Office Tenant Couldn't Bar Building's Partial Conversion to Residences

A law firm tenant leased four floors of a building. The owner informed the tenant that it would convert nine floors of the building to residential use. The tenant asked the court to issue an order—an “injunction—to block the conversion. The tenant claimed that the lease required the building to be used as a first-class office building, so the conversion would violate the lease.

A New York court refused to issue the injunction. To get an injunction, the tenant had to prove that it would win its argument that the conversion would violate the lease. But the court noted that the lease had no provisions “to clearly persuade the court that a restrictive use was intended.” For instance, no provision specifically permitted or barred a conversion to residential use. The lease language the tenant cited as limiting the building's use, “run as first-class office building” didn't appear in the lease's use section. Rather, it was with provisions on rent escalations. It was merely “descriptive of the use” and not a limit on that use, the court said. There was also no proof that any other tenant's lease had a use restriction. Plus, it wouldn't be fair to force the owner to abandon its conversion or continue to leave a big part of the building vacant [Hawkins, Delafield & Wood, LLP v. RBNB 67 Wall Street Owner, LLC].