Celebrity Dentist Sues Central Park South Co-Op Board

A “dental practice to the stars” operating inside a Central Park South co-op says the building’s board is trying to drill a hole into its business.

High-end dental practice Lowenberg, Lituchy and Kantor owns shares and occupies space on the first and second floors of the prewar co-op building at 230 Central Park South. But celebrity dentist Marc Lowenberg — who counts Kelly Ripa and Heidi Klum as clients — is accusing the board of adopting new “blatantly arbitrary and capricious” rules designed specifically to target his long-running business, according to a new lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court.

The residential co-op — which has two commercial tenants, including the dental practice — wants tenants to foot the bill for an extra doorman whenever 30 or more guests arrive within a four-hour window.

If the rules stand, it could cost the practice more than $180,000 a year in fines, the suit claims.

“We feel that the rule that was implemented treats our client differently than all other shareholders,” said Lowenberg’s attorney Steven Sladkus of Schwartz Sladkus Reich Greenberg Atlas. (The other commercial tenant, another medical office, accesses the building from the street, so the rules do not affect them.)

Lowenberg’s office has been an elite go-to dental destination for decades. His past clients span from Christy Turlington to Iggy Pop. “I will not make a smile that I am embarrassed of. I do not make fake, Chiclets-y smiles. I won’t do it,” Lowenberg told Interview Magazine in 2012.

Despite the A-list names, the co-op doesn’t seem thrilled about the foot traffic. The suit claims tensions escalated between Lowenberg and the board in recent months, including a heated meeting in which one member allegedly physically confronted Lowenberg. The board approved the new rules in October and they went into effect in December. But Lowenberg is asking a judge to void them, arguing that there is no basis under the lease for an individual shareholder to pay for a building-wide service.

Lowenberg, whose son is Icon Realty Management co-founder Terrence Lowenberg, called the rule a “campaign of harassment against me and my business” meant to force him to shut down and sell the office.

“Other than to maybe ask where they are going, the doormen usually have no interaction with my patients,” Lowenberg said in a written statement. “When a member of the staff opens the door, if a person is going to the office, they take approximately five steps, make a left and go up three stairs to a door which opens into the office.”

Representatives for the co-op board did not immediately respond to requests for comment.