There was a fire, and now there’s a firing.
Last week there was a major blaze at the Set, the ultra-luxe apartment building in Hudson Yards owned by Related Companies, the firm of billionaire Miami Dolphins owner and development god Stephen Ross.
Now Page Six hears that the 44-story building’s general manager has been sootcanned after management copped to problems with the way that it communicated with the well-heeled residents during the crisis.
Execs have described the building as “a five-star hotel crossed with a luxury rental crossed with a techy workplace,” and, according to the New Yorker magazine, it offers amenities including “communal desks, Zoom rooms, concierges, housekeeping, I.V. drips, after-work drinks, fridge stocking and dry cleaning” plus a pool deck “for DJ parties.”
But last week the place caught the eyes of New Yorkers not so much for its envelope-pushing perks as the massive column of thick black smoke rising from its roof.
Apparently a fire started around 11am Thursday during maintenance on the building’s cooling tower. It was handled speedily, nobody was injured and we’re told that the building suffered no “residual damage.” According to ABC Eyewitness News, around 80 firefighters were on the scene.
But one resident told us that the building didn’t bother to mention the latest daring amenity — a pop-up rooftop conflagration — to residents.
“There were no alarms, [at least] on the lower floor,” said one resident, who told us they found out about the fire only because they “noticed everyone in the windows [of the building across the street] looking up and pointing.”
Even the group chat was spreading the hot goss before the building got around to making an announcement. “People were texting us that a building in on fire in Hudson Yards,” said our infernal insider, “and we are like, ‘We know — we are in it!“
The building later sent an email to residents about the “confusing” experience, saying that the communications during the fire “fell short.”
Then on Wednesday it sent another message saying that “effective immediately” the building’s general manager is “no longer the general manager.”
We’re told that the protocol in high-rises is for people to stay in their apartments unless the fire is directly affecting the unit they’re in, so residents wouldn’t have been encouraged to leave even if there had been an alarm.
Ross — who owns the Miami Dolphins and has a net worth of some $10 billion — also built the famed Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle and the Gehry-designed Grand LA, and he has been at the forefront of the Hudson Yards development.
In July the Post reported that his firm, Related Companies, is planning a new Madison Avenue skyscraper.
A rep for the building declined to comment on the firing.
