The owner of a White Plains office building wants the developer of an adjacent building to pay $65,000 a month, according to a lawsuit, for a license to erect scaffolding on his roof that will protect his own property.
Arthouse WP Developments LLC, a Brooklyn company that is renovating a vacant building at 1 Lyon Place, petitioned Westchester Supreme Court on March 14 for an order compelling 75 South Broadway LLC to grant it a license to use the roof.
Arthouse claims the typical fee for such a license is $1,500 to $2,000 a month.
75 South Broadway “is not only preventing the work from occurring,” Abraham Smilowitz, Arthouse’s general contractor, states in an affidavit,” but is denying the very measures that are necessary to prevent harm to (its) own building.”
Jan A. Marcus, 75 South Broadway’s attorney, did not respond to an email asking for his client’s side of the story.
Arthouse’s 15-story structure opened as a hotel in the early1960s and later operated as the Esplanade senior living facility. Binyamin Beitel of the Beitel Group, is converting the building to 149 apartments and shops.
Zef Perlleshi, of Scarsdale, manages 75 South Broadway, a 4-story office and retail building around the corner from the 1 Lyon Place entrance, according to a property record.
The buildings are separated by inches along a 175-foot property line, the petition states, and city and state laws require developers to protect adjoining properties from damage during construction.
Arthouse cannot renovate the Lyon Place interiors or rebrick the facades until it gains access to the adjacent roof and erects scaffolding.
Such access is common practice, according to Smilowitz, “particularly in urban settings like White Plains with exceedingly close buildings.”
He said the roof would be protected by a strip of two inches of Styrofoam padding and two inches of wood. No heavy machinery would be used and the rooftop would not be drilled. A small sidewalk shed also would be installed in front of 75 Broadway.
Arthouse claims that the scaffolding and shed will cause no hardship or inconvenience to 75 South Broadway. The equipment would remain for about a year, according to the petition, but Arthouse is asking the court for a 30-month license.
Arthouse says it is willing to pay $1,500 to $2,000 a month for the license ($18,000 to $24,000 a year). But on Jan. 28, according to the petition, 75 South Broadway proposed $65,000 a month ($780,000 a year), and since then has refused to negotiate in good faith.
“It is simply an effort to unlawfully extort Arthouse into paying an exorbitant sum,” the petition states, “to obtain required access to the Broadway parcel to finish the work.”
Arthouse is asking the court to order 75 South Broadway to grant a rooftop license for 30 months so that the scaffolding can be installed and maintained.
Westchester Supreme Court Justice Damaris E. Torrent has scheduled an April 12 hearing.
White Plains attorney Joshua E. Kimerling represents Arthouse.
