The New Yorker Hotel has found itself emerged in a court battle with a man it says filed a fake deed to commandeer the entire 1-million-square-foot Midtown building.
According to the NY Post, the longtime owners of the 43-story building are now busy proving that the man who has come forward is just a freeloader who managed to get a room rent-free for a year thanks to an ambiguous legal loophole. As per court papers filed in Manhattan Supreme court, Mickey Barreto, 44, spent one night in the New Yorker hotel in June 2018. The next day he allegedly asked for a six-month lease under a murky section of the rent-stabilization laws.
The hotel declined, locking Barreto out. He boldly took them to housing court, however, where only a month later, Judge Jack Stoller ordered Barreto back into the hotel. After his victory Barreto was emboldened, and allegedly somehow persuaded clerks at the NYC Department of Finance that the paperwork entitled him not only to a room, but to ownership of the entire NYC building. Barreto’s deed, filed on May 28, claims his “purchase was by court order” at an outrageous price of $189,336,000.
Located on 8th Avenue near Penn Station, the historic Art deco hotel has been owned by the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity since 1976. In 1999, the association completed a $20 million renovation of the hotel. As of March 2014, the hotel has been managed by the Wyndham Hotels chain.
“Mickey Barreto Missions”, which is supposedly a charitable organization in Los Angeles, CA, has sought rental payment from the hotel’s two restaurants. Court papers also allege that Barreto also called Wyndham trying to “take over hotel operations”; has tried to get the New Yorker’s bank accounts shifted to him; and has called the fire department ordering a building evacuation due to a made-up gas leak. He even requested a $15 million payment from the building’s actual owners, brazenly adding, “I will gladly take cash or check.”
The owners are concerned that Barreto could now take out a lien or mortgage on the building, or attempt to sell it “to an innocent third party.” The city Finance Department says only a court can void a bad deed. The department reportedly receives 40 new deed fraud complaints every month.
A Manhattan Supreme Court judge said Barreto’s claim to ownership was “bizarre”, adding that it was “abundantly clear” Barreto is not actually the owner. The judge stopped short there, however, merely ordering Barreto to remove public references posing as the owner. Barreto maintained his innocence, commenting to the Post, “I never committed any fraud”.
