Contractor Sued for $135M Over Time Warner Work
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One of the contractors who helped design the plumbing and electricity of the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle — home to Per Se, the Mandarin Oriental hotel, and Jazz at Lincoln Center — missed so many deadlines and submitted such “unworkable” designs that extra money had to be spent to fix the problems, a $135 million lawsuit filed yesterday in New York State Supreme Court charges.
Cosentini, the firm that building owner Columbus Centre LLC is suing, “even failed to provide for the most basic operational components in several of the systems,” court papers allege. Tetra Tech Engineers, which owns Cosentini, is also named in the suit.
The relationship between Cosentini and the Time Warner Center owner dates to 1999, the court papers state.
One of the attorneys at the firm that represents Columbus Centre LLC declined to comment on the suit.
“The building is operating perfectly, and is completely safe. This litigation is about a financial dispute between the developer and its mechanical designer,” the lawyer, Robert Peckar, said last night.
An attorney for the defendant, Michael De Chiara, said he hasn’t seen a copy of the lawsuit, and he also declined to comment.
