Abandoned - 1 Seaport (New York's Leaning Tower)

Manhattan is a densely packed Metropolis home to over 1.6 million people it has some of the highest land value in the entire world along with some of the most expensive residential real estate to go along with it so this would be the last place you would think to find an abandoned building a skyscraper no less but that's exactly what New York City is hiding in plain sight on the southern side of the financial district along the East River is this a 60-story Ultra luxury Condo building that has sat abandoned since 2018 in fact it first began construction all the way back in 2015 nearly a decade ago and has since seen multiple serious controversies lawsuits and structural instability now with the massive unfinished Tower leaning so let's find out how this whole mess came to be and what will ultimately happen to one seport residence better known by its address 161 Maiden [Music] Lane this episode of abandoned is sponsored by surf shark enter coupon code BSF for an extra 3 months for free at Surf shark. [Music] debsfine industries of the time though by the 1960s much of that industry had disappeared and other uses of the land were being proposed in fact over the years large-scale projects were being put forward for the general site like early concepts for the World Trade Center complex as well as the guggen High Museum which was designed by Frank Gary instead the area continued to develop over the decades after seeing the financial district grow and evolve along with the entire city residential real estate within Manhattan was skyrocketing and giving birth to Ultra luxury and Ultra valuable condo projects 157 432 Park Avenue and Central Park Tower were some of the buildings springing up in Midtown near Central Park but others like 56 Leonard Street 50 United Nations Plaza along with 160 Leroy Street were all in the works and proving this luxury real estate would sell in other parts of the city 161 Maiden Lane was a prime site for such a development it was a relatively small parking lot in the sea port area along the East River it bordered South Street giving it the closest possible buildable position to the river the 250,000 ft site would change hands a few times first with Blue Rock properties then K developments who actually unveiled a tower for the lot called the Seaborn their 175 unit luxury Condo building would ultimately fall through though and they too would sell the land in 2013 for $65 million the developers who bought the site were called Fortis Property Group they would ultimately sell the Western half of their land to another developer which would later build a commercial and Hospitality building meanwhile Fortes set out to develop their remaining 11,000 ft plot of land they unveiled one sea port a 670t tall tower comprised of nearly 60 stories each with luxury finishes and floor to ceiling Windows it was touted as the first All Glass Condo building in the area with unique picturesque views but that also meant value would be steep with square footage price in coming in between 2,000 and $3,000 per square foot and since most of the tower would only contain just one or two units per floor the entire building would have just 80 units the average listing price would be around $3.5 million with the higher full floor plates coming in at over $7 million and that two-story top Penthouse listed for $8 million for these very exclusive owners the tower would also have an extensive amenities floor complete with an indoor pool as well as ground level retail owners would even have access to book a complimentary yacht up to three times a week Fortress was hoping that a complete cellout would raise around $272 million and by 2016 the building was already 50% sold which was a good sign for the developers construction on the tower was already underway by this point with their general contractor Impreza peera claiming that they could have the building finished and ready for occupancy by 2018 but then some issues began arising during vertical construction through 2017 the do or New York Department of buildings issued 10 citations to the contractor over various safety concerns these issues were Amplified after a 44-year-old worker plummeted nearly 30 stories to his death after falling from scaffolding it was a tragic death from an Ecuadorian immigrant who wasn't even supposed to be working that day and this tragedy proved that there were major issues going on with the site pisera ultimately pleaded guilty to manslaughter yet they were only fed $10,000 and no one was sentenced to prison by this point it was September 2018 and the now rebranded sea port residences were topping out the final floors were now poured and the roof concrete was in place but the problems persisted as the do halted construction twice within a two-e period due to net being incorrectly installed another construction stop order came later that year as a concrete bucket hit the side of the building spewing concrete all over the street 350 ft below regardless of these stoppages work was continuing on with the glass and exterior cladding on the lower levels they were being fitted into place and slowly shaping out the Slender Tower with the superstructure of the building now finished by early 2019 the large crane attached to it was finally removed from from there the rest of the glass was scheduled to be fitted in along with the Interiors but that never happened instead progress on seport residents slowed to a crawl and nobody knew why then rumors began emerging on why that might be with speculation growing that there might be something wrong with the massive Tower perhaps it was even leaning this was especially curious since fores had seemingly fired their contractor this speculation would ultimately be confirmed in April of 2019 as a lawsuit was filed by that contractor Impreza peera against the developers stating that foress had essentially cheaped out on constructing the foundation with claims that instead of using traditional deep pilings like most skyscrapers especially tall slender ones they instead chemically treated the soil to make it stronger in their case this apparently caused the building to settle unevenly in its foundation and tilt around 3 in to the the north they claimed that from this point they couldn't continue cladding the building saying that the Leaning Tower would potentially be at risk of elevator issues leaks and infrastructure headaches Fortis the developers decided to counter suit saying it was simply defamation and pisara were in fact the ones who were to blame since they had already cultivated a dangerous work environment didn't conduct enough tests and hadn't noticed the building was tilting until April of 2018 while this lawsuit was playing out in court foress hired a new contractor called Ray Builders and they conducted studies that proved the tower was still safe they also came out and said that pisera poured the concrete slabs for the building in a quote poor construction practice this new contractor was then tasked to continue laying the glass around the tower just with some alterations to the plan that would accommodate the slight lean but just as it seemed as though this cursed building might finally be finished rayb builders abruptly pulled all of their workers and quit after they claimed that Fortis failed to make payroll for their workers Fortis was seemingly out of liquid cash and that was apparent after one of their lenders Bank Lum claimed that fores was not making payments on their loan and the bank would now seek to foreclose on the property and offload its $120 million position on the condo building and the lawsuits didn't stop here as foress was now engaged in another lawsuit from yet another lender who alleged their $66 million loan from 2018 was improperly used since that Point for's Property Group has been tied up in lawsuits with really no end in sight this has indefinitely stalled the developments and almost no progress has been made on the tower since 2018 at this point almost all of the original condo buyers have pulled out of the deal and that has left a vacant half-finished luxury condo Tower sitting compl completely abandoned in one of the densest cities in the world by this point the tower has been completely exposed to the elements for almost half a decade and that reality is beginning to show on the bottom floors the glass panels are clearly starting the show Decay they likely haven't been cleaned in years so mildew and weathering is beginning to form around the edges of each panel the concrete too is beginning to see weather scarring and almost unbelievably on the top penous floors someone has managed to spray paint graffiti on the concrete super structure perhaps the most evident sign that this nearly $300 million skyscraper is sitting dead at street level well the site really looks like any other construction project in New York seemingly with no signs of the deep trouble and long lasting limbo it has been in within there isn't much sign of life besides a lone fan on top of a folding chair and a screen with CCTV monitors there is some activity around the exterior during the day but obviously nowhere near what it would be if the tower was getting ready to be finished as nightfalls the tower is actually lit up almost eerily so but from this point on what is going to happen to the tower well according to the developers the building is structurally safe with quote an alignment issue but there has been no word on if they intend on fixing the lean and how that might be done and this story might sound somewhat familiar as another condo Tower in San Francisco called the Millennium Tower has also encountered a similar issue with its own tilt of nearly 30 in unlike 161 Maiden the Millennium tower has been occupied for years and there really is no other option but to fix the Tower and the results so far by adding underpinnings to help write the tower have not been conclusively successful yet and it is proving to be extremely complicated and will likely cost over $100 million but the thing is we don't really know how bad the situation is with one seport and there have been no comprehensive and detailed studies on it made public but I think no matter what happens here it will likely turn out to be a financially devastating situation I could see it going either way either its tilting is deemed not a long-term threat to the building's structural integrity and engineers in the city all agree that the lean will not get worse thus allowing the building to get finished but if that's the case they might find it hard to sell units almost certainly not not making back its original investments especially after all of the cost incurred post stall they might find that potential buyers will be hesitant to park their money in a unit in the tower as there might be a chance that their investment could not see the same returns as other luxury units in the city there might also be a perception that the condo board will be left holding the bag if problems do arise sometime in the future and that's sort of what's happening with owners at the Millennium Tower in San Francisco right now plus the longer the tower sits there open to the harsh weather the more expensive it's going to be to bring it back up to a state where it can be finished but if the developers do opt to fix the tower it may turn out to be too cost prohibitive to do so and that might ultimately mean the tower would have to be demolished a brand new Ultra Luxury condo Tower in Manhattan having to be demolished before it was ever occupied that is insane really all of the scenarios here are truly unbelievable for a modern-day luxury condo project especially one in New York City with land this valuable this was a colossal mistake and it seems everyone involved wants to pass the blame around and now with years of cutting Corners poor management Miss payments deep debt and lawsuits it's now a question of how much longer will this unfinished abandoned condo Tower stain the pristine skyline of New York City now there were actually a few notable people tied up in this whole mess as private buyers of units one of which being Frederick Eckland a New York City real estate agent and TV star of the show million dooll listing he not only bought a duplex in the building but also represented listings at it being one of the launch agents now he is also presumably backed out of the building but what I found interesting was that a lot of the early launch sales for the building was actually documented in the show million dooll listing but when I went to go watch it here in Canada I noticed that it wasn't on any streaming services that I use that's why I'm really happy that surf shark is sponsoring this video with just one subscription you can use their quick and easy app on an unlimited number of devices you can even share it with your friends and family there you can switch to one of their 3200 plus servers across 100 countries including the UK where million dooll listing is available there on Netflix and I mean there's countless examples of all types of media that are geolock in different countries and this is especially helpful when you're tring traveling so you can always change your IP address to wherever you want to be browsing plus surf shark gives you a whole host of added security features which I absolutely love along with 24/7 customer support so if you want to try it out for yourself you can go to Surf shark. deal sbsf and use my special code BSF to get three extra months for free plus if you find that they're not a perfect fit for you you can always get a 30-day money back guarantee anyway guys my name is Jake and thank you very much for [Music] watching it's

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 898,434

Keywords: 161 maiden lane, Manhattan, new york city, new york, condo building, never built, concept, leaning tower, tiliting tower new york, new york leaning building, abandoned skyscraper, full story, documentary, history, HD, clean, family, 4k, bright sun films, jake williams, Millennium Tower, tilting tower, abandoned building, billonaire row, condos, 1 seaport, one seaport, seaport residences, east river, drama, construction, engineering fail, 2024, update, urbex, abandoned

Id: B_8lrUPaLIY

Length: 15min 1sec (901 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 09 2024