New York City’s recently adopted City of Yes for Housing Opportunity (CHO) represents the most significant overhaul of residential zoning regulations in decades. The interplay between existing procedures and new provisions will likely generate significant interpretive questions and litigation as developers seek to take advantage of these opportunities.
After nearly four years of litigation, the Second Circuit held recently that a small commercial landlord lacked standing to seek declaratory relief against the City of New York challenging the Guaranty Law under the Contracts Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
In a recent decision, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts held that a mortgagee holds a claim that could be modified by a Chapter 11 plan even if the debtor was not indebted under the mortgage.
Tenant Who Stopped Paying Rent May Not Recover DamagesDoctrine of Emblements May Entitle Tenant to Collect Damages for Loss of CropsInsufficient Evidence to Support Use and Occupancy ClaimSuccessor Landlord Liable for Predecessor’s OverchargesGuaranty Law Did Not Protect Guarantor When Tenant Never Closed
Foreclosure Sale Bidder Entitled to Return of Down Payment When Title Was Not MarketableInadequacy of Price Does Not Establish Duty to Inquire About Fraud
Hotel management agreements often contain language permitting a hotel owner to terminate if the hotel’s performance fails to meet certain financial metrics. This provision, colloquially referred to as the “performance test,” is touted as a form of protection for owners by providing a right to terminate (or to receive a “cure payment”) if the hotel underperforms. But the reality is performance tests are generally structured to make them difficult, if not impossible, to fail, leaving hotel owners without the financial protection they thought they bargained for — or worse.
Limited Warranty Establishes Defense to Consequential Damages Claim Against Sponsor
Office-to-residential conversions present significant challenges to owners and developers that arise from the interrelationship among the regulatory regime, the legal restrictions and requirements of the site and the physical requirements of conversion; the resulting incremental cost of conversions mean that many potential conversions just do not pencil out.
Department of Environmental Conservation Misapplied Statute
The federal debt is a huge number at $36 trillion. That has major implications for the government and the economy. Debt numbers this large automatically send out ripples the size of tsunamis. Some of them could wash over long-term Treasury yields and then flood the cost of commercial real estate capital.
