Parking garage that caved in killing one was ‘hazardous’ with FOUR open building violations

A New York City parking garage collapsed after the third floor caved in under the weight of vehicles on the roof deck – killing at least one person.

The building had four open violations dating back to 2003, including two referring to the danger of ‘loose concrete in danger of falling’.

Terrifying footage captured cars on a lower level being crushed after the upper floor collapsed and vehicles fell through the ‘pancaked’ broken concrete.

The horror incident left a fleet of vehicles piled on top of one another, causing a huge emergency response at the site near Wall Street at 4.15pm.

Officials have not yet named the victim who died in the incident, but a neighbor claimed it was the site’s manager who was on his way home.

Adam Cohen told the New York Daily News: ‘He was on the second floor when it came down. He was a great guy.’

Initial investigations revealed that the collapse started on the third floor, after the roof deck crumbled under the weight of vehicles.

New York City’s Department of Buildings confirmed that there are four open property violations relating to the garage in Lower Manhattan.

An open complaint in 2013 saw the company fail to maintain the building after there was no exit at a signposted fire exit – with all the doors locked.

The company listed on the complaint, Enterprise Ann Parking LL, was given a $1,200 fine after being found in violation in 2014.

In 2009 they were found to have broken and defective fire stairs, as well as a ‘loose piece of concrete in danger of falling’ in several locations.

The respondent, named as Ann Park LLC, was fined $200 and found to be in violation in 2010, but nothing was ultimately resolved.

Two complaints in 2003 remain open, with one referring to exit lighting not working, as well as exit signs not ‘properly illuminating’.

The other part of the issue was gain to ‘fix concrete’, as well as ‘missing concrete covering steel beams’ and ‘defective concrete with exposed rear cracks.’

57 Ann St Realty Association was fined a total of $1,150 on that occasion, but it does not appear that anything was resolved.

There have been 64 violations in total since the building opened in 1957, with the complaints dating back to 1976.

However, there are still two open DOB violations regarding the elevator in the property, which was issued in 2014.

Three of the complaints were marked as Category One or hazardous issue, meaning that they have to be corrected immediately.

NYC passed a law in 2022 requiring owners of parking structures to have their garages inspected every six years, and to file a report with inspection results to the Department of Buildings.

The Manhattan garage was part of the first two-year inspection cycle , January 2022 to December 2023, meaning that they were not out of compliance – but the law was created too late to catch the problems.

One resident who lives near Financial District parking garage described hearing ‘big bangs’ before the wall came down, leaving a hole in her apartment.

Speaking to the New York Post, Sandy Imhoff – whose second-floor apartment shared a walk with the garage on Ann Street – described the collapse.

‘There were a lot of really big bangs first. Then part of the wall started coming down,’ she told the publication. ‘Bricks were coming through. The place was filling up with dirt … part of my wall is gone now.’

The incident saw people trapped in an elevator shaft, as the decrepit building’s floors ‘pancaked’ on top of each other at 4.10pm, according to city officials.

‘I was just in shock,’ Imhoff told the New York Post. ‘I was worried for the other people in the building.’ She said she fled outside, but that her cats were still inside her apartment as the garage came down.

While building violations were still active, officials have said the garage was not under construction.

Despite this, Imhoff told the news outlet that she heard ‘banging’ coming from the garage at around 10am – which she thought was the sound of building works going on at the site. Six hours later, the building collapsed.

According to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, the building was built in 1925 and received its certificate of occupancy in 1957 for automobile parking.

He shared an old sepia image of the building from when it first opened.

A city record from 2010 shows 34 new auto lifts were installed on the property, which would have ‘added to the weight’ of the building.

Levine wrote on Twitter, ‘there was a lot of weight on each of these floor plates. There was construction, there was even installing an electrical charger for electrical vehicles, but it feels like weight was the culprit here.’

Investigations into the cause of the collapse are on-going.

Footage of the collapse, which was shot on a Ring surveillance camera, shows the vehicles inside in the dark become quickly submerged by falling concrete.

Numerous vehicles were seen crashing through the openings as the collapse caused significant damage.

Witnesses described a woman screaming ‘get out!’ as the structure caved in, and images showed the top floor fallen through with vehicles stacked on broken concrete.

Several New York residents who live near the building told DailyMail.com the structure was known to be old, saying the tragedy was ‘not surprising’.

A parking attendant, who was seen being taken from the scene with his leg wrapped in a bandage, told DailyMail.com that he had been ‘telling them that something like this was going to happen.’

Shannon Wu, who lives on the same street as the collapsed building, was among around 100 people waiting outside after cops closed an area off around two blocks.

‘It’s a very old building, so it’s honestly not surprising,’ she told DailyMail.com. ‘It’s known as a really old building.

‘My boyfriend was home when it happened, and he said the whole street was shaking.’ He described it as ‘like the subway shaking underneath the building’.

The cause of death of the deceased individual has not been made public, and five people are being treated at a local hospital, FDNY Chief of Operations James Esposito said.

Several buildings in the immediate area were evacuated after the incident, and officials told DailyMail.com a police presence will remain in the area as authorities continue to investigate the cause of the accident.

Don Mulligan, who was inside the hotel directly next to the garage when it collapsed, told DailyMail.com: ‘The evacuation was very orderly, they weren’t rushing people, just went over the intercom and got everyone out.’

New York City Mayor Eric Adams told the media that a robotic dog, which is also known as a Digidog, was needed to go into the building when officials arrived on the scene because the collapsed building was unstable.

‘At this time this building is completely unstable and the chief – we do not want to send in someone until we can make sure the building is shored up,’ the mayor added.

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, speaking at the scene, called the incident a ‘structural collapse’.

Responding firefighters did enter the building upon arrival, but retreated when the structure was deemed unstable.

A witness to the horror incident described the sound of the crash as being an ‘incredible noise’.

‘I was wondering what that was so I went to the window and I just saw the top floor of this garage…just beginning to cave in and cars just following into this pit,’ Erasmo Guerra told NBC New York.

Angela Aparico was working in a hotel building about a block away.

‘It just felt like everything was shaking,’ she told DailyMail.com. ‘It was like the whole ground was unsettled, almost like an earthquake.

‘I just hope everybody is okay.’

An Ann Street resident told DailyMail.com: ‘The building looked unsound for years, like a converted residential structure with no additional structural supports, even though the cars were packed onto every floor and the roof, the walls seemed bent and winding outwards. By sight alone it seemed unsound.’

As a result of the incident, the nearby Pace University has canceled all classes and evacuated their nearby campus.

Michael Papayianis, a film student at Pace University, was sent a text message from the university about cancelled classes. ‘It is such an old building,’ he said. ‘Almost all the metal inside is rusty… I wouldn’t be surprised if they just overbooked it with cars.’

The garage is used for parking by the New York Sheriff’s Department, all of their staff are accounted for.

Another Pace University student Charlie Franklin told Pix11 that he and his roommate frequently talked about how unsafe the building looked.

‘It was bound to happen sooner or later. Hopefully they can get their stuff together and Pace can give us accommodations for tonight,’ Franklin said.

Numerous residents in apartments and hotels on the street were spotted being escorted through the evening to new accommodation.