Parking Garage In Fatal Collapse Had Outstanding Violations For Cracks In Concrete

UPDATE, APRIL 19, 2:40 P.M. ET: This story has been updated to include new information about the garage's history of code violations and its planned demolition.

A parking garage in Lower Manhattan collapsed Tuesday afternoon, killing one person. Five others were initially reported as injured, but that number has since risen to seven.

The second floor of the four-story Enterprise Ann Parking building at 57 Ann St. collapsed onto the first shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday, according to New York City Fire Department statements reported by ABC7 and CBS News.

The building’s main structure remained standing following the collapse, but the garage itself was deemed unstable and in danger of collapse, Mayor Eric Adams said in a news conference at the scene.

“We don’t know exactly what happened here,” Adams said. “There was no open violations on the structure.” 

City officials said Wednesday they are planning for a "controlled demolition" of the property, the New York Daily News reported. Forensic engineers will conduct a study to determine what happened, but they told the Daily News that the weight of the vehicles on the roof deck and the age of the building were contributing factors in the collapse.

Firefighters were evacuated after reporting the sounds of concrete continuing to buckle around them. Emergency responders used the New York City Police Department’s new robotic dogs and drone technology to survey the building from the inside due to concerns over dangers to firefighters entering the building.

One worker was trapped on the upper floors and was removed via the roof to another building, an FDNY spokesperson said. NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell told press that the collapse was due to structural integrity and wasn’t caused by any external factors.

“It felt like an earthquake,” a student at Pace University next to the collapse told the Associated Press. 

City officials said the building was issued its certificate of occupancy in 1957. They were not aware of any current construction on the property, with 2010 as the last date that planned works were filed with the city. The Department of Buildings plans to investigate the collapse, officials said at the scene.

Classes were canceled and students evacuated from the Pace University building next door, and subway cars received instructions to reduce their speed in the area.

Little Man Parking serves as the operator of the garage. Messages to the company requesting comment weren’t returned. 

The building had a history of violations, the Daily News reported. Public records show that the building’s owners were served 20 violations over the last 20 years, including four open violations issued between 2003 and 2013 that the DOB has no registered fix for.

In a 2003 inspection, the DOB said the building didn’t have the required lighting by exits and in emergency stairwells, and cited “first floor ceiling slab cracks” in addition to “defective concrete with exposed rear cracks” and “missing concrete covering steel beams,” per the Daily News.

Violations issued in 2009 say the southwest side of the building had “loose pieces of concrete in danger of falling” and that the exits and fire stairs were “defective.” Building owners were cited again in 2013 for failing to keep the building compliant with code and for inadequate doorways and exits.

The building is owned by 57 Ann St. Realty Associates, an entity registered to Jeffrey and Alan Henick, according to public records. The Henicks have owned the building since at least 1988, the earliest posted record in the city’s property database. Contact information for the Henicks, who also own Long Island-based Western Carpet and Linoleum, was unavailable.

Alan and Jeffrey Henick are the sons of Murray Henick, who founded Western Carpet and owned parking garages, according to a 2014 obituary.

Alan Henick is also CEO of WB Acquisition, which sold a 75-foot-wide site at 65-69 North Sixth St. in Brooklyn to Silverstone Property Group for $4.3M in 2011, The Real Deal reported at the time.