LANDLORDS and tenants get into some strange disputes, but what’s gone on at the landmarked building 1 Broadway just might be “1” for the books.
A court has just rejected as “created out of whole cloth” the owner’s attempt to seize for itself a portion of the sixth floor in the 12-story building where the sole tenant, leading intellectual property law firm Kenyon & Kenyon, had an option to expand.
The weird case had its origins in Kenyon & Kenyon’s gradual expansion at 1 Broadway, a handsome structure at Bowling Green that was built in 1885, reclad with nautical ornamentation in 1919-21 and named a city landmark in 1995. Kenyon moved in in 1980. By 2001, it occupied all 190,000 square feet except for half of the sixth floor.
The firm had a first-refusal option on the space from the landlord, Logany LLC, a U.S. firm owned by a Swiss trust. Kenyon made clear its intention to take the additional half-floor once the tenant moved out, and Logany seemed to have no objection.
According to Kenyon & Kenyon’s own lawyer in the case, Janice MacAvoy of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, Kenyon expected to take over the remaining half-floor by the end of 2004. But as the year wore on, Kenyon had yet to see a lease from Logany, and the firm started to get nervous.
Then, at a meeting this February, MacAvoy said, “Logany shows up with elaborate architectural plans to build three penthouse apartments on top of the existing building.” Logany asked Kenyon to vacate the 12th floor for a year to allow construction to proceed.
Kenyon said no to the request and continued to wait for its sixth-floor expansion lease. When Logany finally offered one, MacAvoy said, “the landlord had carved out offices for itself right in the midst of the new option space,” thus separating half of the Kenyon offices on the floor from the other half.
“Logany said it would stay there until the penthouse construction was completed,” MacAvoy said. “It was clearly an attempt to use it as a hammer over the 12th floor.”
Kenyon & Kenyon sued, claiming the right to exercise its option and asserting that Logany’s attempt to insert itself on the sixth floor was a device to pressure Kenyon to vacate the 12th floor. “We’re not even sure Logany has approval to build penthouses on top of a city landmark,” MacAvoy said.
Late on Thursday, state Supreme Court Judge Louis B. York ordered Logany to lease the sixth floor space to Kenyon, saying the owner’s bid to take part of the floor was “created out of whole cloth in a desperate attempt” to pressure Kenyon to move out of the 12th floor while Logany built the penthouses.
Logany’s lawyer, Jay ItKowitz, did not respond to telephone and e-mail messages Friday.
Officials of the Landmarks Preservation Commission could not be reached over the Christmas-Hanukkah weekend.
