Red Hook developer converted commercial buildings into residential apartments. Harbor Tech LLC in 1999 purchased a commercial complex located in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn that had been built in the 1920s and used continuously for commercial purposes. Harbor Tech by 2005 had converted the five interlaced buildings of the complex into 100 residential units.
Thirty-five residents of the complex in 2013 sued Harbor Tech to have the City’s Rent Stabilization Law applied … <Read More>
President of the operating engineers challenged new rules on crane operator licenses. Edwin L. Christian, President and Business Manager of the International Union of Operating Engineers, filed an article 78 petition challenging amendments to the rules of the City of New York promulgated by the Department of Buildings regarding licensing for crane operators. Christian challenged the adoption of a rule which dispensed with the requirement that, for a class A license, the applicant must have … <Read More>
Developer failed to issue Staten Island homeowners final C of O three years after construction was completed. In March 2001, Jamie Minchew and Rocco Rinella hired ATP Development Corp. to build a house at 44 Cottontail Court in Staten Island. Eight months later they closed on the house without a final certificate of occupancy, but ATP agreed it would furnish a final certificate of occupancy within one year. Several temporary certificates were issued up until … <Read More>
Two Bridges development gets Appellate Division ruling but two lawsuits remain pending. On August 27, 2020, the First Department’s Appellate Division unanimously ruled in favor of a Lower East Side development that would consist of four towers, 11,000 square feet of retail, and over 2,700 residential units. Of the 2,700 residential units, approximately 700 units will be dedicated to affordable housing and 200 units will be set aside for senior housing. The project’s development group … <Read More>
Advocates applaud decision while developers find decision deeply flawed. On February 15, 2020, the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development and the Municipal Art Society of New York, won an Article 78 case regarding the construction of a 668 foot, 52-story condominium building located at 200 Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. New York County Supreme Court Justice W. Franc Perry’s ruling requires the Department of Buildings to revoke the building permit … <Read More>
City expected to appeal Judge’s decision invalidating the Inwood Rezoning. On December 10, 2019, Judge Verna L. Saunders of the New York State Supreme Court, New York county ruled in favor of the Northern Manhattan is Not For Sale’s Article 78 petition challenging the legality of the Inwood Rezoning. The rezoning was proposed by the city’s Economic Development Corporation and was set to up-zone 59 blocks in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan. Approval of the … <Read More>