"A real-estate broker to the stars has been lying about her income for years to avoid paying market rent on her stabilized Park Avenue pad, a lawsuit alleges," according to an article yesterday in The New York Post by Kathianne Boniello with additional reporting by Melissa Klein.
The article identified the broker as Carol Cohen, a senior vice president at Corcoran Real Estate.
Her landlord, Katz 737 Corporation, the owner of 737 Park Avenue where the broker and her husband live in a two-bedroom apartment, wants her to pay rent of $7,500 a month, according to the lawsuit, but the article said that she "says she can't pay more than $3,060.
She and her husband have repeated claimed they qualify for the rent-stabilized apartment they moved into in 1989 and which the landlord has been trying to deregulate since 2004, the article said.
The article said that the broker "is known for selling high-end condos, co-ops and apartments on the Upper East Side, and in TriBeCa and SoHo, including a 14-room 'dream home' apartment she helped Vera Wang sell for $33.6 million in 2008."
"The Cohens have declared on state forms that their combined annual income was less than $175,000 in each of the previous two years. Carol Cohen declined to comment," the article said.
Apartments are removed from rent stabilization when the rent exceeds $2,000 a month and the tenant's annual income exceeds $175,000.
Therealdeal.com reported today that the broker "with partner Debra Grubman (The Real Deal's all-around best broker of 2010), helped sell movie producer Joe Roth's 17.75 million One Beacon Court penthouse this year and designer Vera Wang's $33.6 million Park Avenue apartment in 2008."
The article identified the broker as Carol Cohen, a senior vice president at Corcoran Real Estate.
Her landlord, Katz 737 Corporation, the owner of 737 Park Avenue where the broker and her husband live in a two-bedroom apartment, wants her to pay rent of $7,500 a month, according to the lawsuit, but the article said that she "says she can't pay more than $3,060.
She and her husband have repeated claimed they qualify for the rent-stabilized apartment they moved into in 1989 and which the landlord has been trying to deregulate since 2004, the article said.
The article said that the broker "is known for selling high-end condos, co-ops and apartments on the Upper East Side, and in TriBeCa and SoHo, including a 14-room 'dream home' apartment she helped Vera Wang sell for $33.6 million in 2008."
"The Cohens have declared on state forms that their combined annual income was less than $175,000 in each of the previous two years. Carol Cohen declined to comment," the article said.
Apartments are removed from rent stabilization when the rent exceeds $2,000 a month and the tenant's annual income exceeds $175,000.
Therealdeal.com reported today that the broker "with partner Debra Grubman (The Real Deal's all-around best broker of 2010), helped sell movie producer Joe Roth's 17.75 million One Beacon Court penthouse this year and designer Vera Wang's $33.6 million Park Avenue apartment in 2008."
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
6sqft delivers the latest on real estate, architecture, and design, straight from New York City.
