NYREJ Publishes Article by Thomas Kearns on the Top 2020 Legal Developments Affecting NY’s CRE Industry

New York Real Estate Journal recently published an article written by Olshan Real Estate Partner Thomas Kearns entitled “Top 2020 Legal Developments Affecting NY’s CRE Industry” (subscription required). (The article is also available on our blog.) In this article Mr. Kearns discussed a few of the legal developments that took place during 2020 that would have a lasting impact on New York’s commercial real estate industry. The first development discussed was the case of AB Stable v Maps Hotels which ruled in favor of the buyer of a group of hotels because the seller “failed to comply with a covenant in the sale agreement to continue to operate the hotels in the ordinary course in the face of the pandemic,” said Mr. Kearns. The disclosure of ownership of LLCs and corporations was also discussed as Congress passed the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 which requires companies to report ownership of their companies to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the Dept. of the Treasury (FinCEN). Mr. Kearns continued by discussing the City Council and a law that was passed “to protect individual guarantors from claims by landlords for rent during the pandemic where the tenant’s business was a food or non-essential business that was closed by government action.”  The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) was the next development that focused on the 5 Pointz case in Queens where artists were awarded damages by the court for destruction of their street art by the building’s developer. The final legal development discussed were lease settlement agreements specifically regarding the case of Columbia v. D’Agostino Supermarkets.