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New York real estate magnate Harry Macklowe is suing one of his former tenants, fashion designer Peter Elliot Rabin, for back rent, among other things, and Rabin is counter suing.
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Macklowe is suing Rabin for alleged nonpayment of more than $100, 000 in rent, as well as interest. That amount, he claims, covers the period which started last November, when Rabin vacated the storefront until a new tenant was found.
Elliot Rabin, who owns the men’s and women’s clothing fashion label Peter Elliot, has been in dispute with Mr. Macklowe for two years now.
Rabin is accusing Macklowe of having tried to force him out of his store before the end of the lease, in order to bring in a higher paying tenant. The store, which was located in two side-by-side locations on Lexington Ave, including the Lexington Avenue entrance of 150 East 72nd Street, for thirty years, was in a building that Macklowe acquired in 2011.
Earlier this year, Macklowe sold the retail part of the building to real estate developer Aby Rosen for $19.9 million.
One of Rabin’s leases for the two combined storefronts was up in November 2013, but the other was supposed to run until June 2014. He had hoped that the fact that he still had one of the two stores for another six months would give him leverage to stay in both of them, at least through the end of the 2013-14 holiday season.
Rabin alleges that since Macklowe wanted to be able to show that the retail portion of the building could bring in higher rents, he took measures to kick Rabin out early.
So Rabin filed a lawsuit of his own, seeking $6 million in damages. He accuses Macklowe of sending in contractors to the store who were responsible for committing damage to his stock room, merchandise and computers. This was done, Rabin claims, as part of a campaign of dirty tactics on the part of Macklowe to force him out before the end of his lease.
In addition, Rabin has also accused Macklowe’s of having the air conditioning and the heat turned off. Rabin told the New York Post that he stopped paying rent when he had no heat.
He said, “It was the worst winter in God’s creation. I stopped paying rent in November, when I had no heat.”
