One Seaport, the long-stalled 60-story glass tower at 161 Maiden Lane, has become a fixture of Lower Manhattan’s skyline for all the wrong reasons. The building has been frozen mid-finish for years as contractors, lenders, and would-be buyers fight over who is responsible for a misaligned foundation. Engineers warn the structure is still settling, and any real fix would be both complex and very expensive.
Contractor Pizzarotti has accused developer Fortis Property Group of cutting corners on the tower’s foundation by opting for soil-improvement methods instead of driving piles to bedrock, and a string of buyer and lender claims has followed. Buyers who put down deposits have sought refunds, and the site has been placed under court-ordered management as litigation and financing fights play out, according to The New Yorker.
Survey data and court records do not always agree on the exact numbers, but they land in the same place: the tower is out of plumb by inches. Early reporting pegged the problem as roughly a three-inch northward lean, per New York YIMBY, while a 2023 opinion available on Justia said the structure was “bowing out” by about six inches. Those variations reflect different measurement dates and methods, but engineers warn that ongoing differential settlement can put extra stress on façade anchors and elevator systems.
Underpinning Is the Sure but Costly Fix
Structural engineers say the only reliable long-term remedy would be underpinning: drilling new piles through the existing foundation down to bedrock and tying the building into solid rock. In comparable cases, that kind of retrofit has turned into a nine-figure undertaking and would be hugely disruptive on a tight waterfront block, according to The New Yorker.
Who’s on the Hook: Courts and Creditors
Pizzarotti filed suit against Fortis in 2019, seeking to sever its obligations and laying out early surveys and allegations in its motion papers. Since then, lenders, mezzanine creditors, and subcontractors have filed related suits, and judges have been wrestling with which parties must pay to secure and repair the structure. For a detailed litigation timeline, see the contractor’s filings in the Pizzarotti v. FPG case via New York Courts, along with the 2023 opinion on Justia.
What Buyers and Neighbors Are Facing
The tower remains essentially an unfinished shell, with closings and marketing on ice while the legal and financing battles grind on. Property listings at CityRealty list the development as on hold, and local coverage from New York YIMBY traces the stop-work orders and contractor disputes that came before the tilt controversy. For neighbors, the open question is whether the site will be stabilized and finished or remain a prolonged construction blot on the East River.
The controversy jumped back into broader view on April 20, 2026, when an online piece resurfaced claims about the foundation and the possibility of façade panels detaching, renewing pressure on judges and lenders to map out a fix. Until responsibility and funding are sorted out in court or through settlement, One Seaport will likely remain a stalled, heavily litigated landmark on the Lower Manhattan waterfront, a cautionary example of how high the stakes can be when foundation decisions go wrong.
