HAMPTONS INN-DIGNITY
‘I had to stay in Comf fort!’: suit
The Hamptons it ain’t. A man says his summer was ruined when he had to cancel his big Fourth of July weekend plans at his $45,000permonth rental — and sleep instead in a $200anight Comfort Inn.
Artgallery owner Elliott Levenglick, 28, spent four months planning, and paying for, his stay at the “Glass Cube,” a $3 million, twostory Clamshell Avenue house with floortoceiling windows in East Hampton. But during the threehour drive to pick up the keys, he claims in a lawsuit, owners Jamie Ostrow and David Fox suddenly canceled by email.
The couple told him they’d seen him advertise online for an art show at their home and believed it would violate town codes and anger neighbors, according to Levenglick’s Manhattan Supreme Court complaint.
“I was on the highway, Exit 68, and I had gotten this email and I began to panic,” he recalled.
With a barbecue set for the next night, and staff and European friends on the way, Levenglick kept driving east, frantically calling friends and trying to find a solution to the “misunderstanding.” But he eventually gave up and turned around to head home.
“I was in a really dark state,” he said. “But it was 2 a.m. and I was tired so I checked into some crappy Comfort Inn hotel . . . I’m paying all this money, and I’m staying in a Comfort Inn on the highway.”
Levenglick — who once told GuestofaGuest.com that “Having grown up in NYC, I naturally pos sess a sophisticated and cultured outlook on life” — is acting as his own lawyer in his lawsuit against Ostrow and Fox. He claims they demanded he forfeit the hefty rent while also giving up his 30day stay at the house, which was to begin July 2.
Levenglick, who owns a namesake Upper East Side gallery, contends the owners’ belief he would deal art in their home was “ridiculous.”
Levenglick “was under severe duress as he had to find a way to maintain his credibility and reputation,” he charges in court papers, adding that the “most highly coveted weekend of the summer was severely ruined . . . after the lastminute cancelation (which has now ruined Mr. Levenglick’s reputation and now damaged several friendships).”
Late on July 3, after hammering out a deal with the couple’s lawyer, he got the keys to the Cube. Levenglick agreed to shorten his stay to three weeks and pay the couple’s $2,000 legal fees on top of the $45,000 rent and $4,500 security deposit.
Apparently, the trauma contin ued even after he got his stay.
The three weeks at “Ms. Ostrow’s home has been highlighted by severe anxiety, depression and discomfort which has ruined the stay,” Levenglick claims.
Yet in spite of the descending darkness, Levenglick tried to stay longer than the three weeks. When the homeowners called the cops, the art dealer decided to return to Manhattan.
Levenglick wants $71,500, which includes a full refund plus $20,000 “for damages to his reputation, image and credibility.”