A consultant who claims he is owed $1.2 million for services on a senior housing project in Yonkers is trying to satisfy the debt by compelling the developer to sell its properties.
Cottage Living LLC, a Yonkers company managed by Thomas Conneally of Eastchester, sued Ayuso Enterprises LLC of New City on Oct. 8 in Westchester Supreme Court.
Cottage Living is asking the court to order foreclosure of four properties at 15-23 N. Broadway, Getty Square, to enforce a mechanic”™s lien, and to issue a $1,244,700 judgment against Ayuso Enterprises for alleged failure to pay a development fee.
Efforts to contact Roger Ayuso Sr. and Paul Ayuso for their side of the story were unsuccessful.
Ayuso Enterprises hired Cottage Living in 2017 to provide development and construction services at the North Broadway properties. The plan was to build 36 affordable senior housing apartments in three row buildings.
According to the complaint, Cottage Living”™s job was to select and work with the architect, engineers and vendors; apply for affordable housing tax credits; seek alternative funding; work with the city of Yonkers on zoning for an historic credit; create project budgets; and pay vendors.
Cottage Living claims that it performed its job but that Ayuso terminated the deal this past May and has refused to pay for the services.
The full development fee was set at nearly $1.2 million, according to the complaint, and Cottage had already performed services and paid expenses worth $502,807.
Cottage Living filed a mechanic”™s lien for $500,000, May 17, against the Ayuso Enterprises”™ properties on North Broadway.
The properties include a vacant lot and three 4-story row buildings, according to Yonkers property records, and are worth more than $2 million.
Three companies, according to the complaint, hold mortgages on the properties: 15 Broadway Funding Associates of White Plains; Apex Mortgage Corp., Fort Washington, Pennsylvania; and United Real Estate LLC ofPeekskill.
Cottage Living is represented by Jonathon D. Warner, of Warner & Scheuerman, Manhattan.
