Co-working Firm Jay Suites Buys Midtown Building for $35M

Hoping to catch the bottom of the market, a co-working firm has snapped up a Class B Midtown office building for about $250 per square foot.

Jack and Juda Srour’s Jay Suites paid $35 million for the 142,000-square-foot building at 8 West 38th Street, according to property records. The 12-story building, built in 1913, was 80 percent occupied.

“The market for commercial sales is back to numbers we haven’t seen in 25 years,” Juda Srour said. “We just feel that the timing is right.”

The company will use the now-vacant third floor for its conference-room leasing business, Jay Conferences, and will continue to lease out the rest of the 12-story building, according to Srour. The seller is the Felder family, who had owned the building a few blocks from Grand Central for eight decades.

Srour said they were attracted to the location across from the new Amazon offices at the former Lord & Taylor building and close to major transportation hubs. The sale was first reported by Crain’s.

The Srours were not the only buyers lured by the proximity to Amazon. A Midtown building next door to the e-commerce giant traded this summer for $18 million. Those buyers were also hoping to benefit from Amazon being its neighbor, the Commercial Observer reported.

Jay Suites is a New York-based firm with 11 flex office locations across the city. Jay Conference launched in 2018 and has six locations.

Amid the downstream effects of hybrid and remote due to the pandemic, flex landlords say they have seen an increase in demand from companies that have ditched the office but still need a place to gather for occasional get-togethers and corporate events.