There’s no love lost here.
A Big Apple real estate mogul is suing a tennis court installation company after it “literally destroyed” the game space he wanted repaired at his tony Hamptons home — and then served him a bill for double what the project was supposed to cost, new court papers allege.
Marc Packer, co-founder of the hospitality development firm Tao Group, is coming out swinging against Century Tennis Inc. for allegedly tearing up the court at his Water Mill pad after delaying work on it for almost a year, according to a suit filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Packer, who also owns the Greek restaurant Avra in Manhattan, claims he put down a $24,000 deposit and signed a contract with the firm in August 2020 to fix the cracks in the court and upgrade it by Memorial Day for a price of $62,000, according to the lawsuit.
But by March the company and its manager still hadn’t even started the job — and wouldn’t return his calls or communicate with him “in any way,” the court papers allege.
So Packer’s lawyer, David Jaroslawicz, sent a letter on June 22 demanding the deposit back or for work to begin, and the manager finally got back to him with a promise to begin the work, the filing claims.
“In early July, 2021, while plaintiff was not present at his property, defendants went through the fence to plaintiff’s tennis court, brought in heavy equipment and literally destroyed plaintiff’s tennis court,” charges the suit, which includes photos of the alleged damage.
Century Tennis later sent Packer a bill for $131,690 — roughly double the original contract price, the court documents claim.
“He tore it up, sent the contract and said ‘here sign this.’ And the last [Packer] heard someone said he wants to remove his equipment and so is he going to leave it all torn up,” said Jaroslawicz, referring to a worker from the firm.
But Packer refused to sign the new contract in July “which defendants had created and sent to [Packer] after — and only after — [Packer’s] tennis court and surrounding landscaping had been destroyed by the defendants,” the documents allege.
The court is still ruined and the equipment is still in the yard, the suit claims.
Century Tennis didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Additional reporting by Natalie O’Neill
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