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Norvin Properties converting 250 Church to apartments
Owner had planned to renovate existing office space at the Tribeca building
After debuting fancy renovation plans with renderings of aspirational young tenants playing beer pong at the office well into the night, the owner of a Tribeca commercial building decided they don’t want people to play drinking games with their coworkers there after all.
Instead, Norvin Properties filed plans with the city Wednesday to convert the 15-story office building at 250 Church Street into a 107-unit residential property.
The change in plans comes in the wake of a partnership gone sour: Investor Jonathan Penner, previously a minority owner in the building, sued his father Arnold Penner and another 250 Church investor, Philips International’s Philip Pilevsky, alleging the pair duped the younger Penner into selling his stake for just $300,000. Penner’s son later dropped the case.
Following the 2015 fallout, Penner will miss out on 250 Church’s transformation, which calls for adding two new floors, bringing the building’s height to 230 feet and to a total square footage of 188,856. Several apartments will have terraces and building amenities include a gym, children’s room and lounge.
Design firm Gensler [TRDataCustom] previously released renderings for 250 Church, also known as 101 Franklin Street, when the owners were still planning an office renovation. Handel Architects is the architect of record on the new residential filings, however.
Norvin Properties is a real estate private equity fund primarily focused on health care operators in Texas. Representatives for Norvin Properties and Philips International could not be reached for comment.
The Pilveskys are wrapped up in the slowly resolving mess at 3 Sutton Place, where former project lenders Gamma Real Estate sued them for allegedly helping then-troubled former owner Joseph Beninati declare bankruptcy, just so they could take a piece of the development. Gamma recently won the building at auction.