Upper East Side Wine Bar Owners Say Landlord Made Violent Threats

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The owners of an Upper East Side wine bar sued their landlord last month in federal court, alleging they received violent threats as the landlord tried to drive them out of their building and redevelop the site.

The lawsuit was filed March 9 in Manhattan federal court by Jude Dennis Marovic and Marko Matic, the owner and manager of Vero Wine Bar on Second Avenue near East 77th Street.

The duo are seeking $5 million in damages. Their lawsuit was first reported by Curbed.

They describe being subjected to a campaign of harassment by their landlord, Benjamin Ohebshalom, owner of the realty company Sky Management, as well as an LLC called Alliance 77 which owns the building.

"You better give up this place"

Starting in August 2019, the landlords asked Vero's owners to buy them out of the rest of their lease, which runs into 2024, saying that "a major developer was going to demolish the buildings" and that Vero should get out now, since construction noise and smells would disrupt the restaurant's business, the suit claims.

Indeed, demolition permits are on file to remove two stories from the six-story building.

The restaurant declined the offer. Soon after, the alleged harassment escalated: a Sky Management employee told Marovic that "he would be sorry" because the company had "connections," and vowed to come after the wine bar, causing one employee to quit as she feared for her safety, the plaintiffs claim.

Days later, an unidentified man stopped by Matic's home late at night and told him, "You better give up this place or you will end up in the back of a garbage truck," the lawsuit claims.

Matic reported the threat to the NYPD's 19th Precinct. A spokesperson confirmed that the precinct had three reports on file from January.

Meanwhile, after neighboring businesses in the adjoining buildings were either bought out or kicked out, the landlords put up signs warning of rat poison and asbestos in their windows in a bid to "instill fear upon Vero's employees, owners and patrons," the plaintiffs said.

The harassment continued through last summer, Marovic and Matic say, including items being stolen from the restaurant storage room, an attempted eviction despite the state's pandemic moratorium, and the repeated bulldozing of Vero's outdoor dining setup.

Millions in damages sought

Vero sued the landlords under the RICO Act, an anti-racketeering law that targets mob activity. They also claim assault, trespassing, conspiracy and violation of the state's pandemic laws, among other causes of action.

They seek $5 million in damages from the landlords.

Sky Management did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the attorneys listed for Ohebshalom, the company's owner. In a statement to Curbed, however, they said Vero had refused to vacate the space and had stopped paying rent, and claimed that the outdoor dining structure was not permitted.

In a March 30 filing, the defendants' attorneys indicated that they would move to dismiss the suit, arguing that the allegations would not violate any federal laws, even if they were true.