The owner of an illegal Midtown hotel agreed to pay the city $375,000 to settle millions of dollars in violations.
David Goldwasser, owner of 440 West 41st Street, has settled more than $2 million worth violations against the building, Crain’s reported. He cut a deal with the city to pay $375,000 on the condition that he brings the building up to code and halts all hotel activity by April.
For several years, Ben Zion Suky, one of several owners of 440 West 41st Street, illegally rented out apartments in the building for less than 30 days. The city filed a lawsuit against the landlord in 2015 seeking to shut down the makeshift hotel, but Suky sold the building to a company controlled by Goldwasser, who then filed for bankruptcy.
“We will use every tool at our disposal to pursue bad actors who take affordable housing off the market,” Christian Klossner, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, said in a statement. [Crain’s] — Kathryn Brenzel