WILLIAMSBURG — A fire that destroyed a storage facility on the Williamsburg waterfront last year also wrecked the property owner's home — and his tenants are to blame, according to a $5 million lawsuit.
Norman Brodsky blames his two tenants, Citipostal and Recall Holdings, for the loss of his home, the New York Daily News first reported.
The two companies share phone numbers and addresses with CitiStorage, the company Brodsky founded in 1990.
“We walked out with nothing, zero,” he told the New York Post.
The suit does not go into detail on why he believes the tenants caused the fire.
In 2007, Brodsky sold off his company for $110 million, but held onto the land at 5 N. 11th St., according to Inc.com, a publication where he publishes a business column.
He and his wife still lived at the site at the time of the fire that burned for days last January, destroying the massive building and thousands of city records kept there.
“In six months from now I’ll have a place to live, I’ll have new clothes,” Brodsky told Bedford and Bowery after the fire. “I’m very sad, I’ve been sad for 10 days. I’m never sad, but I’m sure this will pass.”
Now, a year after the blaze, Brodsky is asking for $3 million in compensation for lost property, plus another $2 million for the cost of finding a new place to live, according to the News.
The $5 million, however, is a fraction of the more than $250 million Brodsky may get from selling the massive swath of waterfront property, according to a report from Crain's New York this April.
Brodsky is reportedly in negotiations with Related Companies.
And while developers are itching to get their hands on it, the 11 acres of land is in the middle of an area that the city promised to turn into a public park during the 2005 rezoning.
Community members and local politicians have been pushing the city to keep its promise to turn the area into a park.
Brodsky and CitiStorage could not be reached for comment.
