Noisy Gym Leads Condo Board to File Suit

As brick-and-mortar stores continue to suffer from the rise of online shopping, many co-op and condo boards with commercial space in their buildings have been forced to make concessions to keep that space rented. Some boards are signing 99-year leases with investment groups to guarantee a steady income from their commercial space. Others are accepting once-verboten tenants, such as bars, restaurants and gyms. The luxury Altair condominium in the Flatiron District falls is in this latter category. And the decision to allow a gym to operate on the ground floor has led the condo to court. 

Infuriated by loud music and barking instructors in its commercial tenant SoulCycle’s specialized studio – known as SoulAnnex – the board of the 22-unit luxury condo at 32 West 18th Street has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court, the Daily News reports.

“SoulCycle’s ordinary business practices – i.e., playing music at high volumes accompanied by instructors screaming encouragement to SoulCycle’s customers is excessively loud and will unduly interfere with the ... right to quiet enjoyment of their premises,” the lawsuit reads. 

Resident Gabriella Knoll documented more than a dozen times she’d heard “voices of the exercise instructors on the microphone, and banging sounds beginning at 7:00 a.m.” The board claims that SoulAnnex has ignored soundproofing requirements since signing a lease in October 2017, and residents claim that “bowling ball thuds” and night-time renovations have further disturbed them. Apartments in the building have sold for more than $6 million, according to StreetEasy. 

A SoulCycle spokeswoman declined to comment on the litigation.