The H Mart mystery has been solved, but not in a good way. Turns out The Post uncovered an explanation: H Mart has claimed in two lawsuits filed in the past month — one against four residents of the nine-unit coop, and against the coop’s lawyer — that the condo has obstructed H Mart’s plans at every turn since it bought the unit in 2022.

(You can read the complaint against the board members here.)

The story goes like this: Six months after H Mart bought the commercial unit in June 2022, the board passed a “secret resolution” that outlined a 19-point set of rules that would serve to restrict H Mart’s operations — including limiting store hours, requiring budget oversight on construction, restricting use of the sidewalk in front of the store, requiring rights of refusal on the sale of the unit, etc.

“H Mart never would have purchased Unit 1 under this condition,” the company says in the lawsuit against the lawyer. “This clause purports to give the Board the ability to declare non-compliance with any law or regulation, even if the authorities do not. The Board is neither qualified to do so, nor can it be trusted to do so correctly or fairly.”

The saga rolls out from there — delaying the construction as we have all witnessed for years. The condo board refused to approve H Mart’s plans for more than a year, until April 2023, the complaint claims, then required that the business move the HVAC system on the roof, a request that cost tens of thousands in engineering plans (75 pages worth) and delayed progress until October 2024. Then the board pushed things off till March 2025, but still did not approve plans. All along, H Mart had been working on the interior, and, they claim, were 90 percent finished by then.

So basically, it’s a huge mess. But what I don’t get: why doesn’t HMart just open? If the “secret resolution” does not hold up legally, since it was passed without all condo owners present therefore violating the condo’s own bylaws, what’s stopping them?

For its part, the condo board members denied the allegations point by point, in its answer to the complaint filed on December 5. And H Mart in turn is suing for damages.

“H Mart has been unable to complete its alterations and as a result has been losing millions of dollars in revenue caused by the various breaches and bad faith conduct alleged above,” the complaint maintains. “H Mart’s past and ongoing damages include, but are not limited to, compensatory damages, actual damages, consequential damages (lost profits), and incidental damages (various costs imposed upon H Mart as a result of these breaches, including attorney’s fees).”