Judge: Grimaldi's Can Stay, For Now
On Friday a judge ruled that the landlord of 19 Old Front Street must accept $60,000 in back rent from Grimaldi’s and let the famed pizzeria stay through the end of its lease in November 2011. So ends the great pizza crisis of August 2010. After screaming at the owner and threatening a photographer, the…
On Friday a judge ruled that the landlord of 19 Old Front Street must accept $60,000 in back rent from Grimaldi’s and let the famed pizzeria stay through the end of its lease in November 2011. So ends the great pizza crisis of August 2010. After screaming at the owner and threatening a photographer, the Grimaldi’s owner vowed to open up next door when he gets the boot next year. The landlord promised to rent the space out to a competitor who could take advantage of the grandfathered brick oven.
Brooklyn Judge Rejects Grimaldi’s Eviction [NY Post]
Judge Rules Grimaldi’s Can Keep Serving Pizzas [NY Daily News]
Grimaldi’s Owner Pooh-Poohs Eviction [Brownstoner]
Grimaldi’s Served Eviction Papers [Brownstoner]
Minard- in a lease that is $25,000 per month and $300,000 per year, $7500 represents about 2.5%. Its a small amount. The law abhors forfeitures and to forfeit a lease for such a small amount. In the end its the judge that will decide whether its material or not. If its base rent its one thing if its attorneys fees it will probably be something else.
I don’t know exactly what happened on Remsen Street but the vast majority of commercial holdover cases are out in 3 months. Can there be times its longer? sure but those are generally exceptions not the rule.
I don’t know why you would think for a housing attorney $7500 isn’t a lot of money. Most residential tenant disputes are for a lot less. yes for residential tenants its a minimum of six months and sometimes longer and an absolute ban of residential evictions around the end of the year. and I don’t have a real problem with that except for serial abusers….
One case doesn’t generally make law. The landlord here can always appeal and the state appeals courts make both law and fact determinations anew(denovo) (not in federal court where the standard is abuse of discretion)
I suppose to a housing attorney $7,500 is a small amount of money. In the real world it is a lot of money. What is the difference if he owes $60,000 or $7,500? Where is the dollar threshold defining material default?
It took Holy Trinity church a full year to get its commercial tenant out of a house it owned on Remsen Street after the lease expired. Imagine that, a church wanting its space back and the judge did not budge for a year.
While it may be true that some commercial tenants are out within three months of their lease expiration dates, the ones who want to fight can easily draw it out to a year -or more if they are good at it.
Commercial property will not take a year. the issue here was some added rent(for attorneys fees) all the other rent was paid on time. The amount at issue was about $7500 and the balance from refusing to take timely tendered rent. the judge found the relatively small amount as “not a material default”- can you really disagree with him that such a relatively small amount should result in the forfeiture of the lease? anyway holdovers of commercial real estate are normally out in three months or less.
Local customer presiding over the case. Sorry landlady. Ownership is not really.
***Bid half off peak comps***
good luck evicting him after the lease expires. Another couple of appearances in court, a couple of stipulations, a couple of postponements, you will be looking at another year at least after the end date of the lease.
I say boycott the place as this guy is obviously taking advantage.Why contribute to a front for something else? CASH only? I smell a rat.
“Only tourists eat here.”
I completely agree.
Only tourists eat here.
Did Landmarks approve that awning?
It is probably in violation of 14 city regs.
Some people can get away with anything while others are tortured by city inspectors.