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Harry Macklowe seeks to oust $244.37-a-month renters
The 737 Park residents are members of the Katz real estate family
Billionaire developer Harry Macklowe is waging a $9.7 million legal battle over a $244.37-a-month Park Avenue apartment.
Macklowe’s case is against three siblings from the Katz real estate family — Laura Goldblatt, Seth Katz and Tracy Edwards — who inherited the lease on a 17th-floor three-bedroom unit at 737 Park Avenue, according to the New York Post.
Last year, Macklowe filed a suit against another member of the family on the 19th-floor.
Macklowe purchased the Lenox Hill building in 2011 and is converting the 20-story residential tower to condos. He hopes to force the family out with the hopes of selling their apartment for $9.7 million, according to Their Court papers cited by the Post.
Macklowe argues that none of the heirs even live in the city, and they have been “illegally profiteering” by subletting the apartment for $10,000 a month, he claims.
The siblings argue that Macklowe previously made a deal with them to allow sublets. The agreement states that the Katzs control the 17th-floor unit until the last of their two surviving aunts, who also calls the building home, dies.
“The tenant should not be allowed to rent out the apartment at a profit relative to his or her own rent, and thus use the apartment instead as a money-making machine,” Macklowe says in the suit. [NYP] – Christopher Cameron