Manhattan, NY – In Real Estate War Nothing Matches New York City

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    Manhattan, NY – For real-estate madness, nothing matches New York City, where neighbors are less likely to welcome you to your new home with a pie and a smile than a lawsuit.

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    The city’s co-op buildings — occupants own shares of a building rather than a specific unit — are the scenes of worst offenses, and today the New York Times provides a behind-the-scenes look at a tenant war in one such Upper East Side building, centering on an email exchange between tenants Eliot Hess (a diminutive, ex-hippie PR firm owner) and Terry Borg and Thomas Pienkos (who both work for Donald Trump).

    “You needed to get booted out 20 years ago,” the e-mail message said.

    “Unfortunately,” it continued, “others let you sit on your little throne, while you FAILED in your fiduciary responsibilities for the building.”

    It went on: “GOOD BYE LITTLE NAPOLEAN!!!!! Go while you can and avoid the ridicule of next year’s meeting.” And then: “PS Don’t order anyone around anymore my LITTLE friend. You are ONE owner like everyone else. When I see you I will remind you of that personally.”

    A couple of facts can be surmised from the preceding message. One, the recipient, Eliot Hess, is short (5-foot-4 to be precise). Two, things are not O.K. on the co-op board of 301 East 62nd Street, where Mr. Hess and the writer of the e-mail message, Thomas Pienkos, sit together uneasily as directors.

    The message was one of more than a dozen angry exchanges among board members since last summer that dissolved into name-calling and taunts about board members’ height, spouses, intellect and virility. Another board member, Marilyn Scher, called Mr. Pienkos “Hitler’s son.” Mr. Pienkos responded by calling Ms. Scher “an embarrassment to our board” and added, “We need people who can THINK,” and, “So you see, there is NO place for you here.”

    In an e-mail message to Mr. Pienkos, Mr. Hess, the board president, wrote: “Tom: You bore me!!! and like your CRONY, Terry, you have no idea what you’re talking about! At the next Board Meeting, try paying attention to what we’re discussing instead of playing with your Blackberry!”

    On its surface, the unassuming red-brick building would not seem to be a natural setting for the co-op board equivalent of “The Jerry Springer Show.” Real estate brokers praise the 130-unit co-op for its relatively low maintenance and solid finances, and several apartments have recently sold for less than 10 percent off their asking price, according to StreetEasy.com, a Web site that tracks real estate listing data.

    None of the board members deny that the building is in good shape, and even the ones sending the most contentious e-mail messages agree that it has been well run for decades.

    But these e-mail messages, which were given to The New York Times by one of the recipients, show how something so small as tax abatements and flower plantings can drive otherwise rational, intelligent and accomplished people to make comments that they may later regret. In hindsight several people said they were not representative of the board’s daily discourse. At least two board members attributed these comments to the “heat of the moment.”

    Mr. Hess, a self-described former hippie, author of “The Munchies Eatbook” and now chairman of a public relations firm, moved into the building in 1977, when it was all rentals. When the building converted to a co-op in 1984, he paid $184,000 for what he turned into a three-bedroom, three-bath apartment. Mr. Hess said as board president he devoted three to six hours a week for 25 of the past 26 years working on building issues. He said the building ran smoothly, with the help of other board members like Ms. Scher, who arrived in 1968. The one thing that the board members can seem to agree on is that this is a well-run building.

    Mr. Hess said the board has always welcomed fresh blood, but that matters took a turn with the arrival of Mr. Pienkos and Terry Borg, or as Mr. Hess referred to them in one e-mail message, the “Bozos.”

    In 2004, Mr. Pienkos bought a seventh-floor apartment for $280,000. Three years later, Mr. Borg, who works with Mr. Pienkos at a major real-estate development company, bought a fourth-floor apartment for $1.035 million. Both ran successfully for the board.

    Mr. Pienkos, who called Mr. Hess an “impotent, little troll” in one missive, said that “controversy is part of a democratic board” and that from his experience in the real-estate world dealing with various boards, “we are quite aware what is acceptable and unacceptable.”

    Almost beside the point are the topics the board was fighting over, boilerplate matters like what to do with the money it received from the tax abatements, the elevator cabs and whether to hire a new manager.

    The board replaced the management company in January, and Mr. Pienkos and Mr. Borg said that the rest of the issues had also been resolved. They followed up with a letter to a reporter saying that in the past year the board doubled its reserve fund, cut accounting costs by $30,000 and saved $27,000 on fuel costs. They signed the letter “The Five United Board Members,” which would exclude Ms. Scher and Mr. Hess, although the three other board members named in the letter would not respond to messages asking them whether they endorsed its views. (One of them, Daniel Sheth, the vice president, had quarreled with Mr. Borg, but said that “a lot of patching” had occurred among board members, and his children even attended play dates with Mr. Borg’s children.)

    Mr. Hess and Ms. Scher do not believe the troubled waters have been bridged. Mr. Hess said that the personal attacks and profanity continued at a May 25 meeting.

    Now it is up to the rest of the owners to decide whether these battles will continue. The building will hold its annual meeting on June 21 and vote for board candidates, although it is not yet known whether the current members, presuming they run for re-election, will have challengers.


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