Real Estate

Water bill woes for Catsimatidis

John Catsimatidis is running for mayor, but his company, Big Apple Real Estate, is running up a water bill.

The company was just hit with a lien for $113,421.31 by the London Terrace Towers Condominium for water charges relating to its 15,403 square foot Gristedes supermarket at 215 Ninth Ave., between 23rd and 24th streets.

According to the condo’s lawyer, Lisa Smith, of Wolf Haldenstein, and various public documents, while Gristedes regularly pays its $3,556.17 bill for common charges each month, it hasn’t paid the water for “years.”

“They had some cooling equipment that failed and they had to go onto city water,” said Smith. The water goes through a condo meter and is then billed to Gristedes. “We know exactly what’s been attributed [to them],” she said.

The lien shows one water and sewer charge from April 26 to August 29, 2012, that amounted to $11,127.64 and was added to $98,598.10 in past charges.

The condo pays the bills for water going through 12 meters. Dept. of Environmental Protection spokesman Chris Gilbride said DEP does not have a record of a water dispute for any of the bills.

Gristedes counsel Emily Pankow said, “We are unaware there was a lien filed and it comes as a shock.” She said the supermarket has been actively negotiating with the board.

Years ago, Pankow said, Gristedes asked to relocate its basement cooling tower to the roof and the board approved but then “reneged.” While Gristedes keeps fixing the basement system, its real estate executive Lou Palermo says the system keeps failing because of poor ventilation.

“It’s been repaired numerous times and ideally on the roof, it would work at its optimum level,” Palermo said. “Since they reneged, they are still willing to give us space [in the basement] but it’s not the best space.”

Smith said the board had believed it could settle the dispute but says she filed the lien because, she told the board, “You have to go on record or you risk losing it.”

While we were poking around, city records showed the four commercial condo units in the name of Catsimatidis are up to date on their property taxes.

There is a credit of $743 from 2000-01, but oddly, one unit has been given a small “SCRIE” credit aka Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption since 2006 now totaling $1,283.40 as the commercial condo unit 7A is confused in the Finance computer with an apartment.

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A new Brazilian restaurant is coming to Bloomie’s country. This one, Texas de Brazil, has already opened a successful churrascaria at Ridge Hill in Yonkers.

Now, the Dallas firm has speared an outpost in the base of the Savoy at 201 E. 61st St. where California Pizza used to serve up slices until it closed last fall.

The pizza joint had about 1,000 feet on the ground floor, 10,000 feet on the second floor plus some lower level space.

Dylan’s Candy plies its sugar snacks from a more prominent spot along Third Avenue in the same building.

A restaurant was represented by Isaac Chetrit and would open in the fall, a spokeswoman said. Mall Properties, the owner of the retail condo, declined comment.

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United Cerebral Palsy has decided to sell its building at 122-130 E. 23rd St. between Park Ave. South and Lexington Ave. where it provides some of its programming.

We hear the non-profit has hired the Avison Young team of Jon Epstein, Charles Kingsley, Neil Helman and Vin Carrega to market it as a development site with pricing that could reach $80 million or up to $400 per buildable square foot.

The current four-story building of 60,000 square feet sits on a site that runs through the block to 22nd Street and includes a parking lot. While its zoning is split, a new residential building of about 200,000 square feet could rise to 210 feet on 23rd Street and 135 feet on 22nd Street.

Steps away are the Gramercy Hotel, the Zeckendorf’s 18 Gramercy Park, the soon-to-reopen sales at One Madison, Ian Schrager’s Marriott Edition hotel in the Clock Tower and the NoMad lands around Madison Square Park all boosting pricing in the area.

No one from UCP or from Avison Young returned calls for comment.

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While we previously gave our Stealth Deal of the Year award to Howard Michaels for putting together the sale of 701 Seventh Ave. to a group led by Steve Witkoff and obtaining the financing, we just realized the deal wasn’t among those nominated for REBNY’s ingenious deals of the year award. Our sleuths tell us Carlton missed the deadline due to a bad e-mail address.

As we reported yesterday, Michaels was just hired by SL Green to sell the land under the Lipstick Building at 885 Third Ave.