New York City’s Department of Buildings has halted construction at 222 Broadway, GFP Real Estate’s office-to-residential conversion in lower Manhattan, after inspectors found the project’s contractor and engineer failed to report cracks that developed in structural beams. It is the second office-to-residential conversion in the city halted by DOB this month.
DOB found that Leeding Builders Group, the project’s contractor, and DeSimone Consulting Engineers, the engineering firm, did not properly report cracks that appeared in two concrete beams on the building’s newly added top floor, according to Crain’s New York Business. GFP Real Estate is converting the 32-story tower, a former home to Bank of America and WeWork, into a luxury residential building with nearly 800 units.
Second halt follows Pfizer HQ structural emergency
The 222 Broadway stop-work order follows an earlier DOB halt this month at the former Pfizer headquarters conversion in Midtown Manhattan, where two buckled structural columns prompted an evacuation and an emergency stabilization effort. That project involves converting two office buildings, one built in 1909 and the other in the 1960s, into roughly 1,600 apartments by adding more than a dozen stories atop the older structure and redesigning and expanding the other, according to wire service reporting.
The back-to-back incidents have prompted city regulators to widen scrutiny of adaptive-reuse conversion projects across New York, a construction category that has grown rapidly as developers convert underused office towers into housing amid soft office demand and a citywide push for more residential supply.
What it means
Verified facts: DOB halted work at both 222 Broadway and the former Pfizer headquarters this month over structural reporting and stabilization issues tied to office-to-residential conversions.
RealtyWire analysis: The two halts within weeks of each other point to a systemic challenge in adaptive-reuse construction, where older office structures are being significantly reengineered to carry additional residential floors and different load patterns than they were originally designed for. Given the volume of office-to-residential conversions now underway or planned in New York and other cities, the incidents could prompt closer inspection protocols industrywide.
What to watch: Whether DOB imposes broader reporting requirements on active conversion projects citywide, and whether GFP Real Estate’s construction timeline and costs at 222 Broadway are materially affected by the halt.
Source: Crain’s New York Business
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