A three-story building collapsed in Brooklyn on Wednesday the 11th, killing eight people, and criminal authorities have joined the city Department of Buildings investigation. The contractor at the neighboring excavation site had prior complaints and lawsuits, and members of the City Council have called for hiring more inspectors. Also included: city rules that property owners and contractors should know about for excavation and demolition work.
According to NBC New York, a three-story mixed residential and commercial building collapsed in Brooklyn last Wednesday, killing eight people. The building fell toward a construction pit next door, where a site had been demolished and was being dug out. Criminal authorities have joined the New York City Department of Buildings investigation, but no one has yet been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the collapse.
Residents reported feeling vibrations from the construction site, and at least one witness saw bricks falling from the building just before it collapsed. On Friday, City Council Speaker Julie Menin said the Department of Buildings' vacancies would be filled immediately. According to a city comptroller's office data dashboard, 168 of the department's 1,855 positions, or about 9%, are vacant. Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered inspections of more than 160 sites tied to six companies connected to the collapse site, and said an engineering consulting firm will also be brought in to prepare an independent report. It has not been confirmed how often the excavation site was inspected.
According to the Department of Buildings, the neighboring lot was originally approved for a three-story building. An application was later filed to change it to a nine-story, 64-unit mixed-use building, but it had not been approved at the time of the collapse. In March, a stop-work order was issued at the site during demolition because of inadequate overhead protection. In April, it was found that work had resumed in violation of the order, but construction was allowed to continue after the problem was corrected. It was also confirmed that on Sept. 9, the contractor notified the Department of Buildings that work, including rock blasting, would begin the next day.
The general contractor, Townhouse Builders Inc. (also operating under the name Promont), has been named as a defendant in two lawsuits: a 2016 suit over damage to an adjacent building in Manhattan and a suit over damage to a neighboring building during a hotel construction project in Brooklyn. In the former, the company denied the allegations and the case appears to have ended in an out-of-court settlement. In the latter, the company did not file an answer, and nothing has been added to the court record since 2022. The company's owner did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. The collapsed building had more than 90 unresolved violations dating back to the 1970s, and this year it was also cited for exposed wiring, sprinkler problems and a leaking roof, among other issues.
According to Department of Buildings guidance, excavation contractors must notify the department 24 to 48 hours in advance, most work requires a permit, and construction must follow the submitted plans. Safety measures such as installing shoring and bracing and regularly checking walls for cracks are also mandatory. Violations can result in a stop-work order, and the department also conducts random audits of excavation sites. The department says site oversight does not relieve engineers and contractors of their responsibility. Abi Aghayere, a professor of civil engineering at Drexel University, pointed out that vibration transmission, inadequate shoring strength and groundwater intrusion during adjacent excavation can cause collapses. He urged both tenants and property owners not to dismiss warning signs such as cracks in older buildings and to report them.