[ad_1]
When 111 Livingston St. was developed more than 50 years ago, it was the tallest building to rise in Brooklyn since the 1930s and included an on-site power generator, an unusual amenity for the time. More recently, the 22-story, 400,000-square-foot office tower has become known for tenants vocal about poor conditions inside.
Brooklyn Law School vacated the premises last year, court records show, after alleging the air quality was “poor” and that the landlord had failed to fix elevators after an employee got trapped on one for over an hour because the emergency-call button didn’t work. In 2022, another tenant, Legal Aid Society, sued because “white, bluish and grey fuzzy circular mold colonies…[were] growing on office chairs, desks, any wooden object, clothing, other office furniture, shoes, and wall hangings,” according to its lawsuit.
An attorney for the building owner, Leser Group, said the Legal Aid lawsuit was settled “amicably” and the tenant has returned and is paying rent. “The conditions are fixed,” said the attorney, Louis Solomon, a partner at law firm Reed Smith. Legal Aid declined to comment.
Now 111 Livingston faces the loss of its biggest tenant, the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which leases 30% of the space.
“The largest tenant…is scheduled to roll in May 2024,” Fitch Ratings said in a report yesterday, “but an extension has yet to be executed.”
Two emails to the Hochul administration weren’t returned asking about the real estate plans of the OTDA, which dispenses cash grants for New Yorkers in need and supervises housing for the homeless.
Brooklyn-based Leser Group acquired 111 Livingston in 1995. A 2018 appraisal valued the building at $232 million. Leser Group is managed by founder Abraham Leser and owns about 2 million square feet of commercial property in New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Fitch said yesterday that 111 Livingston’s $120 million mortgage has been delinquent twice in the past 12 months.
“Mr. Leser has been associated with multiple foreclosures,” bond-rating firm KBRA observed in a 2020 report.
Thanks to 111 Livingston’s downtown location and proximity to several subway lines, its average occupancy rate was nearly 100% for 20 years, KBRA said. But since 2020 occupancy has fallen to 80% after defense contractor Northrup Gruman and the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board both left.
Leser Group offered an extension to ODTA, a tenant since 1999, but the agency didn’t accept it, KBRA said in a March report.
Calls to Leser Group weren’t returned.
[ad_2]
Aaron Elstein , 2024-05-14 20:38:33
Source link