The next steps for a weakened NYC high-rise are up in the air. Here’s what’s happening now – and what could come next

By Emma Tucker, Holly Yan, Jeff Winter

(CNN) — Crews are expected to finish emergency shoring of a Midtown Manhattan high-rise by Thursday, the building’s developer says. But the timeline and next steps in the “unusually ambitious” construction project remain unclear as investigators try to figure out what caused support columns to buckle on the 21st floor.

One outside structural engineer told CNN a “partial demolition” of the building might be needed before construction can resume on what the developer calls the largest office-to-apartment conversion in New York City history.

While the developer says no part of the building was ever at risk of collapsing, that assertion contrasts with statements Tuesday from city officials, who described the building as unstable and established a formal “collapse zone” around it.

Union workers spotted the crumpled support beams Tuesday and helped people evacuate, a union spokesperson said. Now they and other New Yorkers wonder when it will be safe to return.

Sean Dow, a shop steward with Steamfitters Local 638, said at a Thursday news conference that he first saw cracks in the slab on the 22nd floor before going down a floor and spotting the bending columns.

“I was there with a group of general contractors, and we decided it was time to evacuate the building,” Dow said.

What’s happening now

For more than 24 hours, workers have been shoring up — or reinforcing — the building’s weakest points, using emergency jacks and installing new steel supports, New York City Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said.

Shoring jacks are heavy-duty, adjustable props used to temporarily support vertical structures such as ceilings, concrete slabs and walls.

Workers installed temporary shoring and beams on floors 18 through 23 by Wednesday morning, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said, as crews shored up additional floors throughout the day.

Crews are expected to finish shoring up the affected floors by Thursday, said Nathan Berman, founder and managing principal of the developer, MetroLoft. The impacted columns and beams will be fully replaced once the Department of Buildings clears workers to do so, Berman said.

The construction project involves adding floors to an existing building at 219 East 42nd Street and renovating the neighboring 33-story tower at 235 East 42nd Street, the architectural firm Gensler said.

The project added roughly 18,000 square feet to 15 upper floors, and the additional load caused two columns to bend, Berman said. Those floors then shifted and sagged — some as much as four inches, he said.

The buckled columns sit between the existing structure of the building and the new floors being constructed, which caused the floors to sag, city officials said.

The columns bent from either not being properly reinforced or “having been missed in the reinforcement process,” Berman said, though he added the exact cause will be determined “in due time.”

What could happen next

CNN asked the Department of Buildings on Thursday what work is expected to take place in the coming hours and days.

To fully stabilize the building, crews might need to shore up floors all the way down to the foundation and up to the sagging floors above, structural engineers said.

Ideally, crews will “transfer the weight in the compromised areas to the foundation,” said Chris Cerino, past president of the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations and the Structural Engineers Association of New York.

“They will likely be installing shoring posts, which are small columns, for the entire height of the building at and below the failure zone,” Cerino said.

After reviewing images of the site, Cerino said he believed part of the building might need to be demolished before construction can resume. MetroLoft said it will replace impacted beams and “will fully rebuild” the affected part of the building.

Developer says apartments will still be finished on time

The skyscraper is being converted into apartments — a process that is far more complicated than building apartments from scratch.

Office-to-apartment conversions have surged since the pandemic emptied out aging office buildings and gave cities a way to add much-needed housing. But these conversions require extensive structural, plumbing and mechanical work.

MetroLoft said it will fix the issue that caused the structural damage and rebuild the affected portion alongside ongoing construction. The developer said the problem is a localized situation affecting fewer than 30 of more than 1,600 apartments.

Rebuilding the buckled sections will not delay the project, which is scheduled to be completed next year, the company said.

Mamdani said office-to-residential conversions are “part of our answer to the housing crisis” — but safety and accountability are paramount.

What happened in Midtown “is not a necessary consequence of an office-to-residential conversion,” Mamdani said. “This, however, is clearly a breakdown in that process.”

‘Old buildings deserve new questions’ before more weight

The incident should not deter future repurposing projects aimed at addressing housing shortages because it appears to be a “one-off,” some engineering experts said.

But this project was “unusually ambitious” in adding 11 new floors to a 60-year-old structure, said Kemal Celik, associate professor of civil and urban engineering at New York University in Abu Dhabi.

“The lesson is that when a project changes what a building has to carry, it needs the deepest possible level of structural review — before construction, not during it,” Celik said.

“The message isn’t that conversions are dangerous — it’s that old buildings deserve new questions before you ask them to carry new loads.”

As investigators dig into the cause, the developer has already been sued

Investigators will try to determine how the structural failure happened and how similar incidents can be prevented in the future, the Department of Buildings said.

The probe will include reviews of construction documents, interviews with witnesses and examination of any video or photo evidence from the site.

The agency has also required the building’s owner to hire a third-party engineer to conduct a forensic evaluation — a formal investigation to determine the cause of the structural failure.

Any actions against those responsible for the structural failure are pending the results of the ongoing investigation, the agency said.

MetroLoft is already facing a $300 million-plus legal challenge for alleged dangerous “defects and code violations” at another Manhattan property that its developer converted into high-end residences, court records show.

In 2022, the condo board at 443 Greenwich Street in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood sued MetroLoft’s Berman, another executive and the project’s architect, claiming breach of contract, negligence and fraud, among other allegations, in a civil lawsuit. The case remains active.

The board said a private inspection revealed the building, a former 19th century factory converted into multimillion-dollar condos, “was riddled with defective and unsafe conditions,” some of which were considered “life threatening,” and that the roofs and walls of the building’s penthouses “are literally falling apart,” records show.

Attorneys for the defendants have denied the allegations in court. MetroLoft declined to comment on the pending litigation on Thursday.

The building has been home to numerous celebrities, including Harry Styles, Blake Lively, Justin Timberlake and Jennifer Lawrence, according to local real estate publication The Real Deal.

In a more recent action, MetroLoft is additionally facing a lawsuit filed by a construction worker who suffered a “grave injury” at the East 42nd Street site last year, court records show. The lawsuit is unrelated to Tuesday’s structural failure.

Wilmer Cabrera Rojas was standing on wood while working at the building when it “gave way,” causing him to fall and suffer “serious and permanent injuries,” according to the November civil suit filed in New York state court.

The lawsuit also named site owner 235 Fee Owner LLC and other limited liability companies. The owner was also the subject of an anonymous complaint that the Department of Buildings investigated, accusing the company of performing construction contrary to previously approved plans.

Attorneys for the building’s defendants have denied the allegations in court filings and any liability for the accident. The building has received multiple complaints alleging falling objects and unsafe conditions, but it is unclear who filed them. The owner of the building did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Lawyers for the defendants filed a motion to dismiss Rojas’s case on Monday, citing the plaintiff’s failure to comply with discovery demands. They have also filed a third-party complaint against the construction company that employed Rojas.

An attorney representing the construction company has denied the defendants’ allegations and could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Uncertainty looms

After warning of a potential localized collapse Tuesday, officials have since reopened roads and reduced the size of the evacuation zone as crews worked to stabilize the building.

But Jason Polanco, who left virtually all his belongings when his office building was evacuated Tuesday, still does not know when he can go back. He and his colleagues spent hours trying to retrieve their laptops, paperwork and other essentials — to no avail.

Four buildings remain under full evacuation orders, Mamdani said Wednesday. Part of another building — a ground-floor restaurant — is also under an evacuation order.

For now, Polanco said, he and his team will likely work from a nearby coffee shop until they can return to their building. But businesses that rely on seeing customers in person will likely be hardest hit, he said.

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CNN’s Gloria Pazmino, Samantha Delouya, Elizabeth Wolfe, Rebekah Riess, Sara Smart, Alicia Wallace, Nina Giraldo and Julianna Bragg contributed to this report.