The Chair of the Board of Directors of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC), Judith Calogero, has urged Charles Lucido to extend an April 30 deadline for completion of negotiations over the sale of Island House to the building’s Tenant Association (IHTA).

In an April 18 letter that responds to a letter from IHTA President Dorothy Davis in which Davis expressed frustration over the lack of progress in parallel negotiations with RIOC over extension of the ground lease for the building, Calogero writes, "Let me say clearly that we strongly urge – let me repeat – strongly urge – Mr. Lucido to extend the April 30 deadline he has set for negotiations over sale of Island House to the Tenants Association. We believe his deadline is unreasonably short, and one which is inconsistent with the amount of time he has set aside in past negotiations and it undermines his ability to come to acceptable terms with IHTA and RIOC."

The letter continues, "Additional time is needed to consider the complexities involved both in leaving the Mitchell-Lama program and in converting the building to cooperative ownershiop. Issues such as tax equivalency payments (TEPs) require patient negotiation...

"Mr. Lucido should demonstrate his good faith by extending the artificial April 30 deadline and allow the negotiations to continue. That is the only way that the IHTA can proceed to obtain needed financing. It will also allow RIOC to carry out discussions with both seller and/or buyer for a renegotiated ground lease. We anticipate that a ground lease extension can be ultimately negotiated."

On one point of complaint in Davis’s letter – that RIOC wants to charge tenants in advance (through Lucido) for meetings between lawyers – Calogero writes, "It is clear that, going forward, parties to the sale will be expected to cover the legal expenses incurred by RIOC for its third-party role in these negotiations. RIOC will seek to recover past legal expenses from appropriate parties that resulted from the potential sale [to the Sheldrake Organization] that did not go through to fruition."

The last sentence effectively concedes an important point. RIOC had been attempting to collect over $30,000 in legal expense incurred during negotiations with Sheldrake, as well as $50,000 as an advance against future legal expenses. By shifting the lesser burden to a recovery effort with Sheldrake, RIOC removes it as a road block that might have held up further discussions with tenants. Whether RIOC will still seek the $50,000 advance was not dealt with directly, though resident RIOC Board member David Kraut had sought to have such expenses collected after a deal was complete