Exclusive | NYC co-op faces court battle over $30M parking lot sale amid an alleged disappearance of $16M in reserves
A legal battle over an East Village co-op’s proposed $30-million parking lot sale is escalating, with a shareholder going to court to pry loose financial records as he questions a nearly $16 million plunge in the complex’s reserves.
Village View resident Sebastian Kot filed a books-and-records proceeding in Manhattan Supreme Court involving the seven-building Mitchell-Lama complex just south of Tompkins Square Park.
His petition alleges years of governance problems, including missing or inaccurate meeting minutes, conflicting financial disclosures and repeated refusals to provide corporate records.
“It’s an important step toward restoring transparency and lawful governance at Village View,” Kot told The Post. “The issues raised in the petition are all documented, statutory matters, and having them under judicial review ensures they can no longer be ignored or minimized.”
A Sept. 3 reserve collapse presentation delivered by the board of directors of Village View Housing Corp. shows the co-op’s reserves plummeted from $18.6 million in 2021 to $2.9 million in 2026, per a court exhibit. That has happened without explanation, per Kot.
Once Kot gets the documents, he said, “shareholders can evaluate next steps based on the facts.”
Attorneys for Village View’s board didn’t respond to a request for comment, but in a letter sent to residents, the board’s attorneys said the requested documents “are privileged and/or constitute confidential and sensitive corporate records,” per an exhibit.
Village View — sprawling between East Second and East Sixth streets and First Avenue and Avenue A — seeks to sell Parking Lot 7, adjacent to 40 First Ave., potentially netting about $30 million after taxes.
The goal of the sale, the board says in a presentation Kot filed with the court, is to get the development out of annual debt in recurring expenses, cover increasing expenses, contribute to the reserves and preserve the affordability of the 1,236 units.
Kot contends the parking-lot deal requires approval from two-thirds of Village View shareholders under New York’s Business Corporation Law and challenges whether the transaction can move forward without such a vote.
Village View’s land-use attorney, Jodi Stein, previously told The Post the irregular lot measures about 100 by 230 feet and contains roughly one-third of the complex’s 345 parking spots, representing a fraction of the property.
Helmed by Kot, hundreds of shareholders in June signed a petition seeking transparency around the proposed sale and redevelopment of the lot.
In early September, a morbidly obese disabled resident, Steven Andruseaski, sued Village View Housing Corp. over a new parking agreement he said would give the co-op the ability to oust him from his space in Parking Lot 7, next to his apartment.
That, he said, would in turn make it easier for the co-op to sell the lot to a developer and eventually eliminate its parking spaces.
