546 West 44th Street. Image Credit: Google Maps.
Property owner sued general contractor and design consultant for indemnification of costs resulting from violations of federal, state, and local disabilities law. CREF 546 owned property located at 546 West 44th Street in Manhattan and hired developers to construct two fourteen-story residential midrise apartment buildings that shared amenities. CREF 546 contracted with Code Consultants to review design and construction documents and Hudson Meridian as their general contractor. The building became occupied in 2016. (read more…)
Carnegie Park Tower. Image Credit: Google Maps
Developer evicted elderly and disabled tenants lacking leases from building converted to condominiums. In April 2014, Carnegie Park Tower, LLC submitted a non-eviction offering plan to the Office of the New York Attorney General to convert rental units into condominiums in the building it owned at 200 East 94th Street in Manhattan. The plan provided that no non-purchasing tenant would be evicted because of the building’s conversion to condominiums. The plan became effective in August 2015, after 51 percent of the tenants opted to purchase their respective units. (read more…)
94 N 13th Street, as it was in August 2007. Image Credit: Google Maps.
Property owner sought tax benefits for remediating contaminated sites already under voluntary State remediation consent order. In 2007, National Grid signed a consent order with the New York City Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to remediate hazardous wastes from National Grid’s closed manufactured gas plant sites. National Grid removed some of the hazardous waste from two adjacent sites located at 94 N. 13th Street and 121 N. 12th Street, Brooklyn. (read more…)
24-59 32nd Street, Astoria. Image Credit: Google Maps.
Building owner challenged loss of advertising rights. In 1998, Astoria Landing purchased an existing four-story apartment building located in a residential zone at 24-59 32nd Street in Astoria, Queens. The building’s previous owner had obtained a permit to display commercial advertisements and begun to display advertisements in the 1940s. In 1961, the City adopted new zoning rules which banned the display of advertisements in residential areas. In 1981, the Department of Buildings erroneously renewed the previous owner’s permit. After the purchase of the building in 1998, Astoria Landing continued to display commercial advertisements. (read more…)
1220 Liberty Avenue, Brooklyn. Image Credit: Google Maps.
Bodega owner fined $6,000 for unpermitted awning. In 2012, Krishna Tiwari installed a 4-foot by 20-foot illuminated awning on the store front of his bodega, Krishna Bazaar, located at 1220 Liberty Avenue in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. Tiwari never received the required Department of Buildings permit to install this sign. In July 2018, Buildings issued a Notice of Violation to Tiwari for his unpermitted sign and imposed a fine of $6.000 which Tiwari paid. In response, Tiwari hired both a licensed sign hanger and a licensed electrician to remove his store’s awning and to obtain the required permits to place an awning sign. (read more…)
