Another perturbed Plaza penthouse purchaser wants his deposit back.
The unnamed buyer of PH2001 is suing the Plaza residential limited partnership, developer El-Ad, the marketing arm of Stribling & Associates and others for breach of contract. He wants $6.5 million plus legal fees of not less than $350,000, plus appropriate interest.
The suit charges the defendants with “fraud,” “negligent misrepresentation” and “deceptive trade practices.” Specific details of the legal action were not available. And lawyers for the buyer of the duplex condo in the famed landmark – said to be a 30ish hedge-fund manager – did not return calls.
Two of the six penthouses originally offered at the Plaza are already in litigation.
“The legal floodgates are opening,” says an insider.
Earlier this month, Russian hedge-fund boss, Andrei Vavilov, who owns a combined triplex and duplex penthouse next door to the latest complainant, filed a $31 million suit against El-Ad, Stribling and other Plaza principals alleging a bait-and-switch scam on his $53.5 million purchase.
“The disparity between what they were supposed to get and what El-Ad was planning to deliver to them was outrageous,” Vavilov’s attorney Y. David Scharf told The Post’s Lois Weiss at the time.
After Vavilov’s action, El-Ad lawyer Jay Neveloff said the suit was “baseless at its core.”
Stribling & Associates President Elizabeth Stribling also issued a statement.
“This situation strikes me as a good old-fashioned case of buyer’s remorse,” she said.
At last glance, there are 25 Plaza residences for sale. Sounds like this “buyer’s remorse” thing may be spreading.
Freddie fallout
Freddie Mac CFO Anthony Piszel is now trying to unload his own real estate, provided someone can get a mortgage to buy it.
Piszel, 51, whose job is hanging by a thread at the beleaguered finance company, listed his stately vacation playground on Maryland’s Eastern Shore two weeks ago for $5 million – presumably since learning the fate of the company.
The custom-renovated, three-story Georgian-style mansion, known as “Rigby’s Lott,” is on 4.5 gated waterfront acres. It features six bedrooms, six baths, formal dining and living rooms, a cherry-paneled den, game/media room and gourmet kitchen.
Piszel bought the Easton, Md., spread – which includes a new pool, hot tub, a guest house, a horse stable and riding ring – only 18 months ago.
Some of the fancy toys on the property include a $230,000 38-foot Fountain Sportfish Cruiser, ironically named “A Better Decision,” powered by three fuel-sucking outboard engines, two high-end Jet Skis, a house Jeep and a few horses.
Happy Meal, anyone?
Nightclub boss JE Englebert is having a big Mac attack over his new neighbor. The owner of Chelsea clubs Suzie Wong and Prime said he and other residents in the new Gramercy Starck building on East 23rd Street had no idea that the tenant in its retail space would be the newest home of the golden arches.
“McDonald’s does not belong at Gramercy Starck, a five-star building,” Englebert tells us. “I’ve often come home and have found riffraff hanging outside. The sidewalk is littered with McDonald’s wrappers. Plus the space reeks -you can smell burger grease.”
He does concede that the smell of those angus burgers aren’t quite wafting up to his high-floor digs.
Englebert points out that he previously lived in the Starck building at 15 Broad St., where an Hermes boutique was the retail tenant.
He’s now hired a lawyer and planning to sue the building’s developers and reps for keeping the news about Ronald and his hamburglars mum.
“It was a shady move,” he said. “If I knew about McDonald’s before I closed on the unit, I would have never bought there. All my neighbors are upset.”
CPW pit stop
NASCAR Chairman Brian France (pictured) is undoubtedly taking a victory lap after flipping his 15 Central Park West condo for an $8 million profit.
According to public records, France, 46, sold unit 34A to Gotham Makker, who already owns multiple units in the building, for $18.8 million. Last June, the racing mogul closed on the unit for a mere $10.793 million.
The seven-room condo with three bedrooms and 3½ baths, as well as stellar park and river views, had a $21 million asking price, but that also included a maid’s/guest suite on the sixth floor – which was purchased for an additional $780,000. So far, that part of the sale hasn’t shown up in public records.
The listing broker, Jason Kay of the Corcoran Group, had no comment.
We hear …
THAT the Belnord apartment building will host a splashy gala event tonight to celebrate its 100th birthday. Purchased by Gary Barnett of the Extell Company in 1994, the building was where Marilyn Monroe often parked her powder blue convertible in the courtyard when visiting acting coach Lee Strasberg in the 1950s.