Nightmare at 74 Grand Street

The Daily News and NY Times have some updates on 74 Grand, the landmarked residential building that sank into the ground after a rainstorm in 2004. The would-be tenants are still battling their way through the court system, and one of them never even got to sleep in her $1.6 million loft.

Caroline Hunt, a British business woman, was getting her life together in New York when her dreams (and dream home) literally began to sink. Since the incident she has couch surfed and lived in temporary apartments...and then there's the law suit.

Eventually, she and her fellow co-op owners filed suit against 72 Grant Partners, the owners of the lot next door, charging that work there caused the partial collapse, as well as against other contractors and design professionals.

As the battles over the building and the lawsuits went on, her vision became blurred, her body shook and she developed chest pains that doctors said was due to anxiety.

Then, she was fired from her job as CEO of the U.S. arm of Richmond Events, a U.K.-based event planning firm, because she was so distracted with getting her home - and money - back.

She now runs a consulting firm, and as her legal fees grow there's little hope that it will be over soon. The lawyers say "the case could drag on for years." The one positive for co-op owners: "property values have soared so much in the last few years that both the co-op and the lot next door are worth far more than they were when the building was sealed."

Photo via Pith's 74 Grand gallery.