Tenants Sue Spitzer Enterprises, Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's Company, Over Rent at 420 Kent Ave

By Williamsburg 365 Staff

Tenants at 420 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg are suing their landlord, Spitzer Enterprises. The company is run by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer. The tenants say they were charged more rent than the law allows.

The suit was filed Wednesday, Oct. 14, Patch reported. The building sits on the waterfront at Kent Avenue and South 8th Street. It has 857 apartments.

Some of the apartments are rent-stabilized. That means the rent can only go up by a set amount each year. In the last 10 years, the city never allowed more than 3.25 percent on a one-year lease.

Some tenants did not pay the full listed rent. The company gave one to four free months on some new leases, which made the real rent lower, The tenants say the company added each rent increase to the higher listed rent, not to the lower rent they actually paid. A 2019 state law says the increase has to be based on the lower rent.

Aaron Carr, head of the tenant group Housing Rights Initiative, led the tenants' effort. He said renters could be owed about $30 million going back to 2020, That is his estimate. No court has ruled.

Spitzer said he will fight the case. He said his company plans to "litigate the case hard," and that the suit came out of the blue,  We'll have to see how this plays out,  He also told the paper that before the 2019 law, landlords often gave free months and based the raises on the full rent.

About 20 percent of the apartments are affordable. They were given out through city housing lotteries, 6sqft reported in 2019. The first lottery was for 65 apartments. A second lottery that year was for 121 more, for households earning 60 percent of the area median income. Rents in that one started at $867 a month for a studio and went up to $1,123 for a two-bedroom, 6sqft said.

Spitzer bought the 2.8-acre site, where the Kedem Winery once stood, for $165 million in 2014, Hoodline reported. He built the rent-stabilized apartments using the 421a tax break, a city program that has since ended

Assemblymember Emily Gallagher said other buildings have the same problem. "This is not the only building where this is happening," she said, according to Patch.

The law firm that filed the case, Newman Ferrara, has sued at least 12 landlords over the same issue since August, Most of these suits are signed by Roger Sachar, a partner at the firm, the paper said. The firm has also sued the owners of a Douglaston Development rental in Williamsburg, as well as Blackstone and Black Spruce Management.

No court date has been reported. A judge will decide if the rent increases broke the law