A New York Supreme Court Judge ruled yesterday that Forest City Ratner had illegally obtained the lease to the six-story office building at 752 Carlton Avenue as well as an adjacent parking lot on Pacific Street. The judge ruled that Shaya Boymelgreen violated his lease agreement with owner Henry Weinstein when he transferred the 48-year lease to FCR without Weinstein’s sign-off. The contracts, the judge said, stated clearly and unambiguously that the leases could not be transferred without Weinstein permission. It turns out that Boymelgreen made one attempt to get Weinstein’s approval — but sent the request to the wrong address. Weinstein says that FCR had to have known it needed his approval. If you’re buying a lease from somebody and you have thousand-dollar-an-hour, 800-pound gorilla lawyers retained to protect your interest, he said, I tend to think that they read the lease and realized that they knew that what they were doing was illegal. FCR is acting like the unfavorable ruling doesn’t matter. “We do not believe that this decision will have any impact on the project and are continuing with the preparatory work begun last week,” a Ratner lawyer said. FCR will appeal the ruling.
Atlantic Yards Loses Lease to Part of Site [NY Times]
Judge Rules Forest Ratner Acquired Building Illegally [NY Sun]
Ratner To Appeal Atlantic Yards Ruling [The Real Estate]
Judge Raps Boymelgreen, Ratner in AY Lease Dispute [AY Report]