A tower on the row of New York billionaires is riddled with defects, say the tenants

432 Park avenue, the narrow residential skyscraper 1,396 feet high on the New York billionaire line, was announced as a Architectural Marvel When the tenants first moved almost a decade ago.

Now, these tenants say that the luxury tower is assailed by cracks, leaks, dysfunctions of the elevator and a relentless noise.

The owners of units filed two separate complaints against building developers. One, deposited in 2021, says that the building is plagued by structural problems and accuses developers of not approaching them. The other, posted last month, accuses the developers of “massive fraud”.

Renting a unit at 432 Park Avenue can cost $ 1 million a year. On Zillow, a unit of two chambers is listed for more than $ 10 million, while a unit of four bedrooms is listed for sale for $ 35 million.

According to StreeTeasy, a New York listry site belonging to Zillow, the owners of the 104 condos of 432 Park have access to 30,000 square feet of equipment, including a resident only resident, a room service, a swimming pool, a library with a wood fireplace, a billiard room, a board room and a wire in the wood.

When it opened in 2015, 432 Park was the highest residential building in the Western hemisphere at 96 floors. Another billions of billions of billionaires, Central Park Tower, overshadowed it in 2019.

A advice representing owners of individual and commercial units at 432 PARK listed the CIM group, Macklowe Properties and the company they have formed to build the condominium in trial 2021.

“What has been promised as one of the most beautiful condominiums in the city has rather been delivered with more than 1,500 construction and design defects identified with the common building elements (leaving aside the numerous defects within individual units)”, declared the tenants in 2021 complaint.

They declared that the developers “refused to accept the responsibility of the vast majority of its errors” and did not properly address the faults.

The promoters of the building defended themselves in a judicial file in 2021: “Park 432 had such problems – not different from any other building. The complainants, however, largely exaggerated the scope of the work which was necessary (both in the reports of their consultant, SBI Consultants, Inc. (” SBI “), and in their complaint) in their excess gambit to exact inductor.

In April, the tenants filed a second complaint against the group, as well as the WSP service company, SLCE Architects and McGraw Hudson Construction, which belongs to the founder of Macklowe Properties. The owners of the units said that these companies knew “since the start of the construction that the design of the white concrete facade of the building was completely defective and would never hold”.

The developers “conspired with the other defendants to concoct and disseminate false fraudulent declarations thanks to the condominium supply plan and to the Ministry of Buildings to hide these alarming defects from the owners of units in order to obtain massive profits and leave the applicants holding the bag,” said the owners of the complaint in April.

In May 2024, the Wall Street Journal published an analysis of real estate lists and real estate files, as well as interviews with people familiar with the building, which showed that the problems and a legal action in progress reduced sales activities and prices.

Compass real estate agents Alexandra Hedaya and Jason Haber, however, told Business Insider that they had not yet seen an impact on prices following prosecution.

They have the list for a 4,462 square feet and five bedrooms on the 55th floor now scored for $ 29.5 million. The house hit the market in 2022 for $ 33 million. The developer sold it to its current owner for 23.87 million in 2016, according to New York ownership registers.

“It is difficult to prove a negative. I cannot tell you who has not called me because they say to themselves:” Oh, I don't want to look in the building. “So I only know the people who contact me about the building,” said Haber.

Macklowe Properties, WSP, and the developer group did not respond to a request for comments from Business Insider. Representatives of SLCE Architects and the CIM group denied the accusations in the complaint in April and told Bi that they had planned to move to reject it.

A lawyer for the owners of units declared to Bi: “This case extends beyond negligence in an alleged regime calculated, motivated by greed, which has eroded confidence.”

Although disputes are underway, prosecution offers an overview What is to live in the famous building.

Water flood and infiltration

The tenants said they had known “repeated” leaks and floods in the common areas of the building, including two “substantial” leaks in 2018.

The leaks brought the water into the elevator rod, which closed the service for two of the four residential elevators “for weeks”, according to the complaint of 2021.

“Thirty-five units, as well as common areas, have suffered water damage,” said the owners of units. “An investigation revealed that the cause was a bad installation of plumbing, including loose bolts buried under insulation.”

The “persistent” water infiltration problems have also affected the tower basements, said the owners of units.

Noise and vibrations

Other problems had tenants with the structure of 432 Park Avenue were noise and vibrations, which they called one of the “most persistent and most disruptive defects in the building” in 2021.

“The apartments are plagued by toasted noises, to strike and to click on noises. The use of the chute of garbage sounds” like a bomb “, said the owners of units in the complaint. “Noise and vibration problems were so serious that some units owners have been forced to move for long periods, and in at least one case for more than nineteen months – for a pandemic – while the problem is solved.”

Elevator dysfunction

Dysfunctions with building elevators were also mentioned in the 2021 complaint.

“Although the elevators' disruptions have been particularly omnipresent in residential towers, all the areas of the building, including the retail area, the garage and the commercial space, have known and continue to undergo dysfunctions and closures,” said tenants. “Even the mechanical staircases in the commercial space have misunderstood, requiring prolonged closures.”

In addition to the water leak, the owner of the unit declared in the complaint that the construction led “the wind conditions frequently disturbing the elevator operations of the building”.

The external white concrete facade

Last month, the second complaint of the tenants focused on the white concrete facade which includes the outside of the building.

The owners of units said that the design means that the exterior is “plagued by thousands of severe cracks, scales and other forms of deterioration, which have led to water infiltrations and major floods, the corrosion of the steel frame reinforcing concrete columns, as well as other significant damage”.

They said that the parties listed in their complaint in 2025 knew that the facade would “never”, and the group ignored the warnings concerning potential defects.

Other problems

Residents said there were also visible cracks in the dry partition on the condos walls and ceilings.

But that's not all: the 2021 complaint has also cited “the drawing joints of plinths and badly aligned, the defective sliding doors, the chretis seal openings and the cracks in the walls or floors in ceramic and / or stone tiles, excessive fog and window condensation, gaps and disalges the repeated circuit period “.