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MetroLoft’s Pfizer HQ conversion sparks higher scrutiny for NYC projects
City inspectors flagged buckling beams and columns at the 1,600-apartment conversion, and lenders and insurers are expected to tighten engineering review on future office-to-residential deals.
A near collapse during MetroLoft Management and David Werner’s office-to-residential conversion of Pfizer’s former headquarters at 235 E. 42nd St. is likely to raise costs and lengthen timelines for other large-scale conversions in New York City, according to Bisnow.
Building inspectors with the NYC Department of Buildings detected multiple beams and columns that buckled under the weight of an addition in the 42nd Street project. The developers plan to add new floors to an existing structure, and the near collapse drew attention after steel support columns buckled in early July.
Inside the industry, some players are treating the incident as an outlier, but lenders and insurers are expected to increase scrutiny behind closed doors. Parkview Financial CEO and founder Paul Rahimian said the event could have cascading effects, adding that neither lenders nor builders want to receive a call like that.
Bisnow reports that the conversion is part of a broader nationwide effort to repurpose office space amid housing shortages, with 19M SF of office-to-residential conversions planned or underway in New York City. As of March, office conversions expected to be underway were projected to eventually yield 90,300 units, while the MetroLoft project itself is a 1,600-apartment transformation.