Dispute over windows halts progress at Hunter’s Point South

Glass panes yet to be shipped after flap over payment erupts, report says

Hunter's Point South towers wrapped in orange netting
Hunter's Point South towers wrapped in orange netting

A contractor squabble over the delivery of $13 million worth of windows for Long Island City development Hunter’s Point South may delay the completion of construction’s first phase.

A handful of the panes in question, originally set to be delivered in September 2013, arrived last week, a spokesperson for the development partnership of the Related Companies, Phipps Houses Group and Monadnock Construction told the Wall Street Journal reported. Construction on one of the towers finished in October, minus the window panes, and another in January. The buildings have since sat wrapped in orange netting, a pause causing Queens residents and neighboring office workers to scratch their heads.

“We’re just sitting and waiting for windows, which is bizarre,” James Van Bramer, City Council Majority Leader, told the Journal. “It’s disappointing on so many levels.”

An attorney for the Florida-based window maker Glasswall LLC told the Journal that the $7 million to $8 million worth of windows have been ready for months but that the developers tried to renegotiate the contract, refusing to pay for them in the meantime.

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“We’ve already produced two-thirds of the material,” Jason Giller, an attorney for Glasswall, told the Journal. “We haven’t been paid anything.”

A spokeswoman for the development trio denied that it attempted to renegotiate the agreed-upon contract to the Journal.

An end to the standoff appears to be imminent, as a few windows have already been delivered by Florida-based Glasswall LLC and several more are expected to be shipped later this week, according to the Journal. [WSJ]Julie Strickland