222 Broadway Conversion’s Stop-Work Order Not Tied to ‘Safety Issues’: Developer – Commercial Observer
New York City’s office-to-residential conversion wave hit another snag less than a month after columns buckled during an apartment transformation project at the former Pfizer headquarters in Midtown.
Construction was halted last week by New York City’s Department of Buildings (DOB) at 222 Broadway in the Financial District, where GFP Real Estate is converting the former 31-story office building into a 788-unit luxury apartment tower.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the stop-work order, which was issued after city inspectors determined the project’s contractor, Leeding Builders Group, and engineering firm, DeSimone Consulting Engineers, did not immediately disclose cracks formed on the Lower Manhattan building’s newly added 32nd floor.
A GFP spokesman said the top-floor cracks were discovered in March and quickly repaired. The building is stable, with the project’s shutdown stemming from when the damage should have been reported and is not tied to “safety issues,” the spokesman said. The developer said leasing is underway and it expects to complete the project within a year.
“Our structural engineers immediately identified and addressed this issue in March upon inspection and we subsequently had the proposed repairs reviewed by a third-party structural inspector to ensure that it was safely completed,” the GFP spokesman said. “At no point during construction has the building’s stability been compromised.’
The 222 Broadway project is among a series of office-to-resi projects throughout New York City totaling more than 16,000 units. Despite the headlines resulting from MetroLoft and David Werner Real Estate Investment’s Pfizer building conversion, the nation’s largest office-to-resi project, capital investments in these projects is not expected to slow, Commercial Observer reported last week.
Leeding Builders Group, DeSimone Consulting Engineers and DOB didn’t immediately return requests for comment.
Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com.
