Developers of the Midtown Manhattan building evacuated Tuesday after steel support beams began to buckle and bend, leading to fears of a collapse, have been the target of multiple complaints and lawsuits — and have been hit with more than $30,000 in workplace safety violations in the past year, city records show.
Construction crews working at 235 E. 42nd St. have been accused of “blowing material off the roof with a leaf blower” as well as unsafe demolition practices, city Department of Buildings records show.
The steel-framed 37-story building once held offices for Pfizer but is now being renovated into residential housing, the largest such conversion in city history. The project is slated to create 1,602 apartments.
In August 2025, complaints were lodged with the city that debris was falling from the windows and that electrical equipment “fell from the building onto the street.”
In the fall of 2025, there were complaints of “unlicensed and unsafe conditions” in the building. In December, a worker was injured falling off a ladder but contractors didn’t report the incident to the Department of Building, which they are required to do.
Building owners were hit with a $10,000 fine for failing to report the incident, Department of Buildings records show.
Owners were also hit with a $2,500 fine for work being done “which did not conform” with design and building plans. They were also fined $10,000 for “failing to safeguard the public and property.”
“A metal panel fell from the 33rd floor and landed on the sidewalk,” the violation noted. “Inspection revealed debris was thrown from the roof to the 33rd floor without an enclosed shaftway.”
Owners and contractors were charged $5,030 in October after glass from a window fell from the eighth floor to the sidewalk shed below.
Multiple construction workers seriously injured on the job over the past 18 months have filed lawsuits claiming those in charge knowingly put them in grave danger by cutting corners and failing to take action over severe safety risks.
Two workers who fell from ladders in December and March say adequate safety equipment could have prevented the lifelong injuries they suffered, and that management had been made aware of “dangerous and defective” conditions before the incidents, according to their pending lawsuits in Manhattan and Bronx Supreme Courts.
In a separate Manhattan suit, Raul Castro, another worker who sued over dangerous working conditions last year, alleges he was struck by an unsecured falling object in May 2025 when he was ordered to carry out work during ongoing demolition operations without hazard controls.
Former construction worker Wilmer Rojas was sent plunging from a height when the wood he was standing on gave way in September, according to his Manhattan lawsuit. He alleges management neglected to provide common-sense safety gear such as body belts, saddles, descent devices and full-body harnesses.
Barry Williams/ New York Daily News
A NYPD captain moves barricades closing off another block of Second Ave. due to a partial building collapse. (Barry Williams / New York Daily News)
An email to the developers in charge of the conversion, Metro Loft and David Werner Real Estate, was not immediately returned.
Hours after the 8 a.m. evacuation, the buildings and streets around 235 E. 42nd St. near Second Ave. remain closed off because there was “additional movement in one of the compromised columns,” Mayor Mamdani said at a press conference at the scene.
Barry Williams/ New York Daily News
A building at the corner of E. 42nd St. and Second Ave. in Manhattan is pictured Tuesday after the building was evacuated because of structural damage. (Barry Williams / New York Daily News)
City Department of Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said at a press conference at the scene Tuesday that his agency “went through an extensive plan review” before the permits were approved for the building conversion.
Only after the building is stable will the investigation begin into what happened, he added.
