Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevails in Litigation Against 740 Park Avenue Board and Clients Neighbor
Park Avenue Co-op For Sale After Noise Complaints Led to Lawsuit
The rich are different from you and me, as F. Scott Fitzgerald reminded us long ago. But it when it comes to noise complaints between neighbors in a co-op, it turns out the rich are a lot like the rest of us.
Case in point: the white-glove co-op at 740 Park Ave., where shareholder Hamburg Tang successfully sued his neighbor over noise from a multiyear renovation and, in the process, pulled back the curtain on how the rich and powerful treat one another behind the scenes. Last week, Crain’s reports, Tang put his five-bedroom duplex on the market for $26 million.
The 31-unit prewar building has been home over the years to such boldface names as John D. Rockefeller and the grandfather of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, but it’s also proof that even the members of high society can butt heads. In 2016 Tang and his wife, Miranda, sued their upstairs neighbor, billionaire Howard Marks, over his long-running renovation. Its “heavy machinery, banging, crashing, hammering and drilling” was damaging their unit and causing “sleep deprivation,” according to the complaint at the time.
Also naming 740’s co-op board in the suit, the Tangs said that the board had bent its renovation rules to favor the deep-pocketed Marks, the co-founder of investment firm Oaktree Capital Management who had paid $52.5 million for his duplex.
The co-op’s rules stipulated that renovations could happen only after 9 a.m. and last two years at the most, but Marks’s crews were allowed to start earlier in the morning, and his renovation went on far beyond the two-year limit. Co-op boards are required to treat all shareholders equally.
Ultimately, the sides settled. The co-op restored the stricter work hours and also repaired cracks inside the Tangs’ apartment, according to lawyers in the case. Marks’ apartment was also thoroughly soundproofed, says Adam Leitman Bailey, an attorney for the Tangs. “You can’t hear someone with high heels walking on the floor,” Bailey says. “You couldn’t hear weights if they were dropped on the floor. And the damage has fully been fixed. They couldn’t have done a better job.”
It remains to be seen whether the Tangs can easily unload their home. It may be quiet since the lawsuit was settled, but it comes with a monthly maintenance fee of $21,772 to go with that asking price of $26 million. The rich may be different from the rest of us, but those numbers might still make them flinch.