Showdown on Front St: Walentas vs. Boymelgreen
The grudge match that’s playing out between longtime Dumbo partriarch David Walentas and relative newcomer Shaya Boymelgreen would be almost farcical if it hadn’t already turned several people’s lives upside down. As most of you probably read yesterday, Boymelgreen put up a seven-story condo building at 57 Front Street in 2004, believing that the property…
The grudge match that’s playing out between longtime Dumbo partriarch David Walentas and relative newcomer Shaya Boymelgreen would be almost farcical if it hadn’t already turned several people’s lives upside down. As most of you probably read yesterday, Boymelgreen put up a seven-story condo building at 57 Front Street in 2004, believing that the property had an easement over the adjacent lot, which would have protected the light and views of his lot line windows. Long-story short, it turns out no easement exists and now Walentas wants to trade the easement for the right to buy the property at 45 Front Street that he has long coveted but that Boymelgreen has locked up in contract. The best part of the story? Walentas is threatening to put up a steel sculpture designed with the express purpose of blocking all Boymelgreen’s windows. Excuse us, David? “It’s steel columns in front of the windows with plates strategically placed where the windows are, just as a little negotiation.” That’s what we thought you said. It’ll be interesting to see if there’s such hardball tactics will taint Walentas’ self-promoted image as mayor of Dumbo. Considering Boymelgreen doesn’t exactly have a huge fan base, maybe not.
Rivals Rumble in Dumbo [NY Times] GMAP
Flipper’s Delight at 57 Front [Set Speed]
57 Front Never Closes [Curbed]
That’s nothing! Boymelgreen sold the main (90,000 sq ft) commercial condo at 15 Broad Street to Tides Shared Spaces, a front group for George Soros drug legalization people. This is a far left fringe organization who will be subletting to groups such as needle exchange programs, methadone maintenance programs and lots of alternative groups from aids to suicide advocacy people. The people who bought there are in for some surprise. Look up the Tides and Thoreau center on the internet to get a better idea of an impending disaster. This group which despises capitalism must be having quite a chuckle being located at the epicenter of capitalist society: Broad and Wall. I had purchased a large condo there but was able to slip out on Boymelgreen’s being “less than candid” about lead paint abatement.
I say the city should refuse further building permits to both for the next 10 years. One is building a building without checking out the permits, and the other, knowing that there is an issue, let an adjecent building be built so that he can erect a “sculpture” deliberately designed to harm the future residents of an adjecent building. Shameful.
i say boo hoo for boymelgreen. its about time he didn’t get his way. what the upzoning if fourth avenue wasn’t a big enough gift for you? what about the cheap construction of your second street condos where i believe some of the walls had to be replaced? this man is no one any body should feel sorry for or believe.
Don’t you think it is a little fishy that a major real estate developer like Boymelgreen would not make a fewl copies of this hand written easement or make sure it is scanned into the DOB on line data base. A fairly simple thing to prevent something like this from happening. Whose to say there ever was a hand written easement.
Yeah, especially when that piece of paper is over 100 years old…Things happened…stuff get lost all the time over the course of time.
I thought the whole disappearance of the hand written easement seemed a little fishy, didn’t you?