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As the lights come back on in a Greenwich Village building, a reclusive owner may be stepping out of the shadows. A bit.
On Sept. 29 God's Love We Deliver, a charity that provides meals for the bed-ridden, opened a new office at 165 Waverly Place, a triangular building called the Northern Dispensary Institute. Like many buildings owned by William Gottlieb Real Estate, No. 165 had been vacant for decades. But that era may be ending, as the landlord makes moves across its 100-building portfolio after resolving a turf war in the family.
Maintaining his low-profile, Neil Bender, the company's president and the nephew of its late founder, did not respond to an interview request. But Bender did make some remarks at the God's Love ribbon-cutting event.
"For those who don't realize it, 'Gottlieb,' from the German language, translates as 'God's love,' " Bender said. "Heal the sick."
Built in 1831 as a health clinic and functioning as one through the 1980s, No. 165 has a restriction on its deed stipulating that it must serve the poor, which likely made it hard to lease in recent years. Doing nothing with high-profile buildings is in the DNA of William Gottlieb Real Estate, which bought the 4-story, 4,800-square-foot building for $760,000 in 1998, according to a deed, and then let it sit. Similarly, residential and commercial buildings on West, Bank and Gansevoort streets owned by the firm seem to have had minimal habitation over the decades, if they were occupied at all.
But a decade ago, things began to change, though controversially. In 2007 Mollie Bender, the sister of firm founder William Gottlieb and then the head of the firm, died. Afterward a fight broke out between her kids over who should inherit the estate. On one side was Mollie's son Neil, and on the other, her daughter Cheryl Dier, who accused her brother of being unfit to run the company because there were so many tax liens against him. Yet after years of ugly court battles, Neil Bender won out.
It may be notable that Bender paid...