Lawsuit alleges 'priceless' Sony Pictures films threatened

More than $1 billion worth of original Sony Pictures films stored in a warehouse in Inwood could be threatened by plans to open a soil screening facility next door, a lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court in Albany County last month alleges.

Roger Realty Co. filed the Article 78 petition on Dec. 14 against Inwood Realty Associates Inc., which owns an undeveloped lot adjacent to Roger Realty's 115,000-square-foot warehouse on an industrial stretch of Roger Avenue. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. leases the warehouse from Roger Realty to store "hundreds of thousands of original films," according to the petition. 

"Many of them are priceless masters of classic films and television," the petition reads. "The pristine condition and value of these films will be greatly and adversely [affected] by Inwood Realty's proposed use of the adjacent" site.

Bram Weber, the Melville-based attorney for Inwood Realty and Whip Realty Corp., another respondent in the suit, called his clients "the good actor" in the dispute. 

"They volunteered to clean up a site that was a blight on the neighborhood and did so with all required approvals. The neighboring property owner should stop unreasonably interfering with the lawful operations of Inwood Realty,” Weber said.

The suit also names the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Town of Hempstead and Galli Engineering P.C., as respondents.

The DEC and Sony Pictures declined to comment.

Galli Engineering, which prepared a "consent order barge plan" for the site, did not respond to a request for comment.

In 2017, Inwood Realty purchased the neighboring property, which sits  next to a small creek off Jamaica Bay, despite the some 32,000 cubic yards of concrete, asphalt and other debris that a prior owner or tenant had abandoned there, according to the petition.

In 2018, Inwood Realty and the DEC agreed to a plan for the company to remove the debris, in part with barges, according to the petition and the consent order barge plan, which outlines the cleanup process.

The debris has been moved to a recycling facility in Rosedale, according to the barge plan.

The company applied for building permits in 2017 and zoning variances and exceptions in 2018 from Hempstead to set up a soil screening facility on the property, town spokesman Mike Fricchione said. 

The site would be used "for the collection, screening and disposal of clean fill and other approved materials," according to a project narrative submitted to the town as part of the application.

Hempstead Chief Deputy Town Attorney Charles Kovit said the company's application is pending.

Albert D'Agostino, Roger Realty's Valley Stream-based attorney, said the soil screening plans endanger the "original tapes, films [and] negatives" that Sony Pictures keeps next door, although he wouldn't say exactly how.

"Our experts at the time of the hearing will disclose that," he said.

The lawsuit also contends that the permission that the DEC granted Inwood Realty to use barges enabled the two parties "to circumvent the requirements to perform" an environmental analysis, and that Inwood Realty can't use barges on the property, as Hempstead Town technically owns the waterfront between it and the creek.

Kovit said a prior property owner had filled in the waterfront, bringing the "underwater land" owned by the town above the water level. The town still owns the waterfront, he said.

He said the town attorney's office has recommended that the town sell the waterfront to Inwood Realty. A preliminary appraisal found it to be worth around $135,000, he said. The sale would require the approval of the town board.

The lawsuit is asking the court to declare the barge permit void, the DEC in violation of the State Environmental Quality Review Act and that the DEC and the town undertake a SEQRA review of the proposed soil screening facility.