NYC officials reopen some streets after Midtown tower evacuation

NEW YORK CITY – New York City officials began reopening streets and nearby buildings on July 8 as emergency crews added shoring measures to stabilise a Midtown Manhattan high-rise that had forced evacuations and shut down several blocks near Grand Central Terminal.

Officials had not seen any movement in the building for several hours and were able to inspect the compromised floor, New York City Department of Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said at a press conference late on July 7.

The so-called frozen zone closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic has been shrunk to 42nd and 43rd streets between Second and Third avenues, and five buildings in the area remain under full or partial evacuation orders.

“Right now we have been in a consistent, stable, safe situation,” Tigani said. “We have been able to bring in a plan and materials to stabilise the impacted floor and (are) looking to extend that stability plan to other parts of the building.”

Emergency jacks are in place to support weak points, and new steel is being installed as an intervention to allow workers and materials to return, Tigani said. The building owner has also brought in a third-party engineer to assess the process, and the investigation is ongoing.

The building, which is being converted into apartments, was evacuated on the morning of July 7 after construction workers reported buckling columns and sagging floors around the 21st floor.

The authorities also evacuated nearby office buildings and a school and closed streets between East 40th and East 45th streets from First Avenue to Third Avenue as engineers assessed the damage.

No injuries were reported.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani had called the situation “extremely serious”, while fire department officials said the damage appeared limited to part of the steel-frame building, reducing the risk of a complete collapse.

Metro Loft, which is redeveloping the property with David Werner Real Estate Investments, said the structural problem was confined to a small section of one of the two buildings under conversion. The company said the project was never at risk of collapsing, while adding that the work will likely be delayed by a few weeks.

The former Pfizer headquarters at 235 East 42nd Street is being converted into about 1,600 rental apartments, including roughly 400 affordable units, making it one of the largest office-to-residential conversion projects under way in the US.

The project is part of a broader effort to transform older office buildings in Midtown Manhattan into housing as developers respond to high office vacancy rates and a shortage of apartments. BLOOMBERG