215 West 84th Street (Google Maps)
Naftali Group filed plans to demolish 215 West 84th Street this week, Crain’s reported, despite the fact that there’s still a tenant fighting to keep his apartment there.
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The real estate developer filed a lawsuit against the tenant, Ahmet Ozsu, back in February — stating that he refused to leave after his lease had expired at the end of 2021, while also claiming that he hadn’t paid rent since September. The suit also alleges that Ozsu has been “maliciously” standing in the way of the project “for the sole purpose of causing financial harm” to the developer, and that his insistence on staying put has cost the company $25 million in “lost rent and profits.”
Ozsu’s attorney, Adam Leitman Bailey, claims the real estate developer has been tampering with Ozsu’s “gas and hot water supply, cut off electricity in the building’s laundry and garbage area, and started using several generators that make ‘mind-numbing noise’ as early as 6:45 a.m,” according to Crain’s.
Attorneys for Naftali Group say the tenant’s lease was lawfully terminated at the end of last year, and “maintained that the Naftali Group would be able to complete its project.”
In April, the New York Times reported that Ozsu had turned down a $30,000 buyout from the developer; according to The Real Deal, Naftali claims Ozsu is looking for a “seven-figure payday.”
In June 2021, the firm, owned by Miki Naftali, dropped $71 million on the parcel that spans 207-221 West 84th Street. The previous owner didn’t renew any leases, and beloved children’s bookstore Books of Wonder was forced to vacate its storefront at 217 West 84th Street.
In May 2022, Naftali filed plans to build an 18-story luxury condo with 45 apartments and ground floor retail.
Re: “Naftali Group Files Plans to Demolish 215 West 84th Street, Even Though One Tenant Still Lives There”
Will they at least dig the tenant out of the rubble afterwards so that his relatives can give him a proper funeral? Or will they just mix his remains into the concrete of the new building’s foundation?
@Tom,
Gallows and Graveyard humor may yet offer a rope to hang us all. Be generous.
Thanks in advance.
As per the article, “his insistence on staying put has cost the company $25 million in “lost rent and profits.” It would have been cheaper to give him a low six figure settlement.
@Walter
Re: “has cost the company $25 million in “lost rent and profits.” It would have been cheaper to give him a low six figure settlement.”
In the old days the Mob would have taken care of the problem for a fraction of that.
Landlords and owners so often get shafted by tenants who exploit the heavily biased eviction laws to the hilt.
So this guy should get his kneecaps busted for demanding reasonable compensation from real estate barons who stand to make a fortune off the deal? That is your position? 30k is chump change.
I didn’t mean to imply that I agreed with the tough tactics often used in the past, only that landlord-tenant laws nowadays lean way unfairly in favor of tenants, including the many cases in which the landlord isn’t some super rich individual or company but rather an average family renting out an apartment in their 2 or 3-family home. Thanks to these unfair (Liberal) housing laws a tenant can drag out the eviction process for many months, if not years, resulting in 10s of thousands of dollars in lost income for the property owner. This guy’s lease expired months ago, and he hasn’t paid the rent since September 2021!
30k is chump change??
Maybe for most of the super-rich hypocrite Liberals on the UWS it is!
Agreed Walter..6 FIGURES could if he acts fast buy him a studio in the Bronx..Or a room in one of the ‘Pencil Towers’ (58th and CP} bought up by Russians mobsters and now rumoured to be uninhabitable and largely empty. (Oh NYC..San Francisco..San Diego..Paris..London..Toronto..Minsk what happened to you?)?
Agreed Walter..6 FIGURES could if he acts fast buy him a studio in the Bronx..Or a room in one of the ‘Pencil Towers’ (58th and CP} bought up by Russians mobsters and now rumoured to be uninhabitable and largely empty. (Oh NYC..San Francisco..San Diego..Paris..London..Toronto..Minsk what happened to you?)?
I can’t imagine a speedier and more efficient way of hanging us all than by continuing to vote Democrat, locally and nationally. It couldn’t be more obvious that the Democrat Party today is a complete disaster, whether by intention or by some combination of stupidity and insanity. Then again, one would necessarily have to be stupid and insane to do the sorts of things they have done and are proposing to do going forward. Yet even more frightening and alarming are the large numbers of people who continue to support the party despite it all. We need now more than ever before a cure for stupidity! The future of our country may well depend on it.
PS- I replied as I did because I wasn’t sure what it was that you said, or were trying to say. No disrespect intended. 🙂
@Tom
No offense taken— I appreciate open conversation. My hands are up in the air in a permanent gesture of despair. I think there’s stupidity on all sides, and there are more than two.
My jaw is still locked open, after hearing—days later, by accident on YouTube—about the bodega owner who defended himself and then had to resort to the NRA because my middle-of-the road Democrats would rather he die in prison (an exaggeration) than live another day and keep his business open.
I hope the readers will publish my side-issue here.
“Middle of the road Democrats”?..Well ask Gale Brewer on the SAVE WEST PARK 125 year old church /Amsterdam and 86th.. View her testimony (bit.ly/3uEKSO1)..This is NYC…..
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“Middle of the road Democrats”?..Well ask Gale Brewer on the SAVE WEST PARK 125 year old church /Amsterdam and 86th.. View her testimony (bit.ly/3uEKSO1)..This is NYC…..
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True..Old time Religion doesn’t work anymore..New blood..new energy is on the horizon..But then again there’s alway Donald..??
You have to leave off property by 9:00 am or you will be escort by Officers from Chief Executive
Good for that tenant. Neftali sounds terrible. I’m tired of hearing the whining for business owners when they face natural consequences. If they wanted an empty building, they should have bought an empty building or compensated people properly. They kicked out Books of Wonder, which was more of a boon to our neighborhood than another flimsy ‘luxury’ highrise which will sit empty. Why are we supposed to feel bad for them?