The owner of a West Village penthouse where actor Robert De Niro once lived is blaming the building’s co-op board for repeatedly scuttling the sale of the $18 million pad.
In a new lawsuit, the owner, William Monaghan, claims the three-member co-op board at 165 Perry Street is demanding he pay $2.7 million in fines before he can sell the place.
“It’s a stickup,” Jethro Eisenstein, Monaghan’s attorney, told the New York Post.
Monaghan, who bought the former warehouse in 1977, converted it to a residential building in 1979. He later added a second floor to make the 9,000-square-foot penthouse.
In the suit, Monaghan claims the board fined him nearly $3 million for adding the penthouse decades after the fact. Board members have also put the kibosh on two potential sales, including an $18.2 million offer in March, according to the suit.
The penthouse has been on the market for several years and was first asking $39.8 million when it was listed in 2015. The price was slashed to $19.8 million.
De Niro camped out at the West Village pad for two years after his home at 88 Central Park West was damaged in a fire. The spread has five bedrooms, two levels of outdoor space and a private garage. [NYP] — E.B. Solomont