Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer is taking the state he as soon as ran to courtroom, accusing its housing company of “potential intentional misconduct” for sitting on his utility to demolish 985 Fifth Avenue.
It has been three years since Spitzer received Landmarks Preservation Fee approval for the luxury condominium he plans to construct as an alternative, however first he wants the Division of Houses and Neighborhood Renewal to permit non-renewal of the six rent-stabilized leases on the 25-story rental constructing.
After ready 26 months and sending letters warning DHCR he would sue if it didn’t act, Spitzer filed papers in state courtroom Friday.
“DHCR is the Valley of Dying,” he stated in a cellphone interview. “It’s a demolition allow case. It’s so simple as could be. They merely refuse to do what they’re statutorily required to do.”
Spitzer, who runs the corporate based by his late father, Bernard Spitzer, is utilizing the identical lawyer, David Grill of Rivkin Radler, who gained the same case in 2022 for developer Gary Barnett at 352 East 86th Road. Barnett’s battle dragged on for seven years and prompted the state to impose new requirements for anybody desirous to knock down a constructing with rent-stabilized tenants.
Spitzer’s lawsuit says he has checked these packing containers, together with lining up greater than $100 million in financing for the demolition and the condominium venture, and due to this fact the state is legally obliged to grant the appliance.
The submitting alleges “a sample of not simply neglect, however … potential intentional misconduct,” saying “the DHCR has positioned quite a few unfair impediments and prompted inordinate and unjustified delays.”
The go well with cites a rare sworn statement by former senior DHCR official Woody Pascal, first reported by The Actual Deal, asserting that strain from politicians and tenant advocates prompted the company to oppose the lack of rent-stabilized models reasonably than execute the regulation as required.
“This inaction … just isn’t harmless, a lot much less the product of peculiar bureaucratic inertia,” Spitzer’s submitting says.
Ten months after Spitzer’s March 2024 purposes to non-renew the six leases, DHCR requested extra info, a lot of which was within the preliminary purposes, and has requested nothing since, in accordance with the go well with.
The company additionally waited eight to 11 months earlier than sending the 4 responses from tenants to Spitzer. “There could be no different rationalization … apart from a secret agenda to delay,” the lawsuit asserts.
The roughly 40 free-market tenants at 985 Fifth Avenue, which Spitzer’s father inbuilt 1969, had no authorized proper to remain as a result of their rents are far too excessive to qualify for defense below the state’s Good Trigger Eviction regulation.
However the rent-stabilized tenants, 4 of whom are holding out, are entitled to lease renewals with extraordinarily restricted exceptions, one in every of which is demolition. DHCR’s failure to approve the termination of their leases offers these tenants leverage in negotiations with Spitzer.
“What he’s providing just isn’t acceptable to my shopper,” Adam Leitman Bailey, who represents tenants Eva Coriat De Aron and Stephanie Phillips, told The Real Deal in March following a settlement convention known as by DHCR. Tenants Mary Walsh and Carlotta Jacobson are represented by Vernon & Ginsburg and Himmelstein McConnell Gribben & Joseph, respectively; Walsh not too long ago got here to phrases.
Though 985 Fifth Avenue flats hire for as much as $59,000, its prestigious location between East 79th and East eightieth streets, throughout from the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork, provides the potential for an enormous payday if Spitzer can get his 20-story, 26-unit condominium constructed.
DHCR didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
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