On NYC's Billionaires' Row, a 'Far-Reaching Fraud'

In 2015, the nearly 1,400-foot-tall high rise at 432 Park Avenue was completed, a luxury "pencil tower" to join the others dotting the Manhattan skyline, including on so-called Billionaires' Row. Now, owners of condo units at that address are suing, claiming the skyscraper is plagued by various flaws, including "thousands" of bad cracks that threaten the integrity of the structure once called "the building of the 21st century" by its developer. Per CNN, the complaint filed last month in New York Supreme Court against real estate firm CIM Group, as well as engineers and architects involved in the build, alleges "far-reaching fraud" for ignoring and covering up these supposed issues, some of which they say has led to flooding of their multimillion-dollar purchases.

According to the suit, 432 is afflicted with "thousands of severe cracks, spalling, and other forms of deterioration," chief among them being a huge crack that's 10 inches deep at the building's center. This has led to nearly two dozen complaints of water leaks since 2017, the plaintiffs say, which in turn has helped corrode the steel in the building's reinforced concrete columns. Other problems in the building, which Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez once lived in, cited in a 2021 suit filed by the condo complex's board include elevators that don't work properly, swaying, shoddy energy efficiency, and a trash chute that sounds "like a bomb" when in use.

The latest suit accuses the defendants of being deceptive when pitching the condos and not disclosing the issues they knew about to either potential buyers or city inspectors, per the New York Times. "This matter extends beyond negligence into an alleged calculated scheme, driven by greed, that eroded trust," an attorney for the condo board says. In addition to the $165 million, the plaintiffs are asking to be compensated for the loss in value of their units they say they suffered, per Realtor.com. CIM Group and the building's main architect, SLCE Architects, "vehemently" deny the suit's claims; there's been no comment yet from the developer and engineers involved. (More skyscraper stories.)