David Cohen

Another judicial race quietly got underway in Manhattan last night when a judicial screening panel released the names of candidates they consider the most qualified Democrats for the countywide judge position in the county's First District, that will be on the ballot later this year.

The three people reported out of the committee were: Gerald Lebovits, Nancy Bannon and Frank Nervo.  read more »

The same judge who ruled in favor of Sheffield57 tenants last March has delivered a similar decision for market-rate tenants of the Manhattan House, The Real Deal reports, blocking evictions sought by new owners who are converting the 583-unit Upper East Side landmark into a condominium building.

Markowitz Claims Jitney for Brooklyn   It all started with Marty Markowitz:    read more »

Markowitz Claims Jitney for Brooklyn   It all started with Marty Markowitz:    read more »

A housing court judge on Tuesday slammed Kent Swig's plan to kick out market-rate tenants at Sheffield 57--even though their leases were up and had not been renewed--as part of his conversion of the West 57th Street building to swank condominiums.

The ruling, if upheld, is going to put Mr. Swig and numerous other developers in a bind. They have long been unable to kick market-rate tenants out after a conversion has been completed. Now, thanks to Judge David B. Cohen, they will not be able to kick them out while the conversion is under way, either.

"It is a very important case," said Arthur Weinstein, a real estate lawyer and vice president of the Council of New York Cooperatives. "If it survives on appeal, it closes a significant gap in the existing law governing the conversion of occupied buildings into cooperative or condominium status."

Rent-regulated tenants have long been protected from eviction during a conversion, but the rule on market-rate tenants is more vague.

Landlords are prohibited from emptying buildings by more than 10 percent before a conversion is filed, so generally they wait until the conversion is under way and then get rid of market-rate tenants by letting leases lapse, which is what Mr. Swig did in the case of Sheffield 57. That allows landlords to renovate, combine units, and generally make a profit.

Judge Cohen's decision closes this option for now, and leaves landlords to either negotiate down to sell condos to the market-rate tenants, or crank up the rents to force them to leave--although the tenants are also protected against excessive rent increases.

The ruling centers on the part of the state law governing conversions which states that "no eviction proceedings will be commenced at any time against non-purchasing tenants for failure to purchase or any other reason applicable to expiration of tenancy." Judge Cohen said that it applies to market-rate tenants with expired leases.

Needless to say, Mr. Swig is appealing. "We chose not to renew the leases of the market-rate tenants, and there were 23 of them who did not want to leave," Mr. Swig told The Real Estate. "The law is black and white. If you don't have a lease and you are not rent-regulated, then you have no right to occupy."

Since buying the high-rise in March 2005, Mr. Swig has pretty much emptied the 50-story building except for the 23 defendants and about 100 rent-regulated tenants.

Mr. Swig said that he offered the defendants insider prices at "way below the market."

The president of the tenants association and a defendant in the eviction case, Nancy Rovelli, told The Real Estate that in most cases the offers did not represent a discount off the black book, or first offering prices, but rather off later amendments.

"When Judge Cohen was hearing the case, he did indicate and encourage negotiations, and at that point we did, but nothing ever came of it," Ms. Rovelli said. "Not only was [Mr. Swig] jacking up the prices but he was inflating the square feet."

- Matthew Schuerman

David Cohen and Jessica Sheena

Met: December 2005  read more »

Engaged: Oct. 12, 2006

Here are more numbers from some of the races that are still being counted at the city's Board of Elections. These numbers do not include paper ballots, which are still being counted.

In Manhattan's 74th Assembly District on the Lower East Side

5,075: Brian Kavanagh 4,687: Sylvia Friedman 993: Esther Yang 792: Juan Pagan

A Kavanagh aide offers different numbers, which include 357 paper ballots that were counted:

5213 (43.8%) Kavanagh 4856 (40.8%) Friedman 1022 (8.6%) Yang 807 (6.8%) Pagan

And in Manhattan's Civil Court District 2., Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's preferred candidate, David Cohen, is still trailing...

5,192: Margaret Chan 5,038: David Cohen 2,304: Andrea Masley

-- Azi Paybarah

A reader points out a little-noticed surprise from Tuesday's primaries.

A judicial candidate backed by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, David Cohen, lost his race In Manhattan's Civil Court District 2.

I'll leave it up to you guys to explain what that means.

-- Azi Paybarah

David E. Cohen and Keiko NiccoliniMet: July 2000

Engaged: Dec. 25, 2001  read more »

A couple of years ago, in the summer of 2001 Some of the snow pictures look so fresh they could've b  read more »

A couple of years ago, in the summer of 2001, the Caldbeck Gallery in Rockland, Me., mounted an exhi  read more »