The Chetrit Group, along with its development partners for a Noho luxury co-op, have sued the owner of the building’s land, claiming she’s holding up an $8.5M deal as leverage to extort $2M from them.

SK Development, Ironstate Development and Chetrit, which developed the 11-unit, seven-story building at 10 Bond St, filed the lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court on Tuesday, The Real Deal reports. 

The suit alleges Miriam Azadalli, the property’s fee owner, is blocking a retail sublease deal, “acting out of greed, in accordance with a longtime pattern and practice, for the purpose of extorting payment,” according to TRD. 

Last November the developers entered an agreement to sell 5,130 SF of retail space to I.S. Chapman Holding for $8.5M.

Miriam needed to sign off for the deal to go through, however, and the developers say she stonewalled them. Later, they allege, her lawyer demanded $2M in exchange for her signature on the necessary documents.

For her part, Miriam says there was a “potential default in the co-op’s ground lease,” according to the suit. She also says the developer’s deal would’ve priced the sublease at roughly $24k per month, far lower than the $63k a month market rate. [TRD]