The Forte in Fort Greene

From the October issue: Few buyers who bought fancy condos in the last few years could have
predicted that their building would end up as a poster child for the
failed real estate market in the city. But at some buildings that’s
exactly what’s happened. Satian Pengsathapon, who is 30 and works in the advertising industry,
purchased a unit in the Forté tower partly because he liked that the
well-known architecture firm FXFowle designed the building. And having
gone to school at the nearby Pratt Institute, he was also a fan of the
neighborhood, Fort Greene. “I haven’t had buyer’s remorse,” Pengsathapon said. “If anything, I wonder why people aren’t buying in this building.”

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From the October issue: It’s often said that the devil is in the details — and for many New
York City buyers and sellers, that’s increasingly become the case in
the down market. New development brokers and real estate lawyers say many of the
attempts they are seeing among buyers to get out of contracts are from
those arguing that the measurements on their condos are different from
what they were promised. They say that sometimes buyers will invoke the
claim over a minor quibble, such as small floorplan discrepancies or an
inch or two difference in ceiling height. Meg Goble, a real estate lawyer and a partner at Hanley & Goble,
said buyers must prove that there are “significant and material”
differences between the representation made to the buyer and the
finished product. However, there is little spelling out of exactly what
that means.