904 Tower Apartment LLC v. Mark Hotel LLC

853 F. Supp. 2d 386, 2012 WL 1075854, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46194
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMarch 29, 2012
DocketNo. 10 Civ. 970(LLS)
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 853 F. Supp. 2d 386 (904 Tower Apartment LLC v. Mark Hotel LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
904 Tower Apartment LLC v. Mark Hotel LLC, 853 F. Supp. 2d 386, 2012 WL 1075854, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46194 (S.D.N.Y. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

LOUIS L. STANTON, District Judge.

Plaintiffs bring this action for breach of contract, fraud, and related claims, alleging that defendants fraudulently induced them to enter, and subsequently breached, agreements to purchase two adjacent luxury apartments in a $750 million mixed hotel and cooperative apartment development, resulting in plaintiffs’ loss of-approximately $2.6 million in down payments.

Defendants initially scheduled the closing for March 31, 2009, a date they postponed for two or three weeks. During that time, defendants received a temporary certificate of occupancy on April 13, and plaintiffs inspected the property on April 15, before the rescheduled closing on April 16. The New York State Attorney General intervened to obtain an adjournment of that date by one week. Plaintiffs attempted to delay the closing further, but never appeared at the closing, and never closed.

Plaintiffs allege non-performance of the agreements: defendants denied plaintiffs their right to adjourn the closing, and sought to force them to close on apartments which were uninhabitable. Plaintiffs also seek rescission on the grounds defendants overstated the demand for the apartments, failed to disclose material facts about the project’s financing, and fraudulently induced the agreements. Defendants dispute the condition of the units, claim that any defects could be remedied after closing, and argue that plaintiffs disclaimed reliance on their representations and that their nondisclosures are immaterial.

Before filing this lawsuit, plaintiffs applied to the Attorney General for a return of their down payments under New York’s Martin Act, N.Y. Gen. Bus. L. § 352-e, which requires that sponsors of cooperative offerings make certain disclosures and place down payments in escrow. The Attorney General issued a determination (the “Determination”)1 in favor of defendants, holding that plaintiffs “cannot rely on any such alleged defects as a basis for rescission if they have not given Seller notice and an opportunity to cure such defects,” [390]*390Determination ¶ 27, that “the identified defects in fact appear to be in the nature of what are typically regarded as punch-list items that a Seller may remedy after closing,” id. ¶29 (emphasis in original), and that defendants’ “obtaining of additional financing would not, even if included in an amendment submitted to and accepted for filing by the Attorney General, be a substantial amendment to the offering plan that adversely affects the purchasers” and gives a right to rescind under the Martin Act, because that financing was subordinated to the proposed co-operative leases, id. ¶ 18 (internal quotation marks omitted). Plaintiffs are currently prosecuting an action in New York State court under Article 78 of the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules challenging the Determination.

Defendants move under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim. For the reasons that follow, the motion is denied in part and granted in part.

Background As Alleged in the Complaint2

Defendants Simon Elias and Izak Senbahar formed defendant corporation Mark Hotel LLC to convert a building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side into a luxury, dual-use hotel and cooperative apartment complex. Defendant Mark Hotel LLC leased the premises and conveyed one-third of that lease to defendant Mark Hotel Sponsor LLC (“Sponsor”), which constructed the apartments and offered them for public sale. Sec. Am. Compl. ¶ 27. Defendant Alexico “is an affiliate of and has common ownership with Sponsor and Mark Hotel LLC,” id. ¶ 16, and is “the manager of the Mark Hotel LLC and the Sponsor,” id. ¶ 27.

Elias and Senbahar constructed the Mark and two other hotels (the Alex, developed by defendant 205 East 45 LLC, and the Flatotel) as a “unified enterprise,” meaning the “three hotel projects were linked operationally, with, for example, a centralized accounting department, overlapping employee benefit plans and a practice ... of using available cash for the most pressing needs of any one of the hotels and/or Elias’ and Senhabar’s related operations.” Id. ¶ 22 (internal quotation marks omitted). Defendants Does 1-10 are “additional entities-owned or controlled by Elias and Senbahar,” which also operated as part of their ‘unified enterprise.’ Id. ¶ 21.

On January 11, 2008, Sponsor issued an offering plan (the “Offering Plan”) detailing the cooperative construction project for the Mark Hotel. On January 31, 2008, plaintiffs entered into two nearly identical contracts (together, the “Agreements,” which incorporate the Offering Plan by reference) to purchase the two adjoining suites numbered 904 and 905 (the “Suites”) for a total of $10,375,000. Plaintiffs paid deposits on the properties totaling $2,593,750.

Construction of the Mark took longer than anticipated. Though the Offering Plan estimated that “work at the Building will be sufficiently completed to permit closings of Suites to begin in or about May 2003,” Offering Plan3 at 117, construction remained incomplete even as the delayed April 16, 2009 closing date drew near. Plaintiffs’ April 15, 2009 inspection exposed a lack of basic amenities (e.g., “The Suites had no heat, and no hot water,” “Only one of the three planned elevators was in operation, and it was the utility elevator, not a passenger elevator,” id. [391]*391¶ 121), shoddy and incomplete construction (e.g., “there were no controls for the AC/Heating units,” “there were gaps in floor joints,” “bath accessories were not yet installed,” “An excessively large gap between the wall and the ceiling in the master bathroom in Unit 904 would require reinstallation of the wall,” id. ¶ 118), and aesthetic defects (e.g., “floor stain was applied messily and unacceptably uneven, baseboards were stained with floor stain,” “entrance and interior doors were damaged and scratched,” “The paint was unfinished in places or mismatched,” id. ¶¶ 118-19). “In short, instead of presenting construction consistent with a luxury turn-key home, Defendants presented construction indicative of a rush job performed to convey a facade of completeness.” Id. ¶ 120.

Nonetheless Sponsor “insisted that Plaintiffs close the next day,” but “the Attorney General intervened and insisted that Defendants adjourn closing until April 23” 2009, which Sponsor did. Id. ¶¶ 106-107. On April 20, 2009, plaintiffs sought to defer the April 23, 2009 closing to May 1, 2009 under a rider to the Agreements which provided them the right to adjourn “on one (1) occasion only.” Agreements, Rider No. I.4 Sponsor refused, claiming that plaintiffs had already exercised that right because the Attorney General intervened at their behest.

Plaintiffs did not attend the April 23, 2009 closing. Sponsor declared them in default and informed them of their right to cure by closing instead on May 27, 2009. After plaintiffs failed to appear for the May 27, 2009 closing, Sponsor terminated the Agreements and asserted a claim to retain the down payments as liquidated damages under Section 11(b) of the Agreements.

During the work of development of the Mark, defendants borrowed additional funds to finance the project, only some of which they disclosed to plaintiffs.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
853 F. Supp. 2d 386, 2012 WL 1075854, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46194, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/904-tower-apartment-llc-v-mark-hotel-llc-nysd-2012.