Morris Adjmi's 250 Bowery embroiled in lawsuit over alleged shoddy construction

There’s trouble at 250 Bowery. Best known as either the former home of model Gigi Hadid or the current home of the International Center for Photography, depending on your interests, the 24-unit mixed-use building is currently embroiled in a legal battle.

The building’s condo board filed a $13 million lawsuit yesterday against developer VE Equities, Morris Adjmi Architects, and Douglas Elliman for “allegedly selling them shoddy apartments,” The Real Deal reports.

According to court documents obtained by TRD, the board says that the building’s water pipes weren’t properly insulated, leading to flooding in several units after one of the pipes burst last February. Since then, the suit claims, “almost all of the residential units have been uninhabitable and vacant.” The board also alleges that the bathrooms are constructed such that water leaks behind the walls.

Douglas Elliman declined to give comment on the situation, while VE Equities attorney Terrence Oved told TRD that his client “denies any and all of the board’s unsubstantiated and unsupported allegations.”

“The board’s claim to the contrary is merely a shameful ploy to tarnish our clients’ reputations in a transparent attempt to extract an unwarranted and unfounded payout,” he continued. (For what it’s worth, Gigi Hadid left before the flooding and cannot be implicated in this particular brouhaha.)

This isn’t the first time that there’s been trouble at the site: It was originally going to be an eco-friendly boutique hotel, but that deal fell through. The site sat vacant for several years before VE Equities picked it up for a song and began construction on what eventually became 250 Bowery.

• Condo board sues VE Equities, Elliman over alleged defects at 250 Bowery [The Real Deal]
• Model Gigi Hadid Says Goodbye to Her Bowery Pad for $2.3M [Curbed NY]
• Preview the International Center of Photography's New Bowery Home Before Its Opening [Curbed NY]