Developer Says Construction Left FiDi Condo With Noisy Walls

The developer of a luxury condo in the Financial District is claiming its construction management is sticking it with a noisy situation.

The entity behind 50 West, an ambitious 62-story condo building developed by Francis Greenburger’s Time Equities, alleged in a lawsuit filed in state court that poor curtain wall installation has caused “a variety of excessive noises” in the building.

The developer is suing the construction management firm, Hunter Roberts Construction Group, for the work done by a subcontractor, Permasteelisa North American Corporation, for $2 million for breach of contract.

The lawsuit comes almost two decades after Time Equities initially planned to develop the site. Construction was delayed for years by the 2008 financial crisis and the company ended up breaking ground on the site after securing a $400 million construction financing deal in 2013.

The noise troubles came as a result of gaskets that were either too long for the curtain wall mullions or installed backwards, according to the complaint. The developer also claimed that the curtain wall system caused one window to break, and that the subcontractor installed an incorrectly sized window.

“Shortly before the statute of limitations expired, the developer filed this lawsuit to preserve its rights and to resolve a limited number of window repair and warranty issues related to the curtain wall at the property,” a spokesperson for Time Equities said in a statement.

The defendant did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The building sold nearly 30 percent of its units before officially launching sales in 2014, and before the alleged construction defects reared their head. In subsequent years, the sales pace at the building slowed as the city’s condo market became saturated with new projects.

In 2017, Time Equities landed a $95 million refinancing for the remaining 46 units in the building, which Greenburger told The Real Deal at the time he planned to rent out as he waited for their values to appreciate.

The building still has roughly 30 percent of its units left to sell, according to Marketproof.

The complaint claims that the contractor and subcontractor entered an agreement in 2022 to remedy the noise, which included silicon injections to limit gasket movement throughout the whole building and addressing remaining issues on an apartment-by-apartment basis.

The silicon injections were completed for portions of the facade and work was done on three apartments, but the noise issues have continued unabated, according to the lawsuit. The developer claims the subcontractor has since refused to do any additional work.

Despite the alleged issues, the building has still snagged a number of pricey sales and rentals for the area in recent years, including a condo that sold for $12 million in 2022 and a penthouse unit that rented for $65,000 per month in 2023.

But the project has also cut prices on a number of units still waiting to be sold. Another penthouse that rented for $60,000 per month in 2023 had initially hit the market asking $45 million in 2022, but saw its price cut to $29.5 million 18 months later, according to StreetEasy.

Time Equities likely has more flexibility on the pricing and use of the project, given that Greenburger has owned the land for 50 West since 1983.

Last year, Time Equities returned to the multi-family market in New York with the $13.1 million purchase of a 38-unit building in Ditmas Park. It has also been active elsewhere around the country, taking on an office-to-residential conversion at a property in Chicago it has owned since 2015 with JK Equities, and buying a student housing building in Texas.