Judith Ripka Fine Jewelry opened a store in The Westchester a year ago because of the mall”™s reputation as a destination for luxury goods, according to a lawsuit, but closed its doors nine months later after discovering that the White Plains shopping center was a “breeding ground for lawlessness.”
Ripka is demanding $1.7 million from The Westchester for failure to install more security cameras or hire sufficient security staff, in a complaint filed May 27 in Westchester Supreme Court.
Mall spokeswoman Megan Hakes responded, “This frivolous lawsuit is without any merit and it is clearly a thinly veiled attempt by Judith Ripka to get out of their lease. … Westchester Mall is an extremely safe environment for our shoppers, tenants and employees and has the benefit of state-of-the-art security systems, processes and procedures.”
Ripka says the mall represents itself as the “ultimate shopping destination for the metropolitan New York region,” and indeed it features tenants such as Neiman Marcus, Tiffany & Co., and Gucci.
Ripka signed a lease in September 2019 and agreed to pay rent of $150,000 for the first year plus, after $1,250,000 in gross annual sales, 12% of revenues.
The store opened on June 9, 2021.
A few days after the opening, Ripka claims, employees witnessed a robbery at the Michael Kors store. The manager allegedly told Ripka”™s manager that it was robbed on a weekly basis.
From June 2021 to March 2022, according to the complaint, Ripka employees witnessed at least nine more robberies and saw perpetrators fleeing through a nearby parking garage exit. The targets included Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Moose Knuckles, Neiman Marcus, and Tourneau. One of two heists at Louis Vuitton allegedly involved more than $100,000 in merchandise.
There was no camera in a back corridor where robbers fled, the complaint states, and there is a videotape of a security employee watching one of the Louis Vuitton robberies and not intervening.
The mall was well aware of the problems, according to the complaint. Ripka president Janice Winter met with mall manager Richard Ranges to discuss her concerns. A security bulletin was issued. The tenant safety committee was convened. White Plains Police Chief Joe Castelli and a security firm official met with tenants. Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah pledged to prosecute cases brought to her by police.
But “despite the continued barrage of lawlessness,” Ripka charges, the shopping center “failed to minimize the foreseeable likelihood of further robberies and lawlessness … and failed to provide adequate security personnel and security cameras.”
On March 2, the Judith Ripka store closed.
On March 17, Simon Property Group, the Indianapolis company that owns The Westchester, demanded $915,026 in outstanding rental obligations.
Ripka”™s Manhattan attorneys, Harlan M. Lazarus and Jared H. Louzon, accused the shopping center of gross negligence. They argue that the landlord has a duty to take precautions to protect tenants from foreseeable criminal conduct.
The mall violated the lease, the complaint states, by depriving Ripka of peaceable and quite enjoyment of the premises. Employee were concerned about their safety, and bad publicity and continued lawlessness hurt business. In effect, Ripka says, it was evicted.
Ripka is demanding $1,703,710.
“We will defend these baseless claims vigorously,” Hakes, the mall spokeswoman, said.
