A recent Ohio University graduate got a shock last week when he was one of the hundreds affected by an evacuation of the blocks surrounding the Pfizer Building in Midtown Manhattan, amid fears of a building collapse.
Hunter Puterbaugh, 22, had just arrived from Ohio and was staying in the Hampton Inn Manhattan Grand Central while waiting for his Midtown apartment lease to begin, when the area was hastily locked down and evacuated on July 7.
On his commute back from his new finance job in White Plains, NY, he received a text from his father, who was helping him move, saying their hotel was among the buildings being evacuated in response to the crisis.
“The move from Ohio to New York is a huge deal for me because I’ve been in small towns my whole life,” Puterbaugh told Realtor.com®. “So you can imagine the anxiety that I felt just getting off of work, trying to decompress from the long day … and realizing that I can’t come home and change into my own clothes and having to find a whole new [hotel] in a city I’ve only been to for three or four days.”
Puterbaugh had been expecting to go to the hotel, collect his things, and move into his brand-new apartment. Instead, he had to meet his father at the Voco Times Square South hotel, where they had been relocated. The first night of their stay was covered by the original hotel.
His father had rushed out of the Hampton Inn Manhattan Grand Central around 11 a.m. after the fire alarm sounded. After leaving the premises, he learned about the reason for the evacuation.
“He was stuck in a coffee shop for a few hours before they finally let him leave the area, and they basically said no one’s allowed back on this block until the NYPD or the Fire Department said it was OK and safe,” Puterbaugh explained.
His father then headed to T.J. Maxx to purchase clothes and other necessities for the next few days. Thankfully, the next day, the Hampton Inn Manhattan Grand Central emailed the duo to tell them they had an opportunity to pick up their luggage.
My dad “went and got [the luggage] early Wednesday morning,” Puterbaugh said. “But then immediately during the process, they cleared him out quickly for whatever reason. … I think we got really lucky. I think if he would have waited a little longer, I don’t think we would have gotten our stuff as soon as we did.”
The next day, after acquiring his things, Puterbaugh was finally able to move into his new apartment, a one-bedroom on East 44th Street that had been in the initial “frozen zone” surrounding the Pfizer Building.
The collapse scare unfolded at 235 East 42nd St., the former global headquarters of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The company relocated to new headquarters in Hudson Yards in 2023, after selling the property to a developer consortium led by David Werner for $364 million.
In partnership with MetroLoft Management, Werner announced plans to transform the office complex into a 1,600-unit luxury residential property, making it the largest office-to-residential conversion in the country. Interior demolition for the massive project began in 2024.
The ambitious project further merges two formerly independent, interconnected structures: a 10-story building dating to 1905 and a 33-story tower completed in 1960. The developers aim to expand the shorter structure at 219 East 42nd St. to 29 stories.
However, fears of a potential collapse arose after renovation crews noticed buckled support columns on the 21st floor. Sagging floors were also reported between the 21st and 26th floors.
Approximately 40 FDNY units, comprising 140 fire and EMS personnel, rushed to the scene around 8 a.m. The Department of Building Engineers also responded, using FDNY drone footage to inspect the structural damage. No injuries were reported.
At a July 7 press conference, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani described the situation as “extremely serious.”
While emergency support beams have since been installed and MetroLoft states it has “identified the issue,” the property remains under an active DOB investigation for potential “structural failure.”
In a statement to Realtor.com, MetroLoft thanked the FDNY, NYPD, and DOB for their rapid response:
“The safety of everyone at and surrounding the building is our number one priority. We’re thankful there were no injuries, and as the DOB clarified, no debris fell from the building. We want to confirm that the affected area is a small section of one of the two buildings on this site. As the FDNY spokesperson noted, the entire building itself is not at risk of collapse.”
In an interview with The Real Deal, the building’s developer, Nathan Berman of MetroLoft, described the incident as a “freak accident,” triggered by the weight of the building’s new vertical addition, adding that the situation was “blown a little bit out of proportion.”
“This was well designed and approved by structural engineers,” Berman said. “This is a freak accident that something occurred with these two specific columns that either were not reinforced or were not reinforced sufficiently, and they gave way. That’s it. There’s no mystery, and there’s no magic.”
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Berman explained that the columns may not have been reinforced enough to handle the additional load from widening the top 15 floors.
“It’s very simple,” Berman said. “You add more load to something that can’t support it, it’ll give way, and that’s what happened. And now it just needs to be fixed.”
However, Berman denied that the problem could have resulted in a full collapse.
“It’s too big a building,” he said. “Ninety-five percent of the building, the structure is sound and intact.”
Despite the scare, the conversion is expected to move forward. Mamdani continues to support the project, viewing office-to-residential conversions as a vital tool to combat the city’s housing shortage.
However, he emphasized that safety cannot be compromised and that conversions must be conducted “safely and in a way that is fully accountable.”
The high-profile development currently has 186 DOB violations and 52 complaints, including a previous infraction for failing to report an incident that resulted in a fatality or injury.
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