NYC Council threatens to join lawsuit against posh venue accused of hijacking public space under Ed Koch-Queensboro Bridge

City Council Speaker Julie Menin is threatening to have the Big Apple join a lawsuit against a luxury events venue under the Ed Koch-Queensboro Bridge for allegedly hijacking a public plaza.“We must ensure that this public space remains genuinely accessible to all New Yorkers and that the legal commitments governing this space are enforced,” Menin said in a Sept.3 letter to Louis Rose, chairman of Rose Group Hospitality, which operates the Guastavino’s venue in the plaza under the iconic span.A recent suit alleged that Guastavino’s has illegally claimed the public city plaza as its own for the past decade — repeatedly excluding citizens from the space — while charging venue customers up to $300,000 a pop to rent it for private events.The city-owned plaza — part of a massive parcel first purchased in 1900 for the construction of the bridge — was meant to be “a sitting area accessible to the public,” the suit said.But the venue’s bosses decided they’d rather act like they owned the place, according to court documents.They have illegally blocked taxpayers from it using fake signs and security guards — and sometimes even local cops — while hawking the spot for posh weddings and galas, the filing said.The lawsuit — brought by a Brooklyn mentalist, a Manhattan grad and a veterinary technician — demands a judge formally declare the plaza public land and force the venue to hand over its ill-gotten gains.Menin, who represents the Manhattan neighborhood around the bridge, has demanded a meeting with the ownership of the Rose Group/Guastavino’s and threatened to have the council support the lawsuit with an amicus brief if the dispute isn’t resolved.“Only after public outcry and an inquiry by my office to City agencies has Guastavino’s subsequently taken steps to clarify that the plaza is open to the public,” Menin said in the letter.

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