Case Study

Buyouts, Evictions, Negotiations, and Detective Work Lead to the Ground Work to Build a Large Condominium

Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. spent almost a year and a half buying-out tenants and evicting tenants who had violated their lease agreement for a large rent-regulated building site in Brooklyn. These tenants’ violations included illegally subletting, not using their premises as their primary residences, or chronically paying their rent late. The property owner’s goal was to demolish the building and build a much larger condominium development. The process progressed at an unusually fast speed when a restaurant below the apartments made the entire building uninhabitable. Even with the fire, many of the tenants still battled in court but none of the tenants prevailed. The tenant association that was formed met at the local City Council person’s office and Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. eagerly participated in these meetings which led to the purchase of tenant’s leases at a faster pace as the government representative provided a trust factor that we could not replicate. A cell phone tower tenant became the only tenant remaining with a valid lease with a number of years remaining. The cell phone company explained that it had no interest in moving unless we could find another 5 or 6 story building in the same or nearby location to place its equipment. The initial negotiations failed. But, Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. had been in this position before and examined the lease and the roof equipment and realized that the company had exceeded the boundaries in the lease as well as the limited poundage required in the lease. Notices were sent out as well as other violations of the lease that were observed and after a 6-month wait not only was the rent paid in full but the cell phone company paid its own moving costs and signed a termination agreement and a release.

Adam Leitman Bailey, Dov Treiman, and Carolyn Z. Rualo participated in this process leading to the making the premises ready for the building of the condominium.