The project developers of 432 Park Avenue, a luxurious skyscraper in New York where Jennifer Lopez, among others, would have an apartment, have a trial on their legs due to “far -reaching fraud”. The residents complain about hiding significant defects, such as “thousands of serious cracks” in the facade.
432 Park Avenue is located in Midtown Manhattan and is a so-called ‘pencil tower’, a slender skyscraper of 420 meters high with a height-width ratio of 15: 1. From the completion in 2015 to 2020, the tower was the highest residential building in the world. To protect the building against strong winds, it is designed with empty floors that promote air flow, with anchors drilled deep in the soil and with “massaders” who act as garlands to prevent fluctuations. Among others, singer Jennifer Lopez and the wealthy Chinese businessman Ye Jianming would have paid an amount of eight digits for an apartment in “The building of the 21st century”.
More than 20 leaks in 8 years
Until there the Promopraatje for the skyscraper of real estate company Cim Group and project developer Harry Macklowwe. The residents have previously complained about countless building problems, including more than twenty water leaks since 2017, poorly functioning lifts, a poor energy efficiency and a landfill case that sounds “like a bomb” when used.
All that is apparent from a new lawsuit that was brought against the real estate company and the project developers and architects and engineering firms involved. The apartment residents together demand more than 165 million dollars in compensation.
The new indictment claims that the facade of the tower “is plagued by thousands of serious cracks, crumbling and other forms of decline, such as a 25 centimeter deep crack in the core of the building”. “The damage has not only caused flooding, but also affected part of the steel in the columns of reinforced concrete in the tower.”
Although an earlier complaint from 2021 also reported “significant cracks,” the Owners Association said that the new case was being filed because evidence was found that the defendants had “struck together to hide the size and seriousness of the defects.”
In a response, both the CIM Group and SLCE Architects, the architect of the project, that they deny the allegations “consistently” and submit a request to reject the complaint. Other parties involved refused to comment for the time being.