Landlord suits could delay Harlem affordable housing project
“The city hopes affordable housing and large commercial structures will rise one day on a full block in Harlem now occupied by low buildings, a parking lot and a gas station. But landlords of five of the parcels says the city’s efforts to condemn the properties came too late. The White Plains-based Heron Real Estate filed a lawsuit yesterday in New York State Supreme Court claiming a move in February to seize the properties was tardy, and should be voided.
There is a three-year statute of limitations for condemnation proceedings, and the city says it expired last February 17, while the owners say it expired on October 13, 2013, four months earlier. The complaint names the City of New York and the city’s Economic Development Corporation as defendants.
This suit follows legal filings in May by the owners of the other four parcels protesting the condemnations, all located within a block bounded by 125th and 126th streets, and Second and Third avenues.”
Pincus, Adam. The Real Deal 3 October 2014.
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