Add The New York Post on Google A fancy event venue under the Queensboro Bridge has illegally claimed a public city plaza as its own for the past decade while charging customers up to $300,000 a pop to rent it, a new lawsuit alleges.
The Manhattan operators of Guastavino’s have even been aided in their illicit ruse thanks to a reputed shady set-up with the local police precinct, court documents claim.
“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,” alleges the class-action suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last week.
“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 that it “acknowledges that this is a public plaza’’ and that it is working with the city to “come up with a path forward.” The venue did not immediately respond to a Post request for comment Sunday.
According to the lawsuit, the city-owned plaza — part of a massive parcel first purchased in 1900 for the construction of the iconic bridge — was meant to be “a sitting area accessible to the public.”
But the venue’s bosses decided they’d rather act like they owned the place, the suit says.
They illegally blocked out taxpayers with fake signs and security guards while hawking it for posh weddings and galas, according to the filing.
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
