An insurance company claims that shoddy work on a luxury Watermark Pointe condominium in New Rochelle couldn’t withstand freezing temperatures.
Adirondack Insurance Exchange sued R.S. Granoff Architects P.C., project manager Turner Construction Co., general contractor Regional Construction Corp. and several subcontractors on June 25 in Westchester Supreme Court, to get back money it paid on a claim submitted by a resident.
Adirondack says the architect and contractors failed to correctly design and build exhaust ducts and sprinkler system water pipes at one of the Watermark Pointe condominiums at the south tip of Davenport Neck.
National Realty & Development Corp. broke ground for the $100 million, waterfront complex of nine buildings and 72 apartments in 2017. Daikiry Feliz Marte paid more than $1.7 million for a 3-bedroom, 2,717-square-foot unit in 2021.
Around 5 p.m. on Dec. 26, 2022, a water pipe in the building’s fire suppression sprinkler system burst, according to the complaint, and released water that damaged the structure and Marte’s apartment.
Below freezing temperatures and high winds had frozen uninsulated sprinkler pipes and exhaust ducts running from a kitchen to an outdoor balcony vent.
Adirondack, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, paid a claim submitted by Marte. Now it is suing to get its money back.
The complaint does not say how much Marte was paid or describe the damages. But according to a separate lawsuit Marte filed last year, he had to pay $37,000 out of his pocket for living expenses that were not covered by insurance when he had to leave the apartment while it was repaired.
In 2023, nearly a year after the incident, Marte sold his apartment for $1.9 million.
R.S. Granoff Architects, of Greenwich, Connecticut; Turner Construction, of Manhattan; and Regional Construction Corp., of Manhattan, did not reply to a message asking for their sides of the story.
In 2023, the Watermark Pointe Homeowners Association sued the developer, Zinrock Resources, the architect and the contractors for $5 million. According to that complaint, frozen sprinkler pipes burst in three buildings and caused heavy damages to several apartments. That case is pending.
