Fortis Property Group’s luxury tower at 161 Maiden Lane has yet to welcome its first official resident, but one person couldn’t wait to move in.
The receiver managing the unfinished condominium told The City that sometime before June 2021, a possibly homeless intruder turned on the motor that powers the standpipe, a crucial piece of equipment that allows firefighters to quickly hose down blazes on the upper floors of skyscrapers.
The motor broke, disabling the standpipe, which remained out of service until late in the summer of 2022. One reason it took so long to fix is that a hoist needed to haul a replacement motor up into the tower was also broken, the receiver, Richard Cohn, told the outlet.
A spokesperson for Fortis told The City that the developer wasn’t aware of any problem with the standpipe before Cohn began managing the tower in June 2021. It had been found operable the month before.
In any event, the Department of Buildings levied a $25,000 fine for the standpipe snafu and a $2,500 penalty for a lack of fire-watch personnel at the building, the outlet reported.
Construction was halted several years ago when the tower was discovered to be leaning three inches to the north, perhaps because a less expensive foundation was laid to save time and money. It has been stuck in litigation since as Fortis, lenders and contractors fight and negotiate over who is to blame and what to do with the development.
The fear is that whatever caused the building to tilt north — possibly a stiff wind hitting the facade, or the ground shifting under it — could happen again if the project were completed.
— Erik Engquist
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