UPPER EAST SIDE — A parking company that operated next to The Carlyle hotel for more than a decade has been court-ordered to pay more than $1.3 million in back rent and other fees to the hotel, according to the hotel's attorneys.
Quik Park, which has more than 100 garages across the city, must pay back $1.05 million in back rent and attorneys' fees and $333,333 for squatting at the hotel's multi-level garage for five months after its lease had been terminated in August 2013, according to court rulings.
"For no reason Quik Park stopped paying and [remained at the premises], forcing us to go to court," said Warren Estis, of Rosenberg & Estis, the law firm representing The Carlyle.
In 2013, Quik Park Beekman LLC., had stopped paying rent for its location at 51-53 E. 76th St. one year, and before that had another Quik Park garage, at 1633 Broadway, pay the rent, which was more than $109,000 a month, according to attorneys.
Rafael Llopiz, Quik Park's CEO, defended the company's decision to stop paying rent, saying the garage couldn't use part of the garage because The Carlyle installed scaffolding for repairs on the building in 2013, resulting in a loss of business for the garage.
But the court dismissed that claim and added that the parking company's lease agreement barred it from having a third party pay its rent, according to Estis.
The Carlyle terminated its eight-year lease with Quik Park on Aug. 31, 2013, according to the court filings.
Quik Park continued to operate at the garage for five months after the lease was terminated, according to the ruling and Estis.
"Quik Park obviously thought it could avoid eviction and liability for rent by interposing Quick Park 1633 Garage as leaseholder without formally assigning the lease,” Estis said. “Ultimately, however, this did not work, and ended up costing Quik Park, as the judge ordered judgments against two entities instead of one.”
A Civil Court judge, David B. Cohen, ruled on Dec. 30 that Quik Park 1633 Garage LLC. would have to pay $333,333 for the use and occupancy of The Carlyle's garage without a lease and Supreme Court Justice Joan Kenney ruled on Nov. 19 last year that the Quik Park Beekman II, the original Quik Park garage, would have to hand over unpaid rent, which was determined by a court hearing to be nearly $1.05 million.
"Quik Park is has not stepped up to the plate to pay," said Kevin Smith, another attorney representing the Carlyle. "They are obviously going to make us chase after them for the money."
Quik Park intends to appeal the judge's decision demanding it pay for the five month period after the lease was terminated, according to Kayla Muller, a spokeswoman for the company.
"For more than a dozen years, Quik Park rented and operated the garage and The Carlyle hotel without incident," Muller said. "But when The Carlyle was acquired by a New World Development Co., billion-dollar Chinese hedge fund, the relationship changed.
"Quik Park attempted to find an amicable resolution with ownership, but the absentee landlord refused to provide any rent concession due to the loss in space that Quik Park suffered. Instead, it sought to evict Quik Park from the garage for refusing to pay rent," she continued.
Since Quik Park left the garage in February 2014, GGMC has taken over as The Carlyle's parking company, according to Smith.
Quik Park was booted from four other locations — three on the Upper East Side on 66th 72nd and 87th streets — last year in a Supreme Court ruling, where it was found that Quik Park was commingling funds from the four accounts into a single account to fund personal expenses and the expenses for other Quik Park garages, according to Rosenberg & Estis.
