The residents of a Midtown high-rise were promised a building of “premier luxury caliber” — but all they got was a crumbling, leaky mess, a $67 million lawsuit charges.
When The Alexander was being built on East 49th Street near Second Avenue in 2008, its developer promised amenities like an Equinox gym and roof decks, as well as fine touches such as marble and bronze elevators and white-oak flooring, according to the suit by the building’s condo owners.
But the 24-story building is now rife with dangerous code violations and sloppy, unfinished work, the owners charge in the suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last week against developer Alexander Gurevich and others.
Gurevich “represented to prospective purchasers that the Turtle Bay condominium and its units would be of a premier luxury caliber and would be designed and constructed with the highest quality of materials and workmanship,” the suit says.
“However, this was not the case at all.”
The suit says cracks and leaks permeate the building, including on the roof, balconies and terraces, causing water to flood some condos — which, according to the real estate website StreetEasy, sell for as much as $1.9 million for a two-bedroom.
Cracked glass on the common roof deck is held together with clear tape, and windows aren’t sealed properly to keep out drafts and noise, the suit says.
Terra-cotta roof tiles are loose and in danger of falling, and no emergency signs were ever installed, the suit says.
The five-member board of managers says several high-end amenities promised in the building’s “offering plan” are nonexistent, too.
A promised gym, “cold-storage room” for perishable-food deliveries and mail room were never built, the suit says.
The manager panel claims in the complaint that The Alexander’s initial board was stacked with Gurevich cronies who failed to pay the building’s water and sewer bills for five years. Now, they say, condo owners will have to shell out roughly $320,000 as part of a 10-year repayment plan, with another $122,000 in interest.
“The board felt it was very necessary to pursue these claims based on the various conditions alleged in their complaint,” said their lawyer, Steven Sladkus.
The suit also names the building’s manager, Taube Management Realty, and its designer, Sydness Architects, as defendants.
In 2010, then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo barred Gurevich from real estate sales for three years after alleging that he failed to disclose key financial information to investors at The Alexander.
Gurevich and Taube did not return messages.
Jeff Sydness, who owns Sydness Architects, said he had not seen the suit and could not comment.