SUV Driver Sues Upper East Side Condo For Blocking Her Parking Spot

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A luxury Yorkville condo building broke a promise to one of its residents by giving her a parking spot too small for her bulky SUV, the resident alleges in a new lawsuit.

The resident filed the lawsuit on Wednesday against the board of Citizen360, a 34-story tower completed in 2017 on the corner of First Avenue and East 89th Street.

The parking problems began in 2021, when the woman purchased an eighth-floor apartment in the building which she understood to include its own dedicated parking space in the condo's garage.

There, she planned to store her 2019 Acura RDX, a 3,800-pound, 16-foot-long vehicle which she confirmed would fit in the parking spot, the suit says.

Yet when she pulled her SUV into the garage, she was unable to get into it by scanning a key fob. The problem persisted when she tried to pull in with a different, smaller SUV — a BMW Z1, the suit says.

She ultimately found out that the building had issued her a different parking space than the one listed on her written license agreement from the condo board, according to the suit. That other space "lacks sufficient height for parking an SUV," the suit alleges.

"A New Yorker’s ability to have a ready place to park one’s vehicle, particularly in Manhattan, without undue time, effort, expense, stress, and vexation, and to do so safely without extensive and costly life disruptions, is unique and valuable," attorneys for the woman wrote in the suit.

"Indeed, it is often a bargained-for contractual right. And if that right is dishonored, it can prove impossible to replace it, and a comparable opportunity to readily park one's vehicle will be lost."

While the lawsuit is public, Patch is not naming the woman since the suit identifies her exact address.

In the ensuing months, Citizen360's board and managers have "not taken the necessary steps" to give her the proper parking spot, amounting to a breach of contract, the suit says.

The building's developer was Anbau Enterprises, whose chairman is listed as the board's president. Anbau did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit.