New York City’s luxury high-rise 432 Park, the tallest residential building in the world when it was completed in 2015 (it’s now third), abounds with expensive apartments and a high-end clientele. Trouble is, one of the same things that’s made the building appealing to so many wealthy buyers — namely, its height — has also led to some less-than-pleasurable experiences for the building’s residents.
Earlier this year, reports surfaced of issues with the building’s plumbing and its capacity to withstand wind. As it turns out, those weren’t the last issues facing residents of the building. Curbed is now reporting that the condo board of 432 Park has filed a lawsuit against the building’s developers.
The lawsuit itself seeks damages from the developers, citing “the multiple, extremely significant and much publicized construction defects existing in the common elements and areas of the 102-story residential tower.” Its focus is on common areas within the building, of which the lawsuit cites more than 1,500. It’s worth mentioning that the tone of the complaint filed by the condo board features no small amount of snark, including a parenthetical reference to “leaving aside the numerous defects within individual units.”
The most recent incident described in the lawsuit was an arc flash incident in early June of this year, when a contractor accidentally drilled into an electrical cable — which caused several units to lose power and knocked out the air conditioning for a significant portion of the building.
As the Curbed article points out, the effect of a blockbuster New York Times report on the building’s issues has been deeply felt within the building — and only one apartment has sold since the Times article ran. All of which makes for a more real estate drama than some unholy union of Only Murders in the Building and J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise — with no end in sight.
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