Meyer Chetrit has been indicted on criminal charges in Manhattan.
The developer, who is part of Manhattan real estate’s influential Chetrit family, has been accused by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of harassing older, rent-regulated tenants in Chelsea over five years.
Bragg and Jocelyn Strauber, commissioner of the city’s Department of Investigation, said Chetrit “waged a campaign of harassment” against two septuagenarians, hoping they would move out so the building could be sold.
“From winters without heat and unrepaired roofs causing leaks and ceiling collapses, these New Yorkers were forced to live in uninhabitable conditions,” Bragg said in a statement.
Chetrit, along with West Paramount LLC and The Chetrit Group, has been charged with two counts of harassment of a rent-regulated tenant in the first degree. Those charges are classified as a class E felony and carry a maximum sentence of four years in prison. However, there are many sentencing alternatives for nonviolent offenders with no prior felony convictions.
A lawyer for Chetrit did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has pled not guilty, according to court records.
A release from the district attorney’s office refers to an unnamed codefendant who has been indicted but has not yet appeared in court.
The tenants lived at 117-119 West 26th Street in Chelsea since the 1980s, according to the release.
Chetrit and the unnamed codefendant purchased the building in 2005 but failed to complete its conversion from commercial lofts to residential housing, according to the release. The apartments are classified as “interim multiple dwellings,” and overseen by the city’s Loft Board.
In addition to extended periods without heat and a ceiling collapse, the building has been without an elevator since September 2023, the DA’s office said. That year, part of the building’s unoccupied commercial section collapsed, prompting a partial vacate order.
Chetrit is facing several civil suits, including accusations that he is shielding assets to avoid paying a $132 million judgement to a lender. Attorneys for Chetrit in that case “deny in the strongest terms possible any and all allegations of fraud or wrongdoing,” they said in August.
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