[NYPost] 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.
These issues come amid a surge in New York City commercial-to-residential conversions driven by high office vacancy rates post-COVID, and the city’s critical shortage of housing.
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, keeping the multimillion-dollar litigation moving through discovery, depositions, and active appeals.
There are no public records or information in the lawsuit filings that indicate the alleged defects are fixed.
In a separate lawsuit filed by Menemshovitz NY Realty, the shell company Timberlake and Biel used to sell their penthouse in 2021 for $29 million, the couple claims their insurers should cover “extensive damage” they say their penthouse received from severe flooding that resulted from stormwater getting into the unit.
The couple is seeking unspecified damages.
The suit was filed last year and is still outstanding despite Biel and Timberlake having moved out of the building several years ago. The insurer, Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange, has denied liability in its response.
These are not the only troubles MetroLoft is facing.
MetroLoft, helmed by real estate veteran Nathan Berman, now carries 40 open violations on three properties it is working on, DOB records show.
MetroLoft, New York City’s biggest developer of office-to-residential luxury conversions, has converted more than 8 million square feet of space across 16 office-to-residential projects since 1997.
Its issues have grown as it has taken on larger properties, like the former Pfizer headquarters.
The former Pfizer property, at 235 E. 42nd St. — steps from Grand Central and the Chrysler Building — is a combination of two edifices into one residential development.
The work underway aims to yield some 1,600 apartments, whose residents will have access to a roof-level pool and a gym. On Wednesday, construction crews were set to work round the clock to prop up the building, which now has temporary shoring and beams installed on the 18th through 23rd floors. Their work will ultimately span the ninth floor to the roof to keep the site safe.
Moreover, the project has 22 open violations that now include a full emergency stop work order issued on Tuesday after its support beams began buckling.
Very dramatic photo, among others, at the link.
Whatever penalties are connected to this event would be added to MetroLoft’s $32,000 in outstanding unpaid city penalties at this address involving workplace safety and other violations over the past year.
They include a large heavy object falling inside and smashing through five consecutive floors, narrowly missing workers, DOB records show. Also, there have been complaints about welding being done by unlicensed workers and gas machines running inside the structure without proper ventilation, DOB records also show.
Another of MetroLoft’s properties, its 25 Water St. conversion —one of the biggest of its type in the United States —has eight open violations. This follows the resolution of 42 others connected to its construction. Violations include not keeping construction walkways completely clear of debris, not storing building materials properly on a work deck, and not keeping site safety logs completely up to date.
MetroLoft’s waterfront office-to-residential retrofit at 111 Wall St. now has 10 open violations, after resolving 18 others. The violations include a DOB inspector finding a worker operating a Skilsaw improperly. There was also “failure to safeguard the public and property,” when a heavy container fell while being loaded onto a garbage truck, resulting in the hospitalization of a worker, DOB records show.
This project is under construction and will open to residents in 2027, a site worker told The Post.
These issues come amid a surge in New York City commercial-to-residential conversions driven by high office vacancy rates post-COVID, and the city’s critical shortage of housing. This trend is further propelled by falling commercial property values and government policies, including zoning reforms and tax incentives, to accelerate conversion projects.
[Breitbart] A Husky is being hailed as a hero after saving a 6-year-old boy from a possible bear attack in Torrington, Connecticut.
Video footage shows the boy standing in his driveway when a bear suddenly comes within a few feet of him — at which point the family dog, Bella, charges the wild animal and chases it off.
The husky can also be seen biting the bear as the dog forces it away from the child and their home.
“She always puts herself in between strangers and the kids, but you always wonder in the back of your head, ‘What’s going to happen if she needs to protect us?’ And now we know,” the boy’s father, Jeff Tazzara, told News 8 of the family dog.
Tazzara added that he plans to reward Bella with one of her favorite treats — a T-bone steak.
Jason Hawley, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, told the outlet that the husky rescuing the boy was the best-case scenario, and urged people not to assume that such encounters with wildlife will necessarily end in the same manner.
“In that situation, the dog worked out perfectly,” Hawley said. “It kind of made it an uncomfortable situation for the bear.”
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that well, so we usually advise people to try to keep their dogs somewhat contained or keep an eye on them,” the wildlife biologist added.
The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has also asked the public to report any bear sightings so that officials can use the location information for research and bear management.
The National Park Service advised those who come in contact with a bear to stay calm and immediately pick up any children who may be nearby without creating “loud noises or screams.”
People who encounter a bear should then “slowly wave” their arm above their head and instruct the bear to back off, the agency
…because wild bears obediently follow orders?
— which also recommended that those exploring a wooded or remote area carry bear spray — added.
#2
"creating “loud noises or screams.”
Cause little kids follow orders as well as bears.
Boating air horns work well. Personal experience, last time was yesterday. Didn't get the bird feeder in early enough, so now we have another iron pretzel.
[NYP] Of the 353 people detained during the Independence Day disorder, just 10 were Newport Beach residents, according to police.
Others traveled from Nevada, Utah, Texas, Florida and other states, with citations reaching as far away as Canada and the Netherlands.
The Newport Beach Police Association blamed a social media-driven gathering it called an alleged “TikTok Takeover” for drawing the crowd.
The association president declined to provide additional details.
City Manager Seimone Jurjis said officials were still trying to determine exactly what attracted the massive crowd, including whether social media influencers or people looking to ignore the city’s “Not in Newport” campaign played a role.
Newport Beach Councilmember Erik Weigand said the newly released numbers backed up concerns that social media helped fuel the chaos.
“This data clearly backs up the TikTok narrative,” he told The Orange County Register.
“These kids were incited by social media, interested in coming to cause trouble or at least go crazy. I don’t think it was necessarily alcohol-fueled.”
Weigand said the number of minors and people between 18 and 22 years old stood out, saying the incident was unlike the typical alcohol-related problems the city has experienced during past Fourth of July celebrations.
[NYP] A Navy veteran and former CIA operative who won a blockbuster defamation case against CNN says the agency is trying to block publication of his memoir.
Zachary Young, who won a $5 million jury verdict against the cable news outlet over its coverage of the US evacuation of Afghanistan, told The Post the CIA is blocking the book on grounds it contains "sensitive" info, but he remains nonplussed by the response.
"I submitted the manuscript in good faith. I want to do the right thing," he said Wednesday from his Vienna, Austria, home. "I am confused why I am getting this very, very hostile reaction from them."
Young said he believes the agency is trying to suppress information that became public during the CNN trial, adding, "I think that the position they’ve taken internally is to try to just shut it down, full stop."
#1
Current or former employee, if you sign Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) you agree to compliance with the Prepublication Classification Review Board (PCRB) procedures and decisions.
[Reuters] President Donald Trump unexpectedly left Turkey on Wednesday aboard an older Air Force One rather than the newly renovated Qatari-donated jet that brought him there, but later boarded the new plane in Britain for the flight to Washington.
The trip to Turkey for the NATO summit, the first international travel for the new plane, took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, a country that borders Turkey.
The unexpected plane switch followed months of scrutiny over the luxury gift intended to serve as a temporary replacement while Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab struggled to deliver long-delayed next-generation Air Force One planes.
Critics questioned the cost, security and pace of the retrofit.
Trump said on Truth Social that he would use an older baby blue Air Force One plane "for old time's sake" to fly from Ankara to RAF Mildenhall in Britain while the new plane stopped at the same base so U.S. service members stationed there could tour the aircraft.
Trump, asked in Ankara if a threat of assassination prompted his decision to change planes for his departure from Turkey, did not answer directly but acknowledged the potential threat.
"I'm number one on the kill list for Iran," he told reporters at a news conference as the NATO summit concluded. "I don't know. I can't tell you that but I don't really care."
The upgrades to the jet from Qatar were completed so quickly that some experts expressed concern the plane may not be as secure as the existing Air Force One aircraft.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/09/2026 11:32 Comments ||
Top||
#3
"...the older Air Force One, which retains a comprehensive, battle-tested Cold War defense suite and maintains the ability to blind an incoming antiaircraft missile."
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that when law enforcement officials used a “geofence warrant” – a warrant that instructed Google to provide location data for cellphone users who were near a particular place during a specific time period – to obtain evidence used to convict a Virginia man of a 2019 bank robbery, they conducted a “search” for purposes of the Fourth Amendment. By a vote of 6-3, the justices sent Okello Chatrie’s case back to the lower court for it to consider whether, as the Fourth Amendment requires, the search was “reasonable.”
Writing for the majority, Justice Elena Kagan emphasized that “[a]n individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in records about his cell phone’s location, and police intrude on that constitutionally protected interest when they demand the information—even though for only a limited time, and from a third-party tech company.”
Justice Samuel Alito, in a dissenting opinion joined in part by Justices Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney Barrett, contended that the majority’s opinion “will send seismic waves through our Fourth Amendment doctrine” but would ultimately not have any effect on Chatrie’s case.
The issue at the center of Chatrie v. United States arose after a man armed with a gun entered a federal credit union outside Richmond, Virginia, and gave the teller a note demanding money. He made off with nearly $200,000, but law enforcement officials did not have any leads until they served Google with a geofence warrant, which directed the tech company to provide location data for cellphone users who were near the bank at the time of the robbery.
The information that Google provided to law enforcement officials came in three tranches. First, Google gave law enforcement officials a list of the 19 accounts (but without the names attached to those accounts) linked to devices that were within 150 meters of the bank during the 30 minutes before and after the robbery. Second, based on that list of 19 accounts, the government asked for additional information about nine accounts that were in the area during a two-hour period. At the third step, a detective asked for, and received, the names and information associated with three accounts – one of which was Chatrie’s.
Relying on the location data, law enforcement officials obtained a warrant to search two residences linked to Chatrie, where they found almost $100,000 of the stolen cash, a gun, and demand notes.
Prosecutors charged Chatrie with bank robbery. He asked the trial judge to bar prosecutors from using the evidence obtained as a result of the geofence warrant at his trial, arguing that the warrant violated the Fourth Amendment.
A federal district judge agreed that the warrant in Chatrie’s case did not have the kind of probable cause and specificity that the Fourth Amendment requires. However, she nonetheless allowed the prosecutors to use the evidence, reasoning that even if there had been a violation of the Fourth Amendment, law enforcement officials had acted in good faith.
Chatrie pleaded guilty to bank robbery, although he retained his right to appeal the district court’s ruling allowing prosecutors to use the evidence obtained through the geofence warrant. He was sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
#1
In case you are new to hearing about GEOFENCE and its abilities.
It basically belittles FLOCK Tracking by many times over, and much deeper into personal privacy issues. The government argued that because you shared your whereabouts with Google voluntarily, you also gave up any expectation of privacy of that data. Now! Think of all the data elements you pass thru Google, like SMS Texting, Email, Location & your travels, various Web searches, your AI questions and more each day. Has Big Gov already flagged you as a threat to, say the Socialists & Democrats if they steal power again?
Plus a GEOFENCE warrant was a Blanket Wide area request.
It literally covers data from 100's to 1000's of Google tracked phones and devices in a given area. Violating the rights of 1000's to find 1 POS. Example Given: Jan 6th protests GEOFENCE was used to ID every one carrying a active communication device. Thus allowing massive arrests or ongoing surveillance of persons that opposed the Democrat Coup stealing the election.
[TWZ] Naval Station Rota and Morón Air Base provide vital air, maritime, and logistics capabilities that would be difficult to replace.
This is not Trump’s first threat to cut off trade relations with Spain. The same had happened back in March, in response to Sánchez’s stance on the Iran war.
While there was no change to trade between the two countries after that, were relations between the United States and Spain to worsen, the continued access to Morón and Rota would become a question.
Of the two, Naval Station Rota, in the province of Cádiz, is the most critical. It sits in a strategic position at the mouth of the Mediterranean, which is one of the world’s most important naval control points.
Described by the U.S. Navy as “the gateway to the Mediterranean,” Rota is one of the most strategically important U.S. military hubs in Europe, critical to supporting U.S. and allied naval operations across multiple theaters. The installation is central for Naval Forces Europe-Africa/Central (EURAFCENT) and the U.S. Sixth Fleet.
Located on a 6,100-acre Spanish Navy facility in southern Spain, Rota functions as a major logistical gateway linking North America with Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, and the Middle East.
Turning to Morón, this airbase is located southeast of the city of Seville in southern Spain. While Naval Station Rota is a springboard for U.S. maritime forces, Morón provides a similar role for the Air Force. Its strategic position means it plays a key role as a forward operating location for air operations, rapid response missions, and contingency support across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
Resident U.S. Air Force units at Morón, under the Third Air Force, include the 496th Air Base Squadron, a geographically separated unit (GSU) that comes under the command of the 86th Airlift Wing at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The 86th Airlift Wing flies C-130J airlifters as well as C-21A and C-37A staff transports.
Morón also serves as a critical node in the transatlantic and transeuropean tanker bridges, making it a key logistical gateway for the massive movements that are critical to buildups in Europe and the Middle East, as well as for more routine transatlantic deployments.
#8
Don't care. Fuck Spain and fuck the countries that prefer to play political games instead of doing actual defense. Cut them off and let them starve.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] As part of widespread layoffs at Xbox Game Studios, Obsidian Entertainment has fired art director Matt Hansen, a key member of the studio and the art director of the game Avowed. This was announced by former Obsidian Entertainment co-founder Chris Avellone. Hansen became widely known in late 2024 after a series of controversial statements. He publicly wrote that he prioritized hiring Black artists, stating, "There are too many white men in our industry." These statements were widely seen as outright racial discrimination in hiring, and even Chris Avellone himself advised seeking legal advice.
Hansen also openly admitted that he wanted to make Avowed as narrative-driven a game as possible. In response to Elon Musk's criticism of the game's pronouns, he wrote, " I wanted to piss him off so badly with my game, and I can't believe it actually happened. Well, you haven't seen the basic settings yet." Honestly, it's mind-boggling that the richest, shittiest kid in the world is complaining about what I do. I'm frankly disheartened. I can't think of a single person in the world I'd rather piss off. Anyway, Avowed is out February 18th next year. Definitely check it out if you're not afraid of the woke virus. Hansen was fired as part of a wave of layoffs that affected several Xbox studios. There has been no official comment from Obsidian Entertainment or Microsoft regarding the reasons for Hansen's dismissal.
The aforementioned game was a flop (tens of millions of dollars were thrown at it, "Smuta" is a joke), and its art design was quite poor and narrative-driven. Simply ugly and garish. The characters were a match for it. But to spite Elon Musk. So when "creators" whine that greedy corporations are firing them to save money, it's worth remembering that often the very same characters who are being fired now are the ones who rose on the wave of promoting agendas and tolerance by large conglomerates like Black Rock.A few years later, it turned out that the audience doesn't want to eat it, and the corporations are suffering losses. And when the time came for layoffs, the agenda-driven layer was largely eliminated. Games should be made to appeal to audiences, not to anger Elon Musk.
P.S. Incidentally, the aforementioned Chris Avelon was once fired "for harassment" and kicked out of mainstream studios. It later emerged he'd been slandered and acquitted. But he was never invited back into the mainstream industry, even though he was one of the creators of Fallout.
#2
If you studio fails to make a profit pursuing games that are not supported by the audience base, you close your shop. Xbox saga is covered over at Asmongold TV on youtube.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
