A landlord is suing Titan Concrete Inc., a bankrupted Carmel ready-mix concrete company, for $6 million for allegedly failing to pay rent and trashing its property.
Point H Realty Corp., the owner of a property in the Bronx that Titan had used for manufacturing concrete, sued Michael Saccente, of Yorktown Heights, in a complaint filed on Nov. 25 in Westchester Supreme Court.
“Apart from the back rent, taxes and water payments that remain due,” the complaint states, “Titan left the premises in such a deplorable condition” that it will cost “in excess of $5 million to restore the premises.”
But Titan has accused Point H in bankruptcy court of improperly evicting the company from the Bronx yard so as to seize Titan’s tools and fleet of trucks and “exert leverage” in their disputes.
Titan describes itself as a top notch concrete service for commercial industrial and residential projects in New York City, the Hudson Valley and Western Connecticut. It makes concrete in Carmel and in Stamford, and until the eviction this past August, in the Bronx.
Point H is operated by Peter Mestousis, of Pelham, and owns the yard in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx.
In 2018, Titan leased the property for five years, according to the complaint, and Saccente guaranteed the lease payments.
In 2022, Mestousis bought a 50% interest in the business but Saccente continued to operate Titan Concrete, the complaint states, “as if he were sole owner.”
Last year, Titan petitioned for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, declaring $3.4 million in assets and $13 million in liabilities.
Titan owed Point H more than $850,000 in rent, taxes and sewer charges when the bankruptcy case was filed, according to the new complaint. And this past January they agreed to a deal where Titan would pay about $110,000 a month to continue operating at the Bronx site for a few months, and then vacate the property on June 1.
Titan did not vacate the property, the complaint states, Point H obtained an eviction warrant and a city marshal evicted Titan on Aug. 13.
Titan left “numerous junk concrete trucks, a literal mountain of dried concrete, numerous concrete blocks and other items too numerous to mention,” according to the complaint, and it will cost at least $5 million to restore the property.
But Titan claims in a bankruptcy filing that Point H blockaded the exists and prevented Titan from removing its property, to force a $3.5 million payout outside of the ordinary bankruptcy procedures.
Titan also claims that it has received an offer to buy some of the assets, and the eviction jeopardizes a potential sale worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Point H accused Saccente of breach of contract for not paying the rent, breach of implied covenant and good faith for leasing the property “with knowledge that he was in financial straits and could not fulfill his end of the agreements,” and breach of his personal guarantee.
Titan has asked bankruptcy court to sanction Point H for evicting the company from the Bronx yard, in violation of procedures that require creditors to act only in bankruptcy court.
