West Village supermarket staple D’Agostino is in danger of losing the lease to Its Greenwich Street space after a paperwork mix-up caused by Hurricane Sandy. The shop has been housed at 666 Greenwich Street since 1987, and the owners thought that they would still be there through 2018, until the building’s landlord, Rockrose, sent word that their lease would not be renewed.
According to New York Post, the leasing bungle occurred last year when D’Agostino attempted to renew its lease with Archives LLC and Rockrose Development. Apparently, the same week the renewal form was due, Hurricane Sandy hit. Chaos ensued and the paperwork never made it.
The shop owners were not made aware of the error until they received a message from Rockrose on November 19 stating that they missed their October 31 deadline. The owners immediately overnighted a renewal, but it was too late. Now the debacle has ended up in court, with D’Agostino claiming that it has spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars” on the space and that it shouldn’t be punished for an “honest and inadvertent” mistake resulting from the extenuating circumstance of the storm.
Rockrose, which also manages the Archive apartments in the distinctive Romanesque rival-style building, declined to comment on the litigation to the Post. [NYP] –Christopher Cameron