You can own a midtown Manhattan condo for a mere $35,000 — a tantalizing offer that is too good to be true, according to a new fraud lawsuit by the state’s top lawyer.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman won a court order Thursday barring developer Ian Bruce Eichner from selling any more timeshare condos at his luxe Manhattan Club.
Eichner, who also built the ritzy Cosmopolitan hotel in Las Vegas, oversold the West 56th Street building’s 286 units to about 14,000 owners, according to a press release from Schneiderman.
“The Manhattan Club, near New York City’s iconic Carnegie Hall, is a particularly stark example of a bait-and-switch timeshare scheme,” Schneiderman said, adding that he used undercover investigators posing as buyers to expose the alleged scheme.
The club bills itself as a “hard-to-find haven in the midst of this active city,” though owners says the real trouble they had with the urban resort was actually booking their own condo for a weekend away, according to the AG.
“Owners, in some cases, have not been able to use any of the time they purchase,” according to the release.
Receptionists claimed rooms were unavailable to owners while the suites were going for $450 a night online to tourists.
Common charges also leaped 200 percent over 10 years to $2,000 annually, the press release says. The club’s website boasts valet parking, a private lounge and “state-of-the-art” gym.
The court order, signed by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, also bars Eichner from foreclosing on any of the units and freezes related bank accounts.
Eichner and his partners must testify in court in August about their business practices.
A class-action suit against Eichner filed by the owners in 2013 was dismissed by an appeals panel, with the judges calling allegations similar to those made by the AG “speculative at best.”
The Appellate Division decision, released in June, notes that the availability issue was disclosed in sales documents, but the AG’s release says that paperwork was “illegally withheld prior to purchase.”
Eichner is also working on a 64-story building in the Flatiron District and what will be Harlem’s tallest building at 1800 Park Ave.
His reps did not immediately return messages for comment.