432 Park owners sue again over alleged facade crack cover-up
Photo by Sebastiandoe5 via WikiCommons
Owners at the supertall condo 432 Park Avenue are suing the building’s developers again. The Midtown East tower’s condo board on Friday filed a lawsuit against developers Harry Macklowe and CIM Group, alleging they knowingly concealed widespread cracking in the building’s concrete facade from buyers and inspectors as part of a “deliberate and far-reaching fraud,” as first reported by Crain’s. The board is seeking $165 million in damages, along with punitive damages and compensation for losses tied to declining property values caused by flooding and erosion from the cracks.
In the 46-page complaint, the board alleges that the developers deliberately ignored advice from architects and engineers and continued constructing the 1,396-foot residential tower, which was at the time the tallest in the Western Hemisphere, to “avoid delays and maximize profits,” according to the suit.
While the developers have yet to respond legally, a spokeswoman for CIM denied the allegations, stating the company is working to get the complaint dismissed, according to Crain’s.
The developers have previously dismissed accusations of negligent construction work at the tower as “exaggerated,” while residents claim the facade cracks have caused unsettling whistling sounds during high winds, hardly reassuring for those living in a tower that already sways in strong gusts, as the New York Times detailed in 2021.
Additionally, in response to the concrete cracks, allegedly numbering in the thousands, Macklowe has claimed they are typical and to be expected with the building materials used. The cracks were at the center of the initial lawsuit filed against the developers in 2021, a case that remains tied up in a drawn-out legal process.
The latest lawsuit further claims the developers were aware of the concrete’s flaws during the design and construction phase from 2011 to 2015, failed to address them, and actively concealed the issues. According to the board, this information was discovered late last year after lawyers reviewed seven million documents and conducted 100 days of depositions.
The board initially tried to add the new evidence to the existing lawsuit, but a judge denied the request, ruling that introducing it so late in the process would be unfair to the defendants, leading the plaintiffs to file a separate suit.
According to court documents, engineers recommended repairing the cracks by applying an elastomeric coating—a thick, opaque paint—but Macklowe rejected the suggestion, reportedly because he didn’t want to ruin the building’s white, raw concrete aesthetic.
Instead, Macklowe suggested using a clear silicone finish to repair the 30-inch-thick concrete facade, similar to the one used to protect his yacht, as reported by Crain’s. The lawsuit says he modified the condo’s offering plan multiple times to dodge responsibility for the cracks.
Designed by the late Rafael Viñoly, the 96-story 432 Park Avenue tower soars 1,396 feet above Manhattan, standing as the third-tallest residential tower in the world. Construction began in 2013, and the building opened in 2015. In August 2023, a $92 million condo in the tower went into contract, marking the priciest deal of the year at that time.
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I was working on a construction project in Brooklyn when this building was being built, and I could not even comprehend the speed at which it was ascending daily and weekly. I’d never seen a building constructed so tall & so thin, being built so quickly, so it seems there was maybe some engineering oversight with ballast and pliability etc. not to mention the building is extremely ugly looking. They could have killed two birds with one stone by making it more interesting looking, AND I think by virtue of having a non-geometric design like that one Tower in Shanghai that goes really high and twists as it ascends, it has all kinds of ways for the wind to be deflected and it just gives inherent structural strength, etc, this 432 Park building was a flop, all things considered in hindsight now. but absolutely add that exterior coating that will help give pliability strength to it, He’s really worried about the the look of the paint!?, are you kidding me? the geometric look of this building is a thousand times worse than the color
This is result of GC and developer greed by hiring cheap and non professional contractors ( most likely non-union ) so they can build it for cheap and sell it for super high to maximize their profits,this happens way too often in nyc ..perfect example is 25 water street ,building is being converted from office to residential..but what many ppl don’t know that building had at least 5-6 big water damages in process,basically,almost every time it rains building will flood ..