Remodel battle on the UES
Couple vs. dentist
An Upper East Side couple is crying the Motown blues over a neighbor’s construction project that they say has turned their posh block into something “more reminiscent of Detroit in the 1980s.”
Jill Kargman — the creator and star of the Bravo sitcom “Odd Mom Out” — and her ad-exec husband, Harry, live next to a stalled renovation project on East 62nd Street that has become a magnet for “homeless people, garbage, rodents, dirt and debris,” according to a $250,000 lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court by the LLC through which the couple (pictured) owns their home.
The couple’s $9 million abode is on a block of pretty brownstones and townhouses that bears no resemblance to the decay that ravaged the Motor City.
The suit also claims the Kargmans’ own remodeling plan — to install a “state of the art” glass conservatory over a terrace off their bedroom — has been put on hold by the work on neighbor Michael Mass’ property.
Jill Kargman has exuded pride in her chic castle, showing off the kitchen (with a built-in pizza oven) and her bedroom (with a Oscar de la Renta canopy bed) while giving a tour of the four-story townhouse in a 2017 video for New York Magazine.
But the Kargmans now complain that Mass’ project, begun in 2016, has deprived them of their “enjoyment” of the 4,600-square-foot home, which they bought in 2014.
Mass, a dentist, has plans to extend his townhouse in the back and add two stories, court papers say.
His dental office is in the basement and cellar. The suit claims work on the basement damaged the Kargman home.
The Kargmans agreed to a 2019 settlement with Mass for $115,094, and they forged an agreement with him that would allow for the work on his house to proceed provided they could install a trellis along the new addition.
But the work never began, and the suit claims money promised under the agreement wasn’t paid.
The city issued a stop-work order on the project this year after a contractor pulled out. Mass’ house is partially blocked by a construction fence, but he still operates his dental practice there.
Joshua Oberman, a lawyer for Mass, called the Kargman’s claims “meritless.”
The Kargmans also sued their neighbor on the other side in 2016, griping about the renovation of that townhouse, court papers say. The suit was discontinued in 2018.