Real Estate

Luxury developer slapped with civil rights suit

The feds have slapped one of the city’s oldest and biggest developers with a lawsuit alleging it has a shoddy track record when it comes to making its luxury rental complexes accessible to people with disabilities.

The federal civil rights suit against the Durst Organization – which recently came under fire after The Post exposed sleeping guards and other security snafus at 1 World Trade Center, the office tower it’s developing – is the latest offensive move in a six-year effort by Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara to get Big Apple developers to comply with federal housing laws.

The suit was filed after both sides couldn’t reach an agreement following years of negotiations.

It cites The Helena, a 595-unit rental complex on the Upper West Side, as being in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act.

The suit seeks unspecified money damages and a court order ensuring the company complies with the law in both its current and future projects, including Manhattan rental complexes at 855 Avenue of the Americas and on West 57th Street between 11th and 12th avenues.

Also named as defendants in the suit is Fxfowle Architects, which designed The Helena.

The suit claims that The Helena is filled with scores of inaccessible conditions, including steps with excessively high thresholds and kitchens lacking enough width for maneuvering by people in wheelchairs.

“Today’s lawsuit demonstrates our continued commitment to ensuring that the long-established federal laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities to accessible housing are enforced,” Bharara said in a statement.

“Developers and architects who show an unwillingness to design and construct housing that complies with the law can no longer seek to evade the consequences of their actions.”

But Durst spokesman Jordan Barowitz issued a statement saying the company “has not received a single complaint from a resident regarding accessibility” since The Helena opened eight years ago and that the legal battle is due to the feds suddenly alleging the city’s building codes for multi-family residential construction are “deficient” after previously passing muster for decades.

Since 2008, the government has filed eight similar suits against heavy-hitter developers, including one last month involving Related Companies, and others that targeted AvalonBay Communities and Friedland Properties.