A luxury event space tucked beneath the Queensboro Bridge has spent roughly 10 years treating a public Manhattan plaza like private property — and renting it out to clients for as much as $300,000 per event, according to a new lawsuit.
The operators of Guastavino’s in Manhattan allegedly carried out the arrangement with help from what court papers describe as a questionable understanding involving the local police precinct.
“This case is about the brazen and illegal seizure of public space by a high-end private event company and a commercial real estate developer who, on a daily or near-daily basis, evict the general public from a public plaza in Midtown Manhattan,” the class-action complaint, filed last week in Manhattan Supreme Court, alleges.
“Plaintiffs bring this case to return this small garden to public use and to right the wrongs that Defendants have caused by their illegal actions.”
Guastavino’s told amNY it “acknowledges that this is a public plaza” and said it is working with the city to “come up with a path forward.” The venue did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment from The Post.
The lawsuit says the city-owned plaza sits on land originally acquired in 1900 for the construction of the Queensboro Bridge and was intended to function as “a sitting area accessible to the public.”
Instead, the complaint alleges, Guastavino’s management effectively began treating the space as an extension of its private venue.
According to the filing, members of the public were unlawfully kept out through the use of misleading signs and security guards while the plaza was marketed for upscale weddings, galas and other private events.
The lawsuit, also brought by a Brooklyn mentalist, a Manhattan grad and a veterinary technician, demands a judge formally declare the plaza public land and force the venue to hand over its ill-gotten gains.
A plaintiff in the suit, Sean Basinski, said Guastavino’s security forced him off the property when he attempted to use it as a workout space during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
In 2023, he was escorted off the property again, with workers claiming the public plaza was “part of the event space” and alluding to how the NYPD “understands, in the Community Affairs division, what the arrangement is,’’ court documents claim.
On other occasions, Basinski demanded to see Guastavino’s lease proving it was private, and the workers told him the signs stating it was private was “sufficient legal basis,’’ the suit says.
During a wild December 2025 confrontation, venue boss Louis Rose declared the plaza was “my property” before grabbing Basinski’s belongings and hurling them into East 59th Street, court papers allege.
A venue worker then slapped a phone out of Basinski’s hand before 19th Precinct cops arrived, with the officers cuffing him and charging him with trespassing, the suit claims.
The charges were tossed, but when Basinski returned to the area in April, he was threatened several times by venue workers, court documents allege.
“This time, you’re going to get locked up — you’re going to go to the hospital, then you’re going to go to jail,” a worker said, according to video and the suit.
When officers were eventually called on him for reading a book in the spot later that month, they assured him it was private property, despite Basinki demanding proof for their claim, the suit says.
An officer from the 19th Precinct told him “I don’t need paperwork,” before seven officers escorted him away, the suit alleges.
A Police Department rep told The Post on Sunday, “The NYPD will decline comment on pending litigation.”
– Additional reporting by Zoe Hussain
