 million worth of property taxes on the 925,000-square-foot building.

Then, on May 11, the real estate investment trust Safehold filed a lawsuit alleging Thakkar failed to pay $28 million worth of property taxes on the 925,000-square-foot building, as reported by Crain’s New York Business.

Safehold, which is seeking to seize the building, owns the ground beneath the tower and collects a monthly lease. But, in most ground lease agreements, the tenants are still responsible for paying property taxes.

The lawsuit, which was filed with the state Supreme Court, requests that law enforcement step in to eject the Thakkar family from the building after they refused to vacate on their own.

Thakkar was initially sent a notice of default in May 2025, according to the suit. The company requested several extensions but failed to provide the money.

Just a month ago, Thakkar announced that it would be turning the upper floors of the 23-story tower into apartments, as reported by the Real Deal. Co-founder Sam Thakkar said the company was looking at offering 550 to 700 units. Thakkar said the bottom floors would continue to serve as office and retail space.

This move points to some of the likely stressors that added to Thakkar’s default. As many companies have remained in the remote and hybrid work environments that came about during the Covid-19 pandemic, the need for office space has sharply decreased. Now, some think that the reduction of white-collar jobs due to AI will continue this trend.

At one point, the building, which was built in 1963, was occupied by several prominent companies, including Sports Illustrated and Marvel Entertainment. In 2024, only 35% was occupied. The rent from the tenants at the time was not enough to cover the ground lease payments, according to the New York Times.

Doubling down on the issues arising from the lack of demand for office space, much of the office tower is outdated, despite recent renovations to the lobby and elevators. This, and the building’s awkward distance from the major transportation hubs of Penn Station and Grand Central, have made the tower less enticing.

Though the sale of the building appeared to be a deep loss for UBS, these factors have proven the move to likely be the smart one. UBS sold the tower on the realty listing platform Ten-X after a two-day auction. It is unusual for such large assets to be listed on the site, which further displays the trouble of Manhattan's office market.

However, earlier this year, Manhattan’s office market experienced its strongest first quarter in over a decade, as the availability rate dropped 2.5 percentage points year over year. Despite these signs of recovery, there has still been a push to convert office space into housing, as the Thakkars were attempting to pivot into.

This isn’t the first time Thakkar Developers has run into legal trouble. In February 2026, brothers Sam and Poorvesh Thakkar were charged with real estate offering fraud by the SEC following an investigation conducted in the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office which charged them with bilking $12 million from about 50 investors over a three year period.

Neither Thakkar Developers nor Safehold returned inquiries seeking comment by press time.