WSJ - The Ghost Condos of NYC

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In October 2018, Linda Gerstman signed a contract for her dream apartment, a $4.6 million duplex spread at One Seaport, a gleaming new 57-story glass building under construction along the East River in the Financial District near the Brooklyn Bridge.

Ms. Gerstman took a hard-hat tour of the construction site. “I fell in love,” she said. “The views were insane.” Ms. Gerstman, 51, an executive at a retail services company, planned to move into her new apartment within about a year when the building was expected to be completed. Four years later, the building sits unfinished and although she has gotten her deposit money back, she’s in a legal battle with the developers to get back money she paid for upgrades to the unit.

One Seaport, still unenclosed and open to the elements, is a concrete skeleton of a skyscraper, the winter wind ripping through orange construction netting. Construction halted at least 19 months ago, after the building’s developer and onetime construction manager started battling in court over allegations that the tower is leaning slightly to one side. Developer Fortis Property Group has consistently maintained that the building is safe.

One Seaport was one of a handful of condo skyscrapers conceived in the mid 2010s, when the Manhattan condo market was booming. They were designed to bring a taste of Billionaires’ Row to lower Manhattan, a neighborhood that had become an emblem of New York’s resilience after 9/11. Supertall and slimline, they were bold and architecturally significant with prices to rival those uptown. Nearly a decade later, many of these plans were dropped or stalled, thanks in large part to a subsequent decline in the New York luxury market and, in some cases, construction difficulties and developer infighting.

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