Deadly collapse of NYC parking garage in 2023 caused by unsanctioned repairs, city says
The deadly 2023 collapse of a parking garage in Manhattan was caused by an unauthorized demolition of a load-bearing pier, leading the building to pancake, officials said in a report released two years later.
One person was killed and seven were injured on April 18, 2023, the report released by the New York City Department of Buildings said. The parking garage in lower Manhattan's Financial District collapsed at about 4 p.m. that day, toppling cars over each other as concrete floors fell all the way to the cellar level.
The 98-year-old parking garage toppled because of a combination of factors, but the immediate cause was the removal of bricks and mortar from the structural pier just below the third floor, done by employees of the parking garage business without any permits or approvals by the city, the report said, calling the tragedy "preventable."
"The city's construction regulations are in effect to keep people safe. The tragedy at Ann Street reminds us that every time un-permitted work occurs, it could literally lead to loss of life," Deputy Mayor for Operations Jeff Roth said in a statement.
The garage's operator, Little Man Parking, did not immediately respond to an April 29 request for comment. Its website says it operates over 40 parking garages in New York and New Jersey.
What happened in the parking garage collapse?
When the garage collapsed, it was "all the way pancaked, collapsed all the way to the cellar floor,” then-Acting Buildings Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik said at the time.
Several workers were in the building when it went down. One worker was trapped on an upper floor and was rescued via a neighboring rooftop, officials said. The search and rescue was made more difficult by the building's instability, causing crews to pull out and resort to using drones and a robotic dog.
The victim who died was an employee Little Man Parking. The seven injured were also employees.
Vilenchik said the building's certificate of occupancy to operate as a parking garage was filed in 1957. It had "active violations" dating back to 2003, Vilenchik said. There were some current permits filed, including one related to electrical work, Vilenchik said. The building was first constructed in 1925, the report said.
Cause of the collapse revealed
Over many decades, certain load-bearing piers – which are vertical structural components used to bear weight and help distribute it – had begun to deteriorate because they were not properly connected during initial construction. That deterioration caused cracks in the masonry, the report released on April 28 found.
Little Man Parking hired the engineering company Experion Design Group to conduct inspections and develop repair plans. Experion did multiple inspections in 2022 and 2023, and failed to identify that the deteriorating piers were load-bearing or notify the city of their condition, according to the report.
Little Man Parking workers started removing damaged bricks and mortar in March 2023 without getting engineering plans approved or obtaining permits, both of which are required for that kind of work, the report said. The day of the collapse, workers removed more bricks from the load-bearing pier below the third floor.
"This additional work significantly reduced the strength of the pier to the point of failure, and when another parking garage employee on the roof drove a vehicle directly above the pier, the additional weight caused the floor above to come crashing down, setting off a chain reaction that resulted in a collapse of the three-story building," the Department of Buildings said.
The department said a new enforcement unit "focused on inspecting buildings that have been allowed to fall into disrepair by negligent owners and bad actors within the construction industry" will begin working later in 2025.
"The tragic consequences of these failures by the property owners, engineers, and garage operator were preventable, had the parties involved complied with the City’s building regulations," Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber said.
Contributing: Jorge L. Ortiz