A view of the lobby in the Ian Schrager building at 50 Gramercy Park North - the Gramercy Park Hotel.
A glamorous Icelandic couple is being sued for installing cheap Swedish furniture - Ikea, gasp! - in their pad at the Gramercy Park Hotel.
Viking mogul Jon Asgeir Johannesson and his stylish designer bride, Ingibjorg Palmadottir, are accused of installing an "ugly" kitchen from the superstore in their 16th-floor pad at the Ian Schrager building at 50 Gramercy Park North.
Johannesson and Palmadottir reportedly paid more than $10 million for the full-floor co-op in 2007, and bought the duplex penthouse above it a few months later.
Now they're now charged with cutting corners when they agreed to rent out the 16th floor for $312,000 last year to something called the Paramount Realty Group.
"Defendants willfully installed what [Jon Asgeir Johannesson] defined as an 'ugly' kitchen," the suit says.
"The kitchen installed is manufactured by Ikea, which is generally known to offer low budget furniture."
And that's just not cutting it.
"The kitchen installed was not reasonably satisfactory...as it did not rise to the level of a kitchen suitable for a property located at 50 Gramercy Park North," the suit says.
"The kitchen has also been a source of embarrassment for Plaintiff and the subject of remarks by guests."
A Web site for 50 Gramercy Park North boasts that each unit is outfitted with "John Pawson custom-designed bathrooms and kitchens, and the chic refinement of white oak floors, cherry wood and travertine surfaces."
A lawyer for Paramount Realty Group, Andrea Fiocchi, declined to comment and it was unclear how the apartment was used.
The suit says the couple also left behind faulty air conditioning, a cracked window, missing shower parts and missing appliances.
It charges that in July 2009, Paramount's guests suffered the indignity of chewed-up chicken wings being dropped onto their 16th-floor terrace from the couple's duplex above.
The terraces at the luxury building are about 2,000 square feet. Paramount is seeking $52,000 in damages.
Johannesson is a retail mogul who flirted with buying the Saks department store chain before Iceland's economy collapsed.
The couple could not immediately be reached for comment.
DN
A wealthy Icelandic couple is being sued for installing a cheap Ikea kitchen in their Gramercy Park Hotel pad. According to the Daily News, Jon Asgeir Johannesson and Ingibjorg Palmadottir own two apartments in the building, a full-floor co-op and the duplex penthouse above it. The duo rented out the 16th floor to the Paramount Realty Group last year, and now that group is suing them for $52,000, in part because of the "ugly kitchen."
The suit claims that the kitchen "was not reasonably satisfactory... as it did not rise to the level of a kitchen suitable for a property located at 50 Gramercy Park North. The kitchen has also been a source of embarrassment for Plaintiff and the subject of remarks by guests." Rich people!
On top of the design faux pas, the suit also claims the unit had faulty air conditioning, a cracked window and missing appliances... as well as chewed up chicken wings on the 2,000-square-foot terrace! Allegedly they were being tossed there by the couple themselves, who reside above.
Athugasemdir
Ég var sáttur við allt þegar ég gisti þarna, nema hvað BARINN var of lítil, en sundlaugin var fín & grillið virkaði - Hannes Hólmsteinn sá um að grilla á kvöldin! Reyndar stungum við félagarnir AF frá REIKNINGNUM, þannig að segja má að SKRATTINN hafi hitt ÖMMU sína...!
kv. Heilbrigð skynsemi (fun.blog.is)
Jakob Þór Haraldsson, 25.2.2010 kl. 00:13
The nerve!
Emmcee, 25.2.2010 kl. 21:29
Bæta við athugasemd [Innskráning]
Ekki er lengur hægt að skrifa athugasemdir við færsluna, þar sem tímamörk á athugasemdir eru liðin.