Friday, August 30, 2013

Report: Extortion claims highlight Croman suit vs. former Warhol muse

There's legal drama involving four neighborhood buildings. The Real Deal has the scoop about Croman Real Estate suing socialite and former Warhol muse "Baby Jane" Holzer.

According to the suit, filed Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court, Croman reached a deal with Holzer in December 2012 to buy four rental apartment buildings she owns — 60 Avenue B, 159-161 Stanton Street, 193-195 Stanton Street and 343 East 8th Street — for a total of $40.1 million.

But Holzer is now threatening to rent out 18 empty rent-stabilized apartments in the buildings unless the buyers pay her an additional $2.5 million, Croman claims.

Croman claims Holzer is trying to extort millions of dollars from them.

Read the whole article here.

H/T Curbed

11 comments:

nygrump said...

Holzer thus values the rent stabilized at !38K each - I'll remember that if my landlord wants to buy me out.

Anonymous said...

Baby Jane Holzer. Daughter and wife of real estate moguls. Where's the Scwhimmeresque graffiti now?

(Please don't write any; as much as I do not like socialites living in rent controlled apartments, people should be left alone. Just pointing out how ridiculous people are when someone is "cool"/"uncool")

Anonymous said...

Excuse me, I misspoke. Baby Jane lives in a $16 mil townhouse while she plays a shell game with rent stabilization.

Anonymous said...

She should pay up as agreed and not endanger the homes of anyone else. People really do suck.

Anonymous said...

Didn't take long for the Steve Croman shills to turn up!

Croman has tossed many longtime East Village residents and businesses. You may blame him or the Odessa Cafe's 100% rent hike.

From the Village Voice:

When the Voice last visited Steve Croman, the thirtysomething landlord was busy haranguing longtime Little Italy tenants out of their apartments and replacing them with high-paying, quick-turnover renters. Croman's tactics, including badgering phone calls, endless lawsuits, and leaning on already hard-pressed tenants, like a Chinese immigrant who had earned her rent deposit by collecting cans, won him a spot on the Voice's 1998 10 Worst Landlords list.

Anonymous said...

Croman... AGH!!!!!!
I personally have spent lots of money from my retirement and credit cards to battle against Croman and his law firm, Rose & Rose, on countless bogus issues pressed on an elderly parent. I think he is one of the biggest influencers on why the East Village is what it is now....

Anonymous said...

You think I'ma Croman shill, 2:20? (this is anon 1:47 and 2:06).

Please don't ban me from saying this Grieve, but ... eff you, 2:20. Go on defending some rich socialite playing games with other rich assholes from the safety of her UES manse. But please explain to me how being some allegedly cool Warhol muse (there are only about 100 Warhol "muses," by the way, big effing distinctive whoop) makes it OK to abuse the system that I and other middle- and working-class people currently rent under.

Croman sucks. So does Holzer. And so do you.

Anonymous said...

No pity party for either I'm afraid to exceedingly greed people peeing on each other with lawyers winner in end Lawyers surprise surprise...

Anonymous said...

She's warehousing 18 RS apartments in order to extort money and he's suing to keep her from renting them. Where are the DHCR and the local politicians in all of this?

He'll eventually get what he wants and no one will question it when those 18 apartments return as $3500 a month rentals with no mention of rent stabilization. Meanwhile, the present tenants should prepare for a rocky ride.

Croman evicted everyone from a 23 unit building claiming owner occupancy, never moved in, and is demolishing the building for a new one with high end retail and rentals.

Anonymous said...

Our city goverment is completely corrupt. The whole east village is on fire. That does not happen without a lot of money and a plan. From city council, community boards, housing orgs you should be seriously wondering what is stopping then from protecting their historic community and its affordability.

Muscling out all these vulnerable people just because you need to be richer is disgusting.

The rich are just harvesting the poor wholesale here before our very eyes, making them homeless to flip their housing. And what is being done about this behavior? What? Its disgusting.

This game of leveraging away affordable units from the vulnerable to make fat profit margins for the rich is pathetic. They are canabals.

What is going on with the laws and government that is allowing this corruption?

Anonymous said...

I hear you loud and clear, 12:35AM. It's a cluster f*ck!