That’s rich.
A “greedy” admissions director at the posh Dalton School and her photographer husband are being evicted from their rent-stabilized pad in Tribeca after writing it off as a business address for years, a Manhattan judge ruled.
Judy Calixto, who has worked at the $61,000-a-year Upper East Side school since 2015, and Michael Goldman, whose portfolio includes Israeli actress Mira Tzur and designer Norma Kamali, have rented the sprawling three-bedroom apartment at 177 Hudson Street since 1978.
They have been paying peanuts in rent — just over $2,000 — for more than 3,000 square feet, an entire floor, in the ritzy neighborhood, where similar apartments fetch up to $14,000 a month.
Their landlord, Robert Moskowitz, owner of Manhattan Realty Company 1 LP, became suspicious around 2016, when Goldman began paying rent with checks that said Michael Goldman Photography, Inc. and had the Hudson Street apartment listed as its location.
He moved to oust the couple and his lawyers eventually found Goldman was writing off his rent and utilities on his company’s tax returns, prompting a judge to rule late last month the photographer could not also claim the space as his primary residence.
The city’s rent stabilization law requires an apartment to be the tenant’s primary residence, defined as living there over half the year.
And the couple, who married in 1986 and have two grown children, have another home in the historic Hudson Valley hamlet of Stone Ridge, the July 26 Manhattan Civil Court ruling stated.
“It should offend every taxpayer that such a fortunate couple sought to profit off a rent-stabilized apartment instead of simply using it as their primary home as the law required,” said Moskowitz.
“Stabilized rent was not enough for them, so they helped themselves to improper corporate tax deductions,” he added.
The court affirmed that rent stabilization laws are meant to make living in New York City affordable for legitimate tenants, “not to enrich greedy people who abuse the system,” he added.
Calixto’s salary at the school is not listed online but those for similar positions are. Dalton’s director of admissions earned a salary of $257,540, according to a 2023 filing. The director of the middle school received $275,662 and its director of athletics earned $337,524.
“We’re relieved that the court enforced the law and put an end to an egregious abuse of our city’s rent stabilization laws,” Moskowitz’s lawyer, Nicole Waknine told The Post.
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Goldman’s attorney, Michael Terk of David Rozenholc & Associates, said a notice of appeal has been filed and they will be making a motion for a stay pending appeal.
Goldman and Calixto could not be reached for comment. Someone who answered at their apartment on Friday declined to speak with The Post.
Additional reporting by Georgia Worrell
