Exclusive | Former Douglas Elliman honcho allegedly stiffed top designer over Hamptons project: Youre treating me like a doormat?
An interior designer to the rich and famous claims the ex-CEO of one of New York City’s top real-estate firms treated her “like a doormat’’ and allegedly stiffed her out of nearly $250,000 over her tony Southampton estate.Dale Cohen — whose elite projects have included former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Gracie Mansion and Mets owner Steve Cohen’s $30 million Greenwich home — told The Post that Dottie Herman, the current vice chairman and ex-CEO of Douglas Elliman, screwed her over after she was asked to salvage a renovation of Herman’s 5,500-square-foot home in 2017.Herman, who famously sold her stake in the real-estate firm for $40 million in 2018, allegedly still hasn’t paid at least $250,000 to Cohen to cover what remains of her total bill, the elite designer claimed. “It was a very fraught relationship,” Cohen said of her business dealings with Herman, adding that she was the third designer for the home and came in at the middle of the project.Cohen, who has a master’s in architecture from Yale, claimed Herman’s inability to make executive decisions and attend design meetings turned what should have been a normal design job into a nightmare.The designer alleged Herman then laid the blame on her, leading to the ceased payments, part of a total $350,000 bill for her work, plus the alleged late fees, according to a complaint Cohen filed with the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.Cohen filed the complaint in June claiming that she “worked with Dottie assiduously over the course of a year to approximately 95% completion of the renovation portion of her project.“Dottie missed several payments to me in July and August of 2018,” Cohen said in her complaint.“I requested these funds and others that are owed.
She has refused to make any payments, she has refused to provide the necessary documentation, and though she said on many occasions that she would pay me, she has refused to answer any entreaties to do so.�...