This isn’t a neat residents-vs.-developers narrative, though, as the former are anything but a unified front. While one of the developers maintains that 432 Park “is a successfully designed, constructed and virtually sold-out project” - or so the firm told the Times in a statement - residents charge that the building is in shambles and that they shouldn’t be forced to cover its myriad problems through insurance and common-charge hikes. The mood in the building could be described as tense. And get this: Breakfast is no longer on the house. What’s more, residents are now required to spend $15,000 in annual fees for the building’s private restaurant, which is run by a Michelin-starred chef, though when 432 Park opened, they were told this cost would be merely $1,200. According to notes from an owners’ meeting, eerie creaking and groaning noises often resonate in the apartments, and somewhere in the building exists a garbage chute “that sounds like a bomb” when trash is thrown into it. Apparently, in a building this tall, wind-related elevator issues are not uncommon neither is unsettling noise, of which residents also complain. Residents say they suffer frequent malfunctions in one particularly horrifying incident in October 2019, “a high-wind condition” caused one person to be “entrapped” in an elevator for nearly an hour and a half, per a management email. The plumbing issues even prompted one potential resident to back out of a $46.25 million deal after the building experienced a “catastrophic water flood.”Īnd then there are the elevators themselves. The Downside to Life in a Supertall Tower: Leaks, Creaks, Breaks The nearly 1,400-foot tower at 432 Park Avenue, briefly the tallest residential building in the world, was the pinnacle of New York’s luxury condo boom half a decade ago, fueled largely by foreign buyers seeking discretion and big returns. In November 2018, 432 Park suffered major back-to-back leaks - one of which propelled water into elevator shafts, shutting them down for weeks. Among the building’s biggest issues is its plumbing, which has caused frequent flooding and extensive water damage. This rich source of Schadenfreude comes to us from the New York Times, which spoke with the building’s engineers and residents and obtained various documents giving us a glimpse into their 1,400-foot-tall stomping grounds. And its billionaire residents - who are butting heads not only with developers but with one another - are dismayed.
Since 432 Park Avenue was erected in Manhattan half a decade ago, members of the ultrawealthy have shelled out millions of dollars - in one case, as much as $88 million - to get their own luxury condos in one of the tallest buildings on “Billionaire’s Row.” But what was once believed to be a literal pinnacle of high living has turned out to be the most wretched of hellholes: The $3.1 billion building is falling apart, largely due to its unreasonable height and design flaws.
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