He came in like a wrecking ball.
Billionaire developer Harry Macklowe has filed plans with the Department of Buildings to demolish the interior of a three-bedroom apartment that his estranged spouse was scheduled to purchase in his new skyscraper at 432 Park Ave., according to a new lawsuit.
Linda Macklowe, 79, says in a new lawsuit that she had an agreement to purchase Unit 78A for $14 million in January 2013, before her husband left her for a French mistress in 2016.
The former couple are in the middle of a scorched-earth divorce trial over their estimated $2 billion fortune. This spring, Harry Macklowe, 80, cracked a string of Borscht Belt-style, “Take my wife — please” jokes outside court while claiming he’d offered Linda Macklowe half his net worth to get lost.
But she refused to settle and now she’s filed a separate lawsuit saying he wants to slash her unit’s size by one-third and add it to an adjacent apartment that he owns.
Linda Macklowe’s calling the planned demolition illegal, but also trying to delay her closing past Oct. 2.
A spokeswoman for Harry Macklowe said he gifted the apartment to his wife before their split.
“In her divorce court papers, Mrs. Macklowe has categorically stated that she did not want to live in, did not attend to live in, and did not want to buy the apartment,” the spokeswoman said.
“Mrs. Macklowe lives in a 20,000-square-foot apartment in The Plaza Condominium, which she has said she has no intention of selling,” the spokeswoman added.
Her attorney, Adam Leitman Bailey, declined to comment.