Ritzy highrise turns to Solid Mold

By PAUL THARP

January 6, 2003 -- EXCLUSIVE The world's most expensive condo building - 515 Park Ave. -
has been invaded by killer mold, The Post has learned. Many of the rich and powerful residents
of the building, where the cheapest units sell for $8 million with $40,000-a-month maintenance,
have fled, leaving behind millions of dollars worth of contaminated antiques, sculptures and paintings.

Among those owning apartments in the 43-story limestone-clad tower at East 60th Street are
Broadway impresario James Nederlander, French tycoon Francois Arnault and music producer
Antonio "L.A." Reid.

Commercial real-estate investor Richard Kramer filed a $400 million suit against the developers,
the Zeckendorf brothers, after his 3-year-old daughter, Alana, was disabled by illness and his wife,
Tivia, was sickened so badly she can't leave the hotel where the family now lives. He blamed the
invisible toxins seeping into his $10 million-plus apartment.

Kramer says the building is an opulent slum, with no hot water, leaky windows and nonworking
elevators.

He charged the board knew about the problems for at least a year but did nothing - even concealing
its knowledge of the deadly mold.

He said that after just 11 months in the apartment, his family's priceless antiques which "had been
preserved in mint condition for hundreds of years were cracking or otherwise rapidly deteriorating
because of no climate controls."

The building's own board filed a separate suit against the Zeckendorfs and several construction and
architectural firms that built the tower, claiming it went up without proper insulation on walls and pipes.

A memo from the board to the residents said the board sampled seven apartments and found
contamination in all of them, with mold levels in two so dangerous the owners had to move out
immediately.

They included Kramer and his upstairs neighbor, Wall Street honcho Gregg Fuhrman.

Several apartments have been flipped in recent months or put on the market by owners wanting to
get out, some for millions in losses.

The building, opened in 2000, cost $100 million. The Zeckendorfs pulled in more than $305 million
selling pre-opening apartments to such big names as Sen. Jon Corzine and EMI Chairman Alain Levy.

Corzine, the ex-Goldman Sachs partner-turned-politician, bought his unfinished pad for $15 million
but made a $3 million profit a year later by selling it to Adam Meltzer, president of Wind-Up
Entertainment. Meltzer fixed up the place and sold it just months after moving in.

Levy sold his $14 million place to former Bankers Trust CEO Frank Newman for $16 million.
He put it on the market just months after moving in.

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