[NYguy]

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-eas...-for-new-tower

Lone Upper East Side Tenant Defeated By Extell In Quest For New Tower
The developer may no longer need to build awkwardly around a single tenant thanks to a new ruling, which some say sets a worrying precedent.


By Nick Garber
Oct 10, 2022

The developer Extell defeated a rent-stabilized tenant — who has held up the construction of a block-sized Upper East Side tower for more than a year — in a new court ruling that lawyers fear creates a troubling precedent for thousands of tenants citywide.

The Sept. 27 ruling went against the tenant, Greg Marshall, who is the last remaining resident of his walk-up building on the corner of East 86th Street and First Avenue. Extell has spent years buying and demolishing the block's other low-rise tenements, leaving only Marshall's building and another midblock building owned by two holdout landlords.

After Extell sued Marshall in an attempt to get him out, Marshall won an initial court decision last fall — and Extell soon filed plans for a 22-story tower that would cut awkwardly around his home and the other holdout building.

But Extell appealed, and last month's decision by the State Supreme Court's Appellate Division found that the company could refuse to renew Marshall's lease in order to demolish the building.

Even if Extell prevails and demolishes Marshall's building, its future development may still need to work around the other remaining building: the midblock walkup at 1645 First Ave., whose owners — the infamous landlords Stuart and Jay Podolsky — have refused to sell, according to a report last year by The Real Deal.

The plans that Extell filed last year call for a 543-unit apartment building, spanning the entire block of First Avenue between East 85th and 86th streets — wrapping around the sites of Marshall's building and the Podolskys' property. (Extell's chairman told the New York Times last year that he was considering building a school, though the official plans made no mention of that.)