Unfrozen: Gateway Plaza lawsuit inches forward

File photo courtesy of Gateway Plaza Tenants Association

A $100-million class-action lawsuit brought by Gateway Plaza tenants over faulty windows and freezing apartments is finally moving forward.

BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC

It has taken more than a year and a half, but the $100-million class-action lawsuit brought by Gateway Plaza tenants over freezing apartments is finally moving forward.

State Supreme Court judge Eileen A. Rakower denied a motion from defendants Marina Towers Associates and Gateway Plaza Management that would dismiss part of the tenants’ case on Dec. 3.

Residents claim they have to use duct tape and towels to seal drafty windows and still had to bundle up at home in chilly weather, according to the suit filed in April 2014.

“When it’s cold outside, some of the temperatures in these apartments drop below 50 degrees no matter how much they’re running their heating systems,” said Jeffrey M. Norton, the tenants’ lawyer with the firm Newman Ferrara. “A lot of people have put up plastic all around their windows. They bring in portable heaters. They do everything they can to try to mitigate the cold temperatures. But still people walk around in the winter in their ski jackets to stay warm in their apartments.”

The drafty, ill-fitting windows of the six-building, 1,712-unit complex on South End Ave. in Battery Park City are a perennial source of complaints in winter and summer alike, driving up electricity bills for both air conditioning and heat.

“It’s two extremes and there’s not sufficient protection from those elements in the apartments,” Norton said. “Their electricity bills are through the roof because they have to run all of these things constantly to try to maintain a moderate temperature in the apartments.”

Some residents are paying $700–$800 a month for electricity in a one- or two- bedroom apartment, according to Norton.

Gateway leases require tenants to purchase electricity from the landlord, Marina Towers Associates, which buys its electricity directly from Con Edison and then resells it to the tenants with additional fees, according to the complaint, which says that tenants end up paying more for electricity than they would at a comparable building.

Marina Towers is owned by the LeFrak Organization, which announced in October that all 10,000 windows will be replaced, possibly by winter 2016. This is a long time coming, as LeFrak had also said the windows would be upgraded by the end of 2013.

LeFrak is not named as a defendant, nor is the Battery Park City Authority, which owns the land the complex is on.

LeFrak and Gateway Plaza Management declined to comment.

In a separate lawsuit filed last spring that also centered on windows, tenants in three apartments have settled with Gateway’s owners, according to the tenants’ lawyers, Ken Perry and Will Aronin.

The landlord has agreed to install double-glazed windows with new frames and sashes. The plaintiffs did not seek monetary damages.

“Our clients are people who love Gateway but just hate the windows,” Aronin said.

Perry and Aronin represent tenants in a few other apartments who are also considering a lawsuit about the windows, but talks with management are ongoing, according to the lawyers.

The ongoing class-action lawsuit includes all present Gateway residents and former tenants who lived in the complex from 2008 to 2014. The tenants who were part of the separate lawsuit are included unless they opt-out or it was part of their settlement with Gateway, according to Norton, though they also may not be entitled to part of any monetary recovery in the class action.

Potential damages sought could be in excess of $100 million, Norton said.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers are now free to send out discovery requests and move to have the class action certified.

“It’s something we intend to jump on aggressively and move forward,” he said.