Courts roundup: Jasper Johns sues Ian Schrager, $3.5M Bed-Stuy bankruptcy, $4.2M pre-foreclosure in Flatbush

Jasper Johns battles Ian Schrager over hotelier’s West Village office lease: The iconic post-war painter and sculptor Jasper Johns, now 93, is in a tussle with another high-profile individual, the ground-breaking hotel developer Ian Schrager. Schrager, now 77, has leased office space at 818 Greenwich Street since 2005, and after lease modification and extensions, the term ended December 31, 2023, the complaint says.

Court records reflect the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete. Schrager has not yet responded in court.
The complaint filed yesterday in New York State Supreme Court by Johns’s entity 69 Jane Street Company LLC, says Schrager owes back rent since Covid, totaling more than $617,000, and is continuing to occupy the space at 818 Greenwich Street, known as holding over, despite the lease having ended. Johns is seeking payment of the back rent and payment for the continued occupancy.
The parties are contesting this lease in a holdover case filed earlier this month in Landlord and Tenant Housing Court, titled 69 Jane Street Company, LLC v IS Greenwich Corp., Civil Court, New York County Index No. L&T 304249-24/NY. Schrager has not yet responded in that case.
According to the complaint, “In violation of the Lease, during the period from January 1, 2020 through the Expiration Date, Tenant failed to pay monthly fixed rent, its proportionate share of the increases in real estate tax over the base year (“Real Estate Tax Escalations”), and late fees for the Premises in the aggregate sum of $617,162.01 (the “Arrears”).

The office building with two residential units in the West Village has 22,898 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 66 feet and is 90 feet deep with a total lot size of 6,131 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R6 which allows for up to 2.43 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the Greenwich Village Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $6 million.

Johns, as to 54.75 percent and fellow artist Julian Lethbridge as to 45.25 percent, bought the building in February 1992 for $1.82 million. Julian Lethbridge signed the landlord and tenant complaint documents.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS.

$3.5M bankruptcy at Bed-Stuy commercial: Jack An filed a petition to place his 6,188-square-foot retail building at 1186 Broadway in Bedford Stuyvesant into chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as he confronts a $500,000 judgment from a 2016 construction worker tort case that he says he thought was being handled by his insurance. The building also has a $750,000 loan from KeyBank given in 2017. The petition filed in the Eastern District of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court states the property is worth $3.5 million.
Case 1-24-41299-jmm LINK

In 2019 a Brooklyn State Supreme Court justice through index number 637/2016 awarded a construction worker in a job site injury case a $500,000 default judgment. Jack An states in subsequent court records that he believed his insurance company was handling the issue, then in 2022 learned of the default judgment when he was applying for a loan.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page.

Flagstar Bank files $4.2M pre-foreclosure in Flatbush: Flagstar Bank filed a $4.2 million pre-foreclosure action in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn against the owner of 600-606 Ocean Avenue, a 24-unit elevator rental building in Flatbush, Brooklyn, .
Case LINK
RMC Equities led by Daniel Reifer bought the building in 2018 for $8.25 million, borrowing $4.2 million from New York Community Bank, now Flagstar Bank, at the time. The elevator building with 24 residential units in Flatbush has 24,258 square feet of built space and 5,774 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 29,996 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data.

The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 150 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,499 square feet. The zoning is R7A which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.7 million.

According to the complaint, “Ocean’s 600 failed to make the monthly payments of principal and interest and escrow and other amounts due under the Loan Documents for June 1, 2023 and thereafter.”

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page.