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. … Please note that I have three signed contracts for my work.”
But Herman’s lawyers called Cohen’s claims “frivolous” in their response and alleged she was paid in full.
One of Herman’s lawyers, David Wolf, also questioned why Cohen waited so long to raise the issue and alleged her invoiced amounts were “egregious overreaches,” according to a letter submitted in response to the designer’s DCWP complaint.
“I don’t know how Ms. Cohen invented the idea that she’s owed $300,000,” Wolf claimed to The Post. “Ms. Cohen’s claims have no merit whatsoever, she’s been paid in full, and she isn’t owed a single penny.”
Wolf noted that a lien Cohen filed against Herman’s home was dismissed in 2018 — although that was for administrative reasons and not based on its merits, according to a Manhattan judge’s ruling the next year.
Cohen was brought on to the project in August 2017 to help prepare the home — which was undergoing a gut renovation plus a newly built addition — for a summer move-in date, according to her complaint.
“This is not a project that should have taken more than 18 months total,” Cohen told The Post, “including all construction and the interior.”
Cohen alleged that she spent months struggling to schedule meetings with Herman to make decisions and sign off on various items, such as tiles and lighting fixtures for her triple-height ceilings.
Herman allegedly never sent documentation with estimated costs of the project, either, leaving Cohen in a lurch, the complaint states.
Cohen said she was to be paid by the cost of the project and claimed “a solid 30% of work” for her had been added to it.
The designer claimed to The Post that the last straw came when Herman allegedly ghosted her at an on-site meeting in July 2018 with no notice, leaving Cohen waiting outside the Southampton house for more than two hours.
“You’re not paying me, and you’re treating me like a doormat?” Cohen said to The Post.
Cohen claimed she sent Herman several letters over the ensuing years with detailed, itemized invoices asking for an updated cost of the project so she could accurately bill her fee but alleges that she’s never received the information.
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