Exclusive | Middle-class co-op on Billionaires Row dodges 450% rent hike, appeals court rules

Carnegie House just bought itself another round in its fight for survival.A state appellate panel unanimously wiped out the arbitration award that would have jacked up ground rent at the Billionaires’ Row co-op by 450%, handing the 324-unit building a rare win against the ultra-wealthy investors who own the dirt beneath it, The Post has learned. The Appellate Division’s ruling sends the dispute back to square one on rent talks, sparing more than 300 middle-class families at 100 W.57th St.

from an outcome that board president Richard Hirsch has previously called financial ruin.The land under Carnegie House is controlled by an entity tied to real estate investors Rubin Schron and David Werner, along with Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell. Last summer, an arbitration panel sided with the landowners and set new annual ground rent at roughly $24 million, up from $4.36 million, a jump co-op residents said would have been impossible to absorb without triggering defaults, foreclosures and wiped-out equity across the building.Making matters worse, the landlords then tried to collect on the increase immediately, demanding more than $10 million in back rent with only 20 days’ notice.Carnegie House cried foul, arguing the arbitration itself was compromised.According to the Appellate decision, the neutral umpire overseeing the case failed to properly disclose a job offer from the landowners’ co-counsel while the arbitration was still underway, an omission the court found raised a legitimate question of bias.That was enough for the Appellate Division to throw out the award entirely.Hirsch framed the decision as a lifeline, not a finish line.“Today’s decision is a critical victory for over 300 Carnegie House families who have been backed into a corner by real estate tycoon Michael Dell, our other billionaire landowners, and a corrupt arbitration award,” Hirsch told The Post in a statement. “While this ruling is a temporary stopgap, it gives us a fair shot ...