The owners of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village have agreed to pay a $68.75 million settlement for rent overcharges at the massive complex, it was announced yesterday.
The deal, which still needs final approval from a judge, will bring the total amount paid for overcharges at the East Side complexes to $147 million.
Lawyers for the tenants say the agreement will mean about $3,200 for each of the 21,000 class-action suit members.
The settlement tentatively ends a five-year legal battle that had ramifications for tens of thousands of apartments around the city. In 2009, the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, sided with tenants who’d charged the complex was illegally deregulating apartments while receiving city tax breaks called J-51 abatements for rent-stabilized buildings.
That left ownership on the hook for mountains of back rent.
Tenant lawyer Alexander Schmidt called the deal “eminently fair and reasonable.”
The formula used for the settlement between the tenants and complex owners CWCapital will likely serve as a template for other affected tenants and landlords.
If a judge signs off on the deal at an April hearing, it could also pave the way for CWCapital to sell the properties.
Westwood Capital LLC and the LeFrak Organization have expressed interest in buying them.