Howard Milstein is the head of Milstein Properties.

From the February issue: On a winter afternoon last month, sunshine streamed through the windows on the 33rd story of 30 Lincoln Plaza, illuminating the cleaning supplies and paint cans that occupy the high-ceilinged space. Innocuous though it may seem, this out-of-the-way spot is at the center of a bitter dispute now raging between the building”s tenants and the developer, the Milstein real estate family. In their quest to prevent the Milsteins from converting the rental building into condos, tenants have filed a lawsuit claiming that when 30 Lincoln Plaza was constructed three decades ago, the developer ignored city permits and added an illegal extra floor — the 33rd. Litigation is nothing new for the Milsteins. They are one of the city’s oldest and most successful real estate families, but also among the most controversial.  [more]

30 Lincoln Plaza and Howard Milstein

A group of tenants at Milstein family condominium conversion 30 Lincoln Plaza has filed a lawsuit against the sponsor and the attorney general, claiming a “fire sale” of units in the building resulted in an “egregious miscarriage of justice” against tenants. Facing a December 2008 deadline for the offering plan to be declared effective, Milstein slashed prices for non-tenants, selling units for 40 to 60 percent less than the prices tenants had paid, according to the suit, filed Dec. 21 in New York State Supreme Court. The suit, which reveals the “vastly reduced prices” of units in the building (see accompanying chart after the jump), offers a glimpse into the challenges faced by developers after the financial crisis of 2008. The suit claims that the condo offering plan “unlawfully discriminated” against tenants and failed to adequately disclose certain material risk factors, and that declaring the plan effective was “erroneous” and “an abuse of the attorney general’s discretion.” In the suit, tenants asked that the attorney general rescind the approval of the amendment that declared the plan effective. The suit was filed by tenants Vera Salnikova and Scott Petepiece, and an unspecified number of members of the 30 Lincoln Plaza Ad Hoc Tenants Committee. [more]