Streets around a damaged midtown Manhattan high-rise near Grand Central Terminal reopened Wednesday, July 15, as residents and hotel guests returned and crews shored up two buckled support columns found on the 21st floor. The discovery early Tuesday triggered mass evacuations and street closures, though no further movement has been detected.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the city will conduct a full investigation once emergency safety questions are answered, calling the damage "clearly a breakdown in that process" of converting the former Pfizer headquarters into housing. The project, led by developer MetroLoft, is billed as the city's largest office-to-residential conversion, creating some 1,600 apartments with a rooftop pool, fitness center and ground-floor retail. Founder Nathan Berman acknowledged that added weight from widening the top floors likely caused the damage. Unionized construction workers protested the developers' use of non-union labor.
The Department of Buildings said emergency repairs are supervised by the owner's engineer and an independent engineering firm, and a "rigorous assessment" must confirm code compliance before non-emergency work resumes. Fordham University real estate expert Joshua Harris expects the tower would still find tenants if completed, given its location and the city's housing demand.