Brooklyn Dems sued for breaking office lease
The Brooklyn Democratic Party is getting sued by its landlord, which says the party tried to break its lease on office space without permission, and now owes $82,000 in back rent.
The suit was filed Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn, and hasn’t been reported yet.
CIM Group owns 16 Court Street, the office building across the street from Brooklyn Borough Hall, where the party has leased suite 1016 since 2005. Stephen Chiaino, a lawyer for the party who was then a partner at Abrams Fensterman, sent a letter dated July 16, 2020 telling the landlord the party intended to terminate the lease effective Sept. 1, “due to the Tenant's inability to utilize the Premises for its intended purpose as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic.”
The letter was sent to the real estate firm, SL Green, suggesting that the party didn’t realize that the New York based company had sold the building to the Los Angeles based CIM Group three years earlier.
According to its filing, CIM Group responded with its own letter on Sept. 4 writing that the “Landlord wholly rejects” the party’s attempt to break the lease. “Tenant has no right to terminate the Lease. Landlord does not accept Tenant’s purported surrender of the Premises or termination of the Lease.”
https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2023/03/brooklyn-dems-sued-breaking-office-lease/383724/
