New York City inspectors are conducting safety probes into other construction sites in the city after a Midtown Manhattan conversion project was at risk of partial collapse last week.

The city is looking into projects that involve the same developer, MetroLoft, and the private building inspector it hired, Domani Inspection Services, in the conversion of the old Pfizer headquarters in Midtown, where two steel columns buckled last week, according to a person familiar with the matter.

MetroLoft and Domani didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Department of Buildings started investigating other projects as a "proactive" safety measure in response to the structural issues at 235 East 42nd Street that emerged last week, said David Maggiotto, a spokesman for the agency.

The spokesman declined to name companies, but said the city would examine other projects run by those involved in the 42nd Street conversion.

"We need to look at everybody who is involved in this work site and then look at what other properties they are involved in throughout New York City," Maggiotto said. "Are we going to inspect every property that has some connection to people who worked at this? Probably not."

These safety sweeps are part of a series of investigations into what went wrong at the old Pfizer building to put it on the brink of partial collapse last Tuesday. After the two steel columns buckled and several floors of the building began to sag, nine surrounding buildings were evacuated and emergency responders blocked off the streets amid morning rush hour. Four buildings are still under a full vacate order.

The city's building department hired engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti to conduct its own independent forensic analysis of the 42nd Street incident, the department said. The agency is also conducting interviews with "witnesses and responsible parties" related to the incident. The building department said it had not detected any new movement of the building since last Tuesday.

The inspections were previously reported by the New York Times.

MetroLoft set out to turn the old Pfizer headquarters into 1,600 new apartments, complete with a rooftop pool, gym and ground-floor retail. It is the largest planned office-to-residential conversion in the country.

Nathan Berman, managing principal and founder of MetroLoft, said that the steel columns may have buckled because they hadn't been properly reinforced to support the extra weight of the new additions to the property.

Office-to-residential conversions have boomed over the past half-decade as cities contend with a combination of empty office space and chronic housing shortages. Public officials welcome these projects as an answer to both, and tend to award them with tax breaks or other incentives to encourage these developments.

While the incident at the old Pfizer building has spooked some investors and lenders of these projects, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has maintained his support for office-to-residential conversions.

"I do continue to consider the conversion of office space into residential space as part of our answer to the housing crisis," Mamdani said last week. "I also consider that we have to do so safely and in a way that is fully accountable."

Write to Rebecca Picciotto at Rebecca.Picciotto@wsj.com and James Fanelli at james.fanelli@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

The developers of a conversion project on a Midtown Manhattan building where two steel columns buckled last week hired engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti to conduct its own independent forensic analysis of the incident, the city's buildings department said. "New York City Officials Inspecting Other Buildings After Midtown High Rise Buckled," at 5:07 p.m. ET, incorrectly said the department said it had hired the engineering firm.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 14, 2026 17:31 ET (21:31 GMT)

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