The developer behind the Midtown Manhattan tower that was evacuated over structural concerns Tuesday says it has a plan to fix the issue, including reconstructing 15 floors that were added to the original building as part of its conversion into apartments, according to Crain’s New York. The height of the tower’s 21st floor, which is taller than others at 235 East 42nd St., made two columns more susceptible to load, said Nathan Berman, chief executive officer of developer Metro Loft. Those columns weren’t sufficiently reinforced, leading them to bend and causing some of the 15 cantilevered floors above to sag. “We are prepared to rebuild that portion of the building,” Berman said in an interview. “It will be reskinned, everything will be leveled, fixed in place, and it will be brand new.” The damage at the tower, the former headquarters of Pfizer Inc., has highlighted the engineering challenges of office conversions, a strategy embraced by developers and officials including Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a way to address New York’s housing shortage. Berman said shoring and stabilization of the building is likely to be completed in the next day or two, after which Metro Loft will wait on city officials for further instructions. He emphasized that the structural concerns affect only about 18,000 square feet out of the entire 1.3 million-square-foot-project. Berman said that construction was several months ahead of schedule, so it’s unlikely that this setback will impact the project’s original timeline of opening this year, or its $720 million construction loan provided by Madison Realty Capital.
https://www.crainsnewyork.com/news/cny-midtown-building-replacing-15-floors-20260709/
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