Glenwood Management will alter some of its buildings to make them more accessible to people with disabilities as part of a proposed settlement with federal prosecutors.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara outlined the settlement in a letter Feb. 4, a day after U.S. attorneys alleged some of the New Hyde Park-based developer’s buildings violate the 1988 Fair Housing Act.
Under its terms, Glenwood would retrofit Liberty Plaza, the downtown Manhattan complex the complaint focused on, and two other buildings to comply with the federal law requiring accessibility in residential developments built after March 13, 1991, the letter says.
Glenwood, headquartered at 1200 Union Turnpike, would also schedule inspections and make any necessary changes at six other Manhattan rental properties and create procedures to prevent future violations.
In their Feb. 3 filing, prosecutors alleged Glenwood’s failing to make its buildings sufficiently accessible amounted to discrimination against people with disabilities under the Fair Housing Act.
The settlement also calls for up to $900,000 in compensation for “aggrieved persons” and a $45,000 civil penalty.
Bharara’s letter asks a judge to approve the settlement, a compromise that resulted from “many months of arms’ length negotiations” between prosecutors and Glenwood before the complaint was filed, he wrote.
The complaint named seven Manhattan properties with potential accessibility violations owned by Glenwood, which was also central to the federal corruption convictions of former Republican state Sen. Dean Skelos of Rockville Centre and former Democratic Assemblyman Sheldon Silver.
Liberty Plaza’s common areas and individual units are designed so they’re difficult for people in wheelchairs to navigate, prosecutors said in the filing.
The complaint said two other complexes under construction also failed to incorporate accessibility into their designs. Five other properties Glenwood owns may also have violations, prosecutors said.
Liberty Plaza is about a block away from two proposed locations for a methadone clinic prosecutors have alleged Silver blocked at Glenwood’s request.
Testimony in the corruption trials indicated Glenwood did favors for the former lawmakers because they had control over legislation key to the firm’s business.
The company and its executives were reportedly key links between the separate corruption investigations of Skelos and Silver, who automatically lost their legislative seats after their convictions.
Glenwood, its limited-liability subsidiary companies and principal Leonard Litwin are one of New York’s largest political donors and have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Skelos’ and Silver’s election campaigns.
