New York’s Department of Investigation launches inquiry into buckling Manhattan high-rise

(CNN) — The New York City Department of Investigation has opened an inquiry after a Manhattan high-rise’s columns buckled earlier this week, forcing workers to flee and officials to evacuate neighboring buildings and close down roads, a spokesperson for the department told CNN.

The developer behind the skyscraper – the former Pfizer headquarters being converted into apartments – previously told CNN that faulty column supports carrying too much weight were to blame, and the building has since been stabilized.

The company was adding 18,000 square feet to 15 upper floors of the building, and the additional load caused two columns to bend, sagging the floors – some as much as 4 inches, Nathan Berman, founder and managing principal of MetroLoft, told CNN.

While the developer said no part of the building, located on East 42nd Street, was ever at risk of collapsing, city officials on Tuesday described the building as unstable and established a formal “collapse zone” around it.

CNN has reached out to MetroLoft for comment on the inquiry into the incident.

The columns bent “essentially from not having been properly reinforced or having been missed in the reinforcement process,” Berman said, noting they will determine the exact reason “in due time.”

The buckled columns sit between the existing structure of the building and the new floors being constructed, city officials have said.

A “full investigation” into the structural failure at the former Pfizer building will help determine how the failure happened, what led to it and how similar incidents can be avoided in the future, the New York City Department of Buildings previously said.

The probe will include reviews of construction documents, interviews with witnesses and a review of any available video and photo evidence from the site, among other things.

The department also noted earlier this week that it has required the building’s owner to hire a third-party engineer to conduct a forensic evaluation — a formal investigation to determine the cause of the structural failure.

The New York City Department of Investigation is the city’s independent watchdog agency, which investigates fraud, corruption, misconduct, municipal malfeasance, city employees, contractors, and individuals who do business with the city.

When investigations uncover evidence of criminal activity, DOI routinely works with prosecutors and law enforcement agencies to pursue criminal charges in addition to administrative or civil actions.

CNN has reached out to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

The investigation is likely to be complex. Large-scale construction projects in the city often involve multiple developers, general contractors, subcontractors, hundreds of workers and multiple entities with separate responsibilities — setting up a wide net for investigators to comb through as they collect evidence.

Workers spotted cracks before evacuation

Workers spotted the crumpled support beams Tuesday and helped people evacuate, a union spokesperson said.

Sean Dow, a shop steward with Steamfitters Local 638, said he first saw cracks in the slab on the 22nd floor before going down a floor and spotting the bending columns.

“We decided it was time to evacuate the building,” Dow said.

The discovery of the buckling columns launched a major effort to shore up — or reinforce — the building’s weakest points, with crews using emergency jacks and installing new steel supports. Officials later said they were confident the building had been stabilized.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said office-to-residential conversions are “part of our answer to the housing crisis” — but safety and accountability are paramount.

What happened in Midtown “is not a necessary consequence of an office-to-residential conversion,” Mamdani said. “This, however, is clearly a breakdown in that process.”

Any actions against those responsible for the structural failure are pending the results of the ongoing investigation, the Department of Buildings said earlier this week.

“Contractors and site safety professionals have a legal responsibility to ensure that they maintain a safe working environment on their construction sites, for the safety of their workers and for the general public,” the agency added.

MetroLoft is already facing a $300 million-plus legal challenge for alleged dangerous “defects and code violations” at another property that its developer converted into high-end residences in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood, court records show.

A condo board in 2022 sued MetroLoft’s Berman, another executive and the project’s architect, claiming breach of contract, negligence and fraud, among other allegations, in a civil lawsuit.

Attorneys for the defendants have denied the allegations in court, and MetroLoft declined to comment on the pending litigation on Thursday. The case remains active.

MetroLoft is also facing a lawsuit filed by a construction worker who suffered a “grave injury” at the East 42nd Street site last year, claiming in a civil suit that wood he was standing on “gave way,” causing him to fall, court records show. The lawsuit is unrelated to Tuesday’s structural failure.

Attorneys for the building’s defendants have denied the allegations in court filings and any liability for the accident.

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CNN’s Jeff Winter, Maria Aguilar Prieto, Rebekah Riess and Emma Tucker contributed to this report.