Historic Tower’s Elevators Prompt Arguments in NYC

A more-than-80-year-old, 59-story office building in NYC is experiencing repeated problems, numerous sources, including Goad News, reported in late March. The City Bank-Farmers Trust Company Building towers in the Financial District as one of the area’s tallest buildings, a stone-clad, Assyrian-styled building that is among the area’s “financial giants.” National City Bank — later, Citibank — had branches in the area. The building is now known as 20 Exchange Place and offers more than 750 apartments. Since November, however, the skyscraper has been plagued by long elevator outages that have disrupted daily life. Elevator service is unpredictable and often nonexistent for hours at a time above the 15th floor, though elevators serving lower floors continue to operate, though, even here, the lifts have seen problems. Numerous residents have raised complaints about the building, often having to change plans or miss appointments. The building’s owners, DTH Capital, say power company Con Edison needs to fix the problems, which they say are likely related to electrical surges. Con Edison, however, says it has found no power situations causing the problem. The power company has hired a nonprofit group to help with the elevator situation.