COVID-19 could cost Rivertowns Square tenant Brooklyn Market $1M

COVID-19 could cost Brooklyn Market, a soon-to-be ex-tenant at Rivertowns Square in Dobbs Ferry, more than $1 million.

The market needs a demolition permit to remove property before its lease expires at the end of the month, but the Dobbs Ferry Building Department cannot process the permit, according to a lawsuit, because of the virus.

Brooklyn Market sued Rivertowns Square Regency LLC, the landlord, on March 24 in Westchester Supreme Court for allegedly refusing to negotiate a new surrender date.

“The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the complaint states, “has all but assured that obtaining the necessary approvals to remove the ”¦ equipment, fixtures and installations shall be impossible to accomplish by March 31.”

A spokesman for Regency Centers Corp., the landlord”™s Jacksonville, Florida, parent company, did not respond to an email asking for its side of the story.

Brooklyn Market leased 18,000 square feet in 2017 from Saber Dobbs Ferry LLC, the developer, beginning at $378,000 a year.

In 2018, Regency Centers bought most of the retail space in the mixed-use development, for $69.2 million.

On March 6, Brooklyn Market President Mahmoud Elayyan agreed to pay $61,933 and relinquish a $189,000 security deposit to break the lease. The market had the right to remove light fixtures, refrigeration equipment and other property that it claims is worth more than $1 million.

On March 11, when the market began removing property, a Dobbs Ferry building inspector came to the store, according to the complaint, but did not issue any violation notices.

The following day, a lawyer for Regency Centers notified Brooklyn Market to cease and desist. The landlord had allegedly seen internal copper piping being removed without a plan or permit, according to a letter to the tenant, and saw lighting and wiring being removed in a “destructive and inappropriate manner.”

On March 13, the building department issued a stop-work order and notified the market that it needed approvals to remove fixtures or installations.

Brooklyn Market denied damaging the property in a letter to a Regency Centers attorney. The market hired architect Thomas E. Haynes to prepare plans and it asked the landlord to extend the surrender date, to allow more time to get permits, reverse the stop work order and resume removal of property.

Regency Centers has refused to extend the surrender date, the complaint states. In the meantime, the building department has canceled inspections and postponed issuing permits, according to an affidavit by Haynes, until it can provide inspectors with better personal protection equipment.

Through no fault of its own, Brooklyn Market claims, it is being prevented from removing its property by forces outside of its control.

The landlord, on the other hand, “stands to gain a windfall” by potentially gaining ownership of the market”™s property.

Brooklyn Market is asking the court to stop enforcement of the March 31 surrender date and to grant it at least 30 days to remove property after it gets the village”™s approvals.

Brooklyn Market is represented by Staten Island attorney Salvatore Calcagno. Regency Centers is represented by attorney Thomas S. Onder of Lawrenceville, New Jersey.