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Faced with mounting real estate tax delinquencies, the city is poised to move against the personal and corporate assets of some of the largest property owners in New York.
City attorneys will go into court within weeks seeking to seize bank accounts, homes, yachts and any other private holdings of building owners who owe millions in unpaid property taxes.
This is a radical departure from the city's past practice of moving to seize a building on which taxes are owed. Instead, because the value of those buildings has nosedived, tax collectors will now zero in on the owners themselves.
"This isn't just ground breaking, it's revolutionary," says Finance Commissioner Carol O'Cleireacain. "It's one year in the making, it's legally defensible and it will work."
She vowed the city would sue several long-time real estate tax deadbeats in the civil part of state Supreme Court, probably by the end of the month.
"We can send the sheriff to seize their bank accounts, shut down their businesses and remove their cash registers," Ms. O'Cleireacain proclaims.
The initiative comes as property tax delinquencies crested at $563 million for the first three quarters of fiscal 1992, up almost 15% from the previous year. The 10 largest delinquents alone now owe $54.9 million, city records show.
Although officials wouldn't specifically identify their potential targets, they confirmed that they are eyeing a list of the city's 50 biggest real estate tax delinquents.
That list reads like a who's who of high-flying developers brought down by the ravages of recession.
EICHNER TOPS THE LIST
Topping the list is Ian Bruce Eichner, the developer of the bankrupt CitySpire building, a 72-story, green-domed West Side condominium. His company is listed as owing $11 million on the property, dating back to 1989.
"Bruce isn't liable," says Sandy Silverstein, chief financial officer for Eichner Enterprises Inc. "His...