The Real Estate Board of New York is continuing its fight against a law that bars certain hotels from converting space into residential condo units.
The organization is appealing the dismissal of its lawsuit, which sought to overturn a law that — for the next two years — prevents hotels with more than 150 rooms from converting more than 20 percent of their space to non-hotel use, Politico reported. New York State Supreme Court Justice Margaret Chan ruled in June that the lawsuit didn’t have legal standing.
REBNY argues that the law impacts more than 170 hotels in the city and that its members are taking a financial hit from the law (Local Law 50).
“It deprives many real estate owners, real estate brokers and other allied professionals involved in the real estate industry of the opportunity to convert hotel rooms to other uses or to participate in transactions related to such conversions,” the appeal states. “These injuries are not speculative.”
According to the appeal, Peter Hauspurg, a founder and CEO of Eastern Consolidated [TRDataCustom], claimed the brokerage lost out on the sale of a “large Manhattan hotel” due to Local Law 50’s conversion ban. [Politico] — Kathryn Brenzel