The Holiday Inn Express, located at 59-40 55th Road in Maspeth, has been vacated by the NYC Department of Homeless Services and Acacia Network. There had been up to 200 homeless single men housed at the hotel since 2016.

You can read more here. Victory at last!

In early May, the New York Supreme Court issued a blow to New Ram Realty, (aka Harshad Patel, et al) by siding with the landlord of the Maspeth Holiday Inn Express (KCM Realty Company), located at 59-40 55 Road, in declaring that New Ram's arrangement with the NYC Department of Homeless Services and Acacia Network violated the terms of their land lease. The court:

• "Ordered, adjudged and decreed that defendant New Ram Realty, LLC's renting of rooms at property located at 59-40 55th Road, Maspeth, New York to DHS or another agency of New York City to house homeless persons constitutes a material departure from the use provisions of the lease and a breach of such use provisions; and it is further,
• Ordered, adjudged and decreed that plaintiff KCM Realty Company is entitled to exercise its remedies under the lease; and it is further,
• Ordered, that the motion for summary judgment on the third cause of action is granted on the issue of liability."

In the order, the court pointed out that not only did New Ram breach its contract with KCM, but it also violated the NYC Zoning Code by housing homeless people at the hotel for extended periods of time. On average, each resident of the Holiday Inn Express stayed there for 195 days. The hotel is in a manufacturing zone which allows for short-stay hotels, but not long-term rentals, which are restricted to residential zones. A short-stay is defined as less than 30 days. Many of the hotels being used to house the homeless are in manufacturing zones, meaning that the City of New York has been knowingly violating its own zoning code for years.
 
The lease is a privately recorded transaction, so we cannot tell you what “remedies” are listed in it, but there are land leases that allow for property seizure in the case of breach of contract. Let’s hope this is one of them.

Citizens for a Better Maspeth, the organization that fundraised in an effort to fight the proposed shelter and filed a partially successful Article 78,  is now consulting with attorneys to determine if any action could be taken on its part to hasten a vacate of the hotel by the City and Acacia. New Ram has filed an appeal.

There is now a proposal to swap a Maspeth school located at PS9 on 57th Street for a shelter proposed at 78-16 Cooper Ave in Glendale. PS9 was formerly PS86 which many older Maspeth residents attended in their youth. The school is now a special needs facility in District 75. Council Member Robert Holden wants a state of the art school built at Cooper Ave for special education students and expects PS9 students to be relocated there. He has confirmed that the DHS would like to convert PS9's school building into a shelter. CBM still has $42,221.64 left from the fundraising push to stop the Maspeth Holiday Inn Express, and will be allocating it as necessary to stop a shelter at PS9. 

The lawsuit by the owners of Mendon Plaza against the owners of the Holiday Inn Express has been going on since 2016. The battle has been a long one and is now dragging into next year, as per the document filed with the court below.

The following letters were recently submitted to the judge in the matter of KCM Realty, LLP vs. New Ram Realty, LLC:

We expected the KCM vs. New Ram lawsuit to go to trial soon, but the judge has given both sides more time to file motions in the case. It seems both plaintiff and defendant wish to seek Acacia Network. This could get interesting.

The Maspeth car show was originally scheduled for 8/12, but as rain is in the forecast, it was changed to 8/19. Please take note.