July 6, 2009
Battle over will could reshape Village
The heirs to William Gottlieb, one of New York City's most prolific and eccentric property owners, are once again involved in a bitter legal fight regarding what one family member claims is as much as $2 billion worth of property in Greenwich Village and Chelsea.
The plaintiff in the case, Michael Corbett, 37, is the great-nephew of Gottlieb and claims that his uncle, Neil Bender, carved him and his mother out of the will.
"The real estate business is a family business," Corbett said during a news conference in front of the Northern Dispensary, a 176-year-old building in the West Village that has remained empty since Gottlieb bought it in 1998.
"My uncle Neal has pushed everybody out."
Corbett worked in Gottlieb's office before the real estate mogul's passing in 1999. He said that Bender pushed him out of the firm, and that he has been left destitute, living in subsidized housing and working as a personal trainer while his mother, Gottlieb's niece, works for just above minimum wage at a department store. A spokeswoman for William Gottlieb Real Estate declined to comment.
Corbett has filed a lawsuit in New York Surrogate Court to take control of the properties. He said that his interest in the buildings is not financial but that he wants to see them maintained and preserved instead of sold to developers.
"There are a hundred different creative ways to use these properties so that they are preserved and that they serve the community," said Carl Mayer, Corbett's attorney in the case, mentioning low-cost housing for NYU students as one possibility.
"This type of property belongs not just to family members but to the public."
Gottlieb started his real estate spending spree in the late 1960s, and at the time of his death his holdings were believed to number more than 185 buildings. Because he bought so many properties and then left them vacant, he is credited by many for unwittingly preserving parts of the lower West Side from the designs of developers.
Many in the preservationist community, though, were left mystified at this recent turn of events.
"The way Bill Gottlieb worked he was something of a de facto preservationist," said Zach Winestine, co-chair of the Greenwich Village Community Task Force.
"Folks are concerned about what may happen to the properties, but to be honest, it's hard to follow what's been going on -- there hasn't been a lot of public information about it."
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