We knew that the 57 Front situation in DUMBO was fucked, but little did we know that there was an actual blood feud at play here. Reaching deep into his bag of awesome and pulling out nothing but golden nuggets, the Times' William Neuman did a little of the journalism thing and uncovered why no tenants can close their deals at the new Boymelgreen development. Turns out that David Walentas owns the neighboring property to 57 Front, and he has threatened to build a "steel sculpture" shaped specifically to block the light coming into six apartments whose only windows are on the property line. According to NYC law, apartments need light or air or something.
Walentas is essentially blackmailing Boymelgreen into giving up control of the nearby Nova Clutch Building, which Walentas wants to own. But this is all hearsay, and he's not actually saying he's blackmailing Boymelgreen, right? Well, here he is talking about his scultpture: "It's steel columns in front of the windows with plates strategically placed where the windows are, just as a little negotiation. It frankly was designed to block those windows. So we torture him a little bit." Wow. Remind us never to piss off David Walentas. Oops.
· Rivals Rumble in Dumbo [Curbed]
· Like the Corner Bodega, DUMBO's 57 Front Never Closes [Curbed]
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