Steven Croman, the multifamily landlord accused of harassing tenants, was hit with a lawsuit alleging he stopped paying rent for his Noho office.
The lawsuit, filed by an entity tied to Jeff Gural’s GFP Real Estate, alleged that Croman’s firm failed to pay $370,485 in rent, taxes and electricity bills at 740 Broadway.
The suit charged that M&E Mott did not pay the full rent in March and January of this year and July, June, May and April of last year. Croman guaranteed the lease, making him personally liable for unpaid rent, according to the suit.
But Donna Vogel, an executive at GFP Real Estate, said the dispute between Croman’s company and the landlord has already been resolved.
“Sorry, but there is no story here,” Vogel said in an email to The Real Deal. Croman’s lawyer declined to comment.
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GFP’s case, filed in New York Supreme Court, was not indexed or assigned to a judge.
M&E Mott entered into the lease at the Broadway office building in 2017. The base rent for its second-floor office was $62,403 in March, according to the suit.
Croman’s company, 9300 Realty, once owned more than 150 buildings in the city. He became infamous for his treatment of tenants. For years, he was accused of harassing rent-stabilized renters so his company could deregulate their apartments and rent them out at higher rates. The law has since been changed to remove landlords’ financial incentive for vacating units.
Croman spent eight months in jail after pleading guilty to grand larceny and tax fraud in 2017, and agreed to pay $8 million to settle claims he harassed tenants out of rent-regulated apartments.
After his release in June 2018, the notorious landlord got right back into the city’s real estate market, acquiring new buildings. Croman is also known for rarely selling his properties, but in December, The Real Deal reported that Croman was looking to part with 14 apartment buildings in and around the East Village for more than $120 million.