The Texas-based owners of a Midtown office tower bought online at a bargain-bin price are accusing the ground landlord of icing them out of their planned office-to-residential conversion.
In a new lawsuit filed Wednesday in New York state Supreme Court, McKinney, Texas-based Thakkar Developers, owned by the Thakkar family, claims land owner Safehold wrongfully attempted to terminate Thakkar’s 104-year ground lease at 135 West 50th Street as the developer worked toward a redevelopment with Nathan Berman’s MetroLoft.
The suit comes after Safehold filed its own lawsuit last week seeking to eject the Thakkars from the 23-story building and terminate the ground lease after the tenant allegedly racked up almost $28 million in unpaid property taxes, interest and other penalties.
But the Thakkars allege they hired lawyers to negotiate a payment plan with the Department of Finance that would allow them to pay the taxes in installments, which they claim was permitted under the lease. Safehold rejected the proposal and demanded immediate payment, per the suit.
The Thakkars say they proposed to resolve the tax arrears as part of a broader recapitalization and redevelopment, according to the suit. They claim they began pursuing a residential conversion and brought in Berman as a development partner.
But the relationship soured after MetroLoft allegedly sought to dilute the Thakkars’ ownership stake while deferring its own capital contribution, according to the lawsuit. After the family ended talks with MetroLoft, the Thakkars claim Safehold continued to work with Berman behind the scenes.
Safehold issued the termination notice and filed its own plans for the conversion — an application was filed on May 12 with the Department of Buildings to add 32 apartments at the property.
The Thakkars are seeking to block the landlord from terminating the ground lease and are demanding more than $500 million in damages.
The Thakkar family owns multiple businesses in McKinney, a Dallas exurb, including a Bollywood film distributor, an insurance business and a tax office. The Midtown property was their real estate firm’s first real estate purchase outside of Texas. They face a slew of recent lawsuits in New York and Texas.
Representatives from Safehold and MetroLoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did the Thakkars’ attorney.
The Thakkars bought the building in 2024 after a two-day auction on the online platform Ten-X. They acquired the leasehold for $8.5 million — roughly 97 percent less than the $332.5 million that UBS paid for the property in 2006.
Co-founder Sam Thakkar said in April that he planned to convert the upper floor of the building to residential, continue to use the lower floors as office space and keep existing retail tenants remaining in place.
Isaiah Mitchell contributed reporting.
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