Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Quickly and Efficiently Stops Soho Cooperative Board From Blocking Retail Storefront Rights After Nearly Two Years of Interference
In Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s latest victory, the firm successfully compelled a Soho cooperative board to cease interfering with a retail unit owner’s contractual rights and recognize the owner’s exclusive right to use a storefront display window and blade sign – critical features necessary to lease the space to retail tenants.
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained by a leading global alternative investment manager focused on value-add property investments (the “Shareholder”), which owns the cooperative shares allocated to a retail unit consisting of a ground-floor loft and a portion of the basement in a prime Soho building. For almost two years, the cooperative board interfered with the Shareholder’s rights under the proprietary lease by claiming that the Shareholder could not use a display window at the front of the retail unit or a blade sign that had for years advertised the retail unit’s tenants to passersby.
The Board replaced the locks on the display window and removed the blade sign, effectively preventing any tenant from advertising their business. As a result of the Board’s conduct, the Shareholder lost an existing tenant and was unable to secure a new one. Prospective tenants repeatedly declined to lease the space because they could not install storefront signage – an essential feature for any retail business in Soho. The Board’s interference left the premises vacant for nearly two years (approximately 22 months), causing the Shareholder substantial financial losses.
Immediately after being retained, ALB PC conducted a comprehensive review of the governing documents, gathered records from the Landmarks Preservation Commission (“LPC”), and performed targeted legal research. This investigation rapidly determined that the Board had no basis in the governing documents for its actions. Instead, the proprietary lease and accompanying diagram clearly established that both the display window and blade sign were part of the Shareholder’s premises and that the Shareholder had the exclusive right to install and maintain signage in those locations consistent with LPC requirements.
ALB PC therefore wrote and delivered a forceful legal letter to the Board outlining the Shareholders’ contractual rights and the damages caused by the Board’s actions. The letter demanded that the Board immediately cease its improper conduct, restore the Shareholder’s full control over the display window, pay for the reinstallation of the blade sign, recognize the Shareholder’s exclusive signage rights, and compensate the Shareholder for the damages caused by its interference.
Faced with the overwhelming evidence and legal analysis presented by ALB PC, the Board promptly folded. Within a day of receiving Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s letter, the cooperative contacted the Shareholder and acknowledged that it had no rights to the display window or blade sign and agreed to stop interfering with the Shareholder’s use of the premises.
To ensure that the issue would never arise again, ALB PC drafted a formal agreement memorializing the Shareholders’ rights and preventing the Board from asserting similar claims in the future.
Twenty-two months of disruption were resolved in a matter of days once Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. stepped in.
Adam Leitman Bailey, Karen Chau, Rachel Sigmund McGinley, and Nurie Metodieva of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., represented the client in this litigation.