One Seaport
161 Maiden Lane | Financial District | built 2019
Open on the map11 entries
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 2013
Fortis Property Group buys the Maiden Lane site for $64 million after a 40-story plan was scrapped
In September 2013 Fortis Property Group, known for Williamsburg waterfront projects, paid $64 million for the two-parcel lot at 151-161 Maiden Lane, an 11,539-square-foot block with almost 250,000 square feet of buildable space. The previous owner, Kay Development Group, had bought it in 2011 for $41.17 million and planned a 40-story tower called the Seaborne with 175 apartments and a hotel. The site had been on the market since May.
Source: therealdeal.com
- 2015
A rival developer sues Fortis over the name 'One Seaport'
Jack Resnick & Sons, which owned the 35-story One Seaport Plaza at 199 Water Street, sued Fortis in federal court in Manhattan on September 10, 2015. It said Fortis had copied the One Seaport name to promote its planned 60-story, 80-unit condo tower on Maiden Lane. Resnick claimed it had demanded several times that Fortis stop and sought damages and an order barring the name.
Source: therealdeal.com
- 2016
Broker Fredrik Eklund quickly sells twenty condos in the tower using only artist's renderings
Fredrik Eklund, a broker who appeared on Million Dollar Listing New York, courted Fortis for weeks for the exclusive on the tower, saying he was obsessed with it. A Fortis executive offered him the deal if he sold twenty of the eighty planned condos within eight weeks. Eklund weighed trips to South Africa, Monaco, Hong Kong and Singapore, settled on London, and with only artist's renderings quickly sold the twenty units.
Source: The New Yorker
- 2016
The condo tower offers yacht rentals to owners to lure buyers
To attract buyers to the tower, then called 1 Seaport, Fortis teamed up with Hinckley Yachts in late 2016. Under the deal, three luxury yachts would be available for rent to condominium owners. The building itself was planned to offer a spa, a fitness center and an infinity pool.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2017
A construction worker dies in a fall from the 29th floor
A worker for concrete subcontractor SSC High Rise falls from the 29th floor in September 2017 after he frees himself from his safety harness, which had snagged on a scaffolding platform. Investigators determine that an SSC foreman had ordered the platform moved while workers were still standing on it. SSC pleads guilty to manslaughter in July 2018 and pays $10,000, the top fine available for building-code violations in New York State.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2018
The condo tower tops out three inches out of plumb
Developer Fortis Property Group's 60-story condominium tower tops out in September 2018, leaning three inches to the north. The lean is blamed on the soil-improvement method used for the foundation, rather than the deep pilings that neighboring skyscrapers use. Contractors had already tried to offset the tilt by pouring some upper slabs unevenly, which one lawyer likened to a banana.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2019
The general contractor sues Fortis, saying the tower is still moving
Pizzarotti, the general contractor, filed a lawsuit on March 22, 2019 seeking to break its contract. Its lawyers said Fortis had withheld crucial information about the foundation and that the building was still moving. Measurements that winter showed some floors off by as much as ten inches. A lawyer for Pizzarotti told a judge that efforts to pull the tower back as it rose had counterweighted the lean, leaving it shaped like a banana.
Source: The New Yorker
- 2020
Ray Builders stops work on the tilting tower, saying Fortis has not paid its workers
Ray Builders, which had replaced Pizzarotti as general contractor, stopped work in July 2020 and said Fortis had not paid its workers. The next month Fortis sued its lender, Bank Leumi, saying the bank had not released part of the loan on schedule. By the end of the year Leumi was foreclosing on the construction loan, and by February 2021 all but six condo buyers had walked away.
“Ray Builders stopped working on the project in July 2020, claiming that Fortis had failed to pay its workers.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2021
A judge appoints a receiver over the unfinished, abandoned tower
General contractor Ray Builders stops work in July 2020, saying developer Fortis Property Group has not paid its workers. By February 2021 every condo buyer but six has backed out of their contract. A state judge names a receiver in May 2021 to secure the site, whose upper floors are still unenclosed, while lawsuits continue.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2022
Fire inspectors find the empty tower has no working standpipe
When FDNY inspectors entered the half-built, 58-story tower in July 2022, they found its standpipe, the system that carries water up for firefighters, out of order. The required fire-watch staff were also gone. The court-appointed receiver, Richard Cohn, said the standpipe broke after a homeless person got in before June 2021 and ran its motor for heat, though the owner's spokesperson said it knew of no problem when Cohn took over.
Source: thecity.nyc
- 2023
Three graffiti artists rope up the unfinished tower and tag its top floors
Late in 2023 three graffiti artists roped their way up the north face of the abandoned tower and tagged its top three stories with giant bubble letters. One of them told The New Yorker there was no guard and that they could have walked in through the front door. The receiver, Richard Cohn, had been trying to secure the half-wrapped structure, which is visible from the NYPD's headquarters nearly a mile away.
Source: The New Yorker
Further reading
- 161 Maiden LaneWikipedia
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