Court rejected City’s lower valuation. As part of its plan to develop a waterfront park, the City in 1996 condemned waterfront property in College Point, Queens owned by Malba Cove Properties, Inc. A majority of Malba’s property is underwater and the remainder is constrained by several mapped, but unbuilt streets.
At the trial to determine the property’s value, the City submitted an appraisal estimating the total value at $890,000. Malba’s appraisal found it to be … <Read More>
Regal Hotels chain appealed a determination that it owed transfer taxes in connection with its UN Plaza Hotel deal. In 1997 the City, the United Nations Development Corporation, and the New York City Economic Development Corporation put out a bid for proposals to purchase and operate the United Nations Plaza Hotel, currently the Millennium UN Plaza Hotel, situated within two adjacent buildings. The 39-story first tower, known as One UN Plaza and located at 787 … <Read More>
Illegal roof space used for 5 years while case was pending. After receiving a Landmarks permit in 2000 to add a decorative wooden trellis to its roof garden, owners of Sushi Samba, a Greenwich Village restaurant made popular by Sex & The City, instead built a steel-reinforced trellis that it covered in canvas roofing, making its … <Read More>
Confusion existed in the closely held Limited Liability Corporation. In 2005, two tenants from 13 E. 17th Street filed a complaint with the Loft Board, claiming the building’s owner failed to install sprinklers as required and requesting fines. The tenants named Nathan Silverstein as the owner.
In Silverstein’s first letter to the Loft Board, he listed the correct owner as “13 E. 17 LLC,” but all remaining documents, including his formal response to the tenants’ … <Read More>
Downtown Brooklyn mall to be demolished for large mixed-use retail, office, and residential center. On February 13, 2007, the New York City Industrial Development Agency, a component of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, approved financial assistance for the construction of a new 1.8-million-square-foot mixed-use development in … <Read More>
Proposed rule would set new qualifications, registration requirements and suspension rules. The Department of Buildings proposed stiffer requirements for the designation of construction superintendents on all demolition and construction jobs.
Under the new rules, Buildings would not issue demolition or building permits without a designated construction superintendent who met certain qualifications. To qualify, the construction superintendent must be a licensed professional engineer, a registered architect or a site safety manager certified by Buildings. Alternatively, the … <Read More>