A contractor who helped build an apartment building in Pleasantville claims that the developer cheated him out of a $1 million equity interest in the project.
DiPietro Construction Corp., Bedford, accused Vito Errico and Washington Avenue Lofts LLC, Pleasantville, of unjust enrichment, in a Nov. 17 complaint filed in Westchester Supreme Court.
Giocondo DiPietro, the president of the construction company, alleges in the complaint that the developer “harbored an undisclosed intention not to perform under the contract and give (DiPietro Construction) its equity share in the building.”
“The subject lawsuit has not been served on the defendants,” Errico’s Nassau County attorney, Fred G. Daniels, responded in a brief telephone conversation. “However, if lawful service is effectuated the action will be defended vigorously, as it is fraught with baseless claims.”
Washington Avenue Lofts is near the center of the village, next to the volunteer fire department and a block away from the Jacob Burns Film Center. It has 23 apartments, ground-floor retail spaces and a parking garage.
Errico is also the developer of a 79-unit apartment building a few blocks away at 70 Memorial Plaza. He and his siblings founded the Equinox gym chain, according to news accounts, and sold it in 2005 to the Related Companies for $505 million.
Errico hired DiPietro in 2017, according to the complaint, and DiPietro agreed to forgo the normal fees and compensation to get an equity interest in the project.
DiPietro says it worked on the project for four years, to February 2021, and performed site work and development, rock removal, road and drainage work and sewer and water installation.
Errico and Washington Avenue Lofts breached the agreement, the complaint claims, by failing to compensate DiPietro for its work.
DiPietro is demanding $1,047,123.
The company is represented by Greenwich attorney Neil Spector.
