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EARLIER THIS MONTH, nearly 150 tenants sipped cocktails and nibbled on hors d'oeuvres in Manhattan House's newly renovated 10,000-square-foot rooftop club. Both the upgrade and the sustenance came courtesy of O'Connor Capital Partners, the developer that has been battling to convert the landmark Upper East Side apartment complex into luxury condominiums.
"They are being more accommodating," says Kathy St. John, a member of the Manhattan House Tenants Group. "And we are being nicer."
After three years of lawsuits and sporadic skirmishing with tenants, O'Connor Capital's $1.1 billion conversion of the block-long, white-brick Manhattan House--one of the most expensive conversions in the city's history--is finally on track. The developer has recently retained a new broker and is aggressively marketing its apartments, for as little as $680,000 for a 556-square-foot studio. Meanwhile, rent-stabilized and market-rate tenants alike are enjoying the new club, fitness center and other facilities so much that they are even saying nice things about their landlord.
Getting to this point was anything but easy for the...