Related sues Columbus Circle mall tenants for unpaid rent

Related Companies is taking tenants at one of its Manhattan malls to court.

The developer has sued six of its retail tenants at the Shops at Columbus Circle in the Time Warner Center for nonpayment of rent, PincusCo reported.

The lawsuits, filed Thursday in New York State Supreme Court, seek to recover a total of $7.5 million in unpaid rent and other charges that have accumulated since the start of the pandemic.

Individual suits were filed against Hugo Boss for $4.2 million, the Running Specialty Group for $1.05 million, Cole Haan for $920,813, Michael Kors for $774,880, Tumi Stores for $241,003 and Fairway LLC for $291,438.62.

In some cases, the retailers have not paid rent since March, according to the lawsuits on file.

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Hugo Boss countersued the landlord on Friday, urging the court to declare that its $692,000 per month lease should be rescinded as a result of the pandemic and the state executive orders that prohibited the store from operating until last month. In its suit, Huge Boss notes it was closed from March until Sept. 9.

“Nobody can predict if or when Columbus Circle’s millions of annual visitors will return, or when government-mandated social distancing and capacity guidelines will ease, and permit the store to reasonably open at pre-Covid capacity,” Huge Boss’s lawsuit reads.

Other big retail landlords have gone to court in an effort to get unpaid rent: In July, Simon Property Group filed a lawsuit against Eddie Bauer, alleging that the retailer owed as much as $6.2 million in unpaid rent. It filed a similar lawsuit against Brooks Brothers, seeking $8.7 million in missed rent payments.

[PincusCo] — Akiko Matsuda