Exclusive | Developer of buckling NYC building facing $376M claims for life-threatening shortcuts at celeb enclave

MetroLoft, the developer behind the Manhattan high rise that suddenly buckled on Tuesday, is facing a $350 million-plus lawsuit at star-studded 443 Greenwich St., home to names including Rebel Wilson, Harry Styles and Meg Ryan over the last decade.A construction defect case, alleging a number of structural flaws, initially included $250 million in compensation and insurance claims.That figure has since ballooned to $376 million over the course of the last three years of litigation.

A separate case involving alleged defects at that address has former residents Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel as plaintiffs, though MetroLoft is not a defendant in that case.MetroLoft has also collected a crush of other construction violations while retrofitting New York skyscrapers and former commercial buildings into luxury residences, city records show.But chief among the complaints is the case at 443 Greenwich St, which started in 2022.A few years earlier, when it was first developed, MetroLoft marketed the former bookbinding factory as offering ultra-luxury living and Paparazzi-proof privacy.It quickly attracted A-list buyers like Jennifer Lawrence, Timberlake and Biel, Ryan and Styles — as well as Mike Myers — in a rush of 2017 purchases.But shortly after moving in, some residents and board members contended the building was full of engineering and construction flaws.The building’s condo board sued MetroLoft in 2022 for breach of contract and fraud, claiming “life-threatening” shortcuts.The allegations include leaking roofs pouring water into multimillion-dollar penthouses and structural decay so intense that residents could pull decorative bricks from courtyard walls by hand.Other claims by the board include the plant-filled courtyard being built without a properly functioning drainage system, leading to heavy flooding.MetroLoft’s legal team has filed several motions attempting to dismiss the case, but New York State Supreme Court judges have declined to do so, ke...