Joel Eisdorfer, a top adviser to Mayor Adams, is being sued for allegedly stiffing a real estate agent on a $355,000 broker fee owed as part of a scuttled business deal he initiated while working at City Hall, the Daily News has learned.
The new lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court this month alleges Eisdorfer submitted a $300,000 check on Nov. 1, 2022 as a down-payment to buy Tamaqua Marina, a restaurant and boat dock in Gerritsen Beach. A contract signed by Eisdorfer stipulated he’d pay a total of $3.55 million for Tamaqua with a plan “to operate a marina business,” a copy filed in court states.
At the time of the down payment, Eisdorfer had served as Adams’ senior adviser and Jewish community liaison for nine months.
Danny Odato, a real estate agent hired by Eisdorfer to broker the marina deal, alleges in the suit that Eisdorfer’s down-payment check bounced when a lawyer for the owner, Edward Sarubbi, tried to cash it.
Odato’s suit says he sought an explanation from Eisdorfer, but received no response until Nov. 30, 2022, when a rep for Eisdorfer sent Sarubbi’s attorney a letter saying the deal was off, per the lawsuit. The letter didn’t explain why Eisdorfer decided to back out.
Odato’s suit says a judge should order Eisdorfer to pay him $355,000 because a separate contract they entered — a signed copy of which was also filed in court — states Eisdorfer would pay him a broker fee equal to 10% of the total purchase price.
Eisdorfer, who has served as an Adams adviser since his days as state senator, didn’t return a request for comment this week. An Adams spokesman confirmed Eisdorfer terminated the deal, but wouldn’t say why or whether he intended to operate a marina business while working at City Hall.
Sarubbi confirmed this week Eisdorfer’s check bounced. Sarubbi said he doesn’t know why Eisdorfer backed out.
“He simply disappeared,” Odato told The News in an interview.
The court action against Eisdorfer adds to a growing list of legal headaches engulfing Adams administration officials that includes the mayor, who’s facing a federal probe into his campaign’s finances and a civil lawsuit accusing him of sexually assaulting a police colleague in 1993. Adams has denied any wrongdoing in both cases.
There’s no indication Eisdorfer violated laws by trying to buy a marina while working at City Hall.
Under city law, a full-time city official like Eisdorfer can own a private company while in public service as long as it isn’t engaged in business dealings with any municipal agencies. There’s no indication Eisdorfer’s marina operation planned to do business with the city.
The city Conflicts of Interest Board offers advice to city officials on matters like private business dealings.
City Hall wouldn’t say whether Eisdorfer consulted COIB about Tamaqua. Carolyn Miller, executive director of COIB, declined to comment, citing confidentiality protocols.