These truffles are no trifling matter.
“Pungent and putrid” smells from a truffle store in an Upper West Side condominium building are permeating apartments, causing home values to plummet, and making at least one condo “uninhabitable,” a lawsuit alleges.
Urbani Truffles moved into a first-floor space at 10 West End Ave. in 2010, and ever since, the “potent and incredibly foul odors produced by their truffles” have filled the lobby and residential units on upper floors, the condo board claims in a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
One resident of the building, which real-estate brokers have labeled the “Truffle Building” and where units go for upwards of $3 million, says the stench has left his home uninhabitable, the board charges.
Despite installing ventilation systems, the smell persists, claims the condo board, which described the mushrooming issue last week as “intolerable.”
“The smells have remained and in fact, have worsened,” since the ventilation systems were installed, the board says.
The building hired its own contractors and engineers to address the problem, but says Urbani has refused to reimburse it for those costs.
The city Health Department sent a notice Jan. 15 warning the building to take care of the problem.
The building is seeking $2 million in damages and a permanent injunction forcing Urbani to make its porcinis less pungent.
Vittorio Giordano, vice president of Urbani Truffles USA, told The Post, “Our ventilation system is working beautifully.
“We also had an inspection last week from the city . . . and they [found] nothing wrong.”