This is an extended version of the story that appears in our latest print edition.

A Laborers’ union representative is calling out elected officials to address “corporate greed” amid news of an elevator collapse in the South Bronx last week that left one person dead and another critically injured.  

 

As reported by Norwood News, the FDNY responded to the collapse on Wednesday, May 19, at a site located at 20 Bruckner Boulevard in Port Morris in the vicinity of dense construction, part of a billion dollar waterfront development in the South Bronx. On arrival, they found one person dead and another in critical condition. The incident was reported on the Citizen’s App, and a verified video was uploaded to the site showing several fire trucks outside the building.

Rudansky went on to say that the location had active construction permits for a major alteration and vertical enlargement of the existing building. DOB’s preliminary investigation determined that the two construction workers were using the onsite elevator to transport construction debris between floors when it fell to the bottom floor. The agency issued a Full Stop Work Order for the entire work site, and the investigation into the incident began. Rudansky said enforcement actions were pending the results of the investigation.

 

According to DOB records, there are three buildings at the lot location, at 18-22 Bruckner Boulevard, and as of May 19, 34 complaints had been logged in respect of the building. Meanwhile, 78 violations had been recorded by DOB, and 44 other violations had been recorded by other City agencies.

 

Norwood News attempted to speak to some construction workers in the area of the site on the day the incident occurred but they declined to comment. However, we did speak with Anthony Williamson, the Bronx representative of Local 79, Construction and General Building Laborers, who was in the area that day. He spoke about the dangers faced by construction workers in the building industry in general, saying, “This is the kind of thing we want to avoid happening. This is [a] $1 billion water development happening here, in an Opportunity Zone under the Trump administration, a $2 billion Opportunity Zone.”

 

According to New York State’s Empire State Development (ESD) agency, the State participates in the so-called Opportunity Zone community development program, offered through the Tax Cuts and Job Acts of 2017, passed under the Trump administration.

 

The program encourages private investment in low-income urban and rural communities, in exchange for tax relief. However, details are scant as to what such investments cover, and how they are measured in terms of actually alleviating poverty in the selected neighborhoods. New York State recommended 514 New York census tracts to the U.S. Department of the Treasury to be designated as Opportunity Zones.

 

Norwood News reached out to NYS Empire State Development (ESD), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Treasury, NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD), NYC Department of City Planning (DCP), and NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and no department was able to provide us with exact details of the Opportunity Zone programs in The Bronx nor who the contracted private developers are.

 

A representative from the treasury department said it “would not have any knowledge of the specific properties, only the census tracts.” A HPD representative told us, “NYS HUD maintains the [Opportunity Zone] data, and we don’t [have] involvement in designating the areas which are approved by the U.S. Treasury.” The same representative referred us to EDC.

 

Through our analysis of the census tracts designated for development in The Bronx, we found that the Bruckner Boulevard development in Port Morris falls into one such census tract. Meanwhile, EDC lists various Bronx projects on its website, including the “Bronx Point” multi-use development which includes the ongoing construction of the new Universal Hip Hop Museum, as reported. However, a search for “Opportunity Zone” on the EDC website yields no results.

 

One of the Bronx Point museum partners is L+M Development Partners, a company which is also affiliated with Cross Bronx Preservation LLC, the new property manager for Baychester Homes in Edenwald, part of the NYCHA PACT program. Norwood News recently reported how a homeless man based in Bedford Park alleges he was evicted from Baychester Homes after the new property manager took over.

 

Meanwhile, the lobby group, Reinvent Albany, said it is supportive of legislation sponsored by Bronx Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81) to essentially reverse the tax breaks won by developers under the Trump 2017 tax laws and the Opportunity Zone program. According to the group, many independent fiscal watchdogs said the Opportunity Zone program was a tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars, and did nothing for the lower-income communities it was claiming to help.

 

Meanwhile, speaking in general about construction in the South Bronx waterfront vicinity, Williamson also told Norwood News, “What’s happening here, there’s a mix/combination of skilled and unskilled, trained and untrained workers, and because of the untrained workers, working in this environment, that’s created these things that have happened.” He did not specifically refer to the Bruckner Boulevard building.

 

He mentioned the company, Brookfield Properties, an international conglomerate, as one example of an entity that, in his opinion, is allegedly cutting corners. Norwood News attempted to connect with Brookfield Properties at the time for comment but did not manage to reach anyone.

 

The union representative alleged the company hired and paid laborers as low as $15 an hour (minimum wage in New York State), without any healthcare or benefits, the inference being that the risks associated with construction work merited a much higher rate, especially amid the pandemic. Despite the clear dangers associated with construction work, Williamson said many construction workers do not have health insurance, and are on a minimum wage.

According to its website, among many global properties, Brookfield Properties owns two sites in Mott Haven in the South Bronx at the base of the Third Avenue Bridge. “Our plans to develop a 1.4 million square foot residential-led project will deliver over 1,300 apartments, almost 20,000 square feet of retail and community facility space, and the largest public waterfront park in the area,” a statement on its website read. “This will be a transformative project for the neighborhood and one of the most substantial private investments in the history of the borough.”

 

Norwood News reached out to Brookfield Properties for comment on what Williamson alleged regarding hourly rates. We did not receive an immediate response.

 

On July 22, in the context of a subsequent story in which Brookfield Properties was also referenced, a company representative reached out to Norwood News and said they had no record of being contacted for comment in May. The representative also denied Williamson’s allegations. During the course of our conversation, the representative said Brookfield had no untrained workers working on their projects, that no worker was on minimum wage, and that all have undergone OSHA training.

 

In addition, according to Brookfield, the company’s subcontractors, under the supervision of the company’s construction management team, conduct toolbox safety talks and job hazard analysis each morning ahead of the day’s tasks. Brookfield representatives said they have both site safety managers and on-site medics (for first aid) located on their project sites, and that they conduct third party safety inspections at least once a month. The representatives stressed that safety is continuously monitored and reinforced with periodic stand-downs to focus on specific issues.

 

Norwood News reached out to Williamson for further comment based on the feedback received from Brookfield. We were informed that his understanding was that Brookfield uses a subcontractor, Tridon Construction, to hire workers. We contacted Brookfield Properties again and asked if Tridon Construction was one of its sub-contractors and if the hiring of workers at the company’s New York City sites was managed by Tridon. Specifically, we also asked if Brookfield paid Tridon, and if Tridon then paid the workers that it hires directly.

 

We also asked if that was the case, what kind of oversight was in place at Brookfield to ensure that Tridon was operating within the law, in terms of its hiring and payment practices. Finally, we also asked Brookfield Properties to confirm if the company hires non-union workers. A company representative replied to say that they had nothing further to add to the story right now.

Meanwhile, acknowledging that he didn’t know the exact circumstances surrounding the Bruckner Boulevard accident, Williamson added, “It doesn’t matter if you’re an elevator construction worker, you’re a plumber, or you’re a laborer who holds a shovel in your hand, the fact remains that you’ve got to be treated with dignity and respect, and contractors have got to stop cutting corners at the expense of people.”

 

Norwood News previously reported on a construction site accident that occurred in August 2019 at 94 E. 208th Street in Norwood, where one worker died following a scaffolding collapse. We reached out to DOB as to the cause of the latest two elevator incidents.

 

Rudansky responded, saying the incident in Queens did not finally involve an elevator, and that the fatal construction incident in the South Bronx was still under investigation. He provided the following information regarding the Brooklyn and Queens incidents.

Info on 86 34^th Street, Brooklyn: 

• On 5/10/21, DOB inspectors responded to a reports of an elevator incident at 86 34^th Street, Brooklyn.
• Our preliminary investigation indicates that the building’s freight elevator was reportedly carrying 25 individuals and a large amount of IT equipment, when it dropped from the first floor to the basement.
• We have issued a Cease Use Order on the elevator device, and our investigation into this incident is ongoing.

 

Info on 45-18 Court Street, Queens:

• On Saturday, 5/22/21, DOB inspectors were called to the scene at 45-18 Court Square, Queens, to investigate a construction worker fall that occurred at the 6-story building, which is currently undergoing permitted alterations.
• Our preliminary investigation determined that two workers were on the 6th floor of the building, when one of the workers fell to the 2nd floor.
• The worker was transported to a local area hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.
• We have issued a Full Stop Work Order at the site.
• Our investigation into this incident is ongoing. Additional enforcement actions are pending that investigation.

 

We also asked DOB for the final outcome regarding the 2019 Norwood construction accident, and were provided with a summary which had been included in a report compiled by DOB of all construction related accidents throughout 2019.

 

According to the report, on August 27, 2019, workers were building a 4-story structure at 94 East 208th Street in Norwood. After placing a deck on the 3rd floor deck, the contractor accepted delivery of masonry materials onto the deck to continue construction. A week earlier, a special inspector had warned the contractor in writing that he needed to pour the first and second floor decks, before continuing to support the loads, to provide structural rigidity to the floor and surrounding walls.

 

Shortly after the material delivery, according to DOB, the 3rd floor deck collapsed killing one worker and injuring five others. According to DOB findings, failure to brace the deck, lack of oversight by the construction super, failure to follow the special inspector instructions, lack of knowledge surrounding the requirements of cold for steel construction, and lack of bracing of the cold form steel were the major contributing factors to the accident.

 

The 2019 report found that a quarter of all construction-related accidents that year related to worker falls (141).

We asked DOB for a comment regarding which agency monitors whether developers hire skilled or unskilled workers, and what the rules are in this regard. Rudansky responded, saying, “New York City has among the most stringent construction safety regulations in the country. All construction workers on large work sites in New York City are legally required to have at least 40 hours of site safety training, and the Department conducts unannounced safety inspections at all of these large sites to ensure that all of the workers have this critical training.”

 

In the meantime, the following information regarding construction site safety is available on the DOB website, along with the attached confirmation of what appointments are required for construction licensing applications.

 

All construction sites must have a professional certified by DOB on-site, to supervise site safety. Three types of certifications are issued to monitor site safety:

• A certified Site Safety Manager is required to oversee safety on construction sites of buildings 15 stories and higher in New York City.
• A certified Site Safety Coordinator is required to oversee safety on construction sites up to 14 stories in New York City.
• A registered Construction Superintendent is required to oversee safety on construction sites up to 9 stories in New York City.

 

A separate site safety training requirement section specified that, as a requirement of Local Law 196 of 2017, workers at most major construction sites must be able to show that they have completed OSHA 10 training within the previous five years. With effect from 2020, workers at job sites that require a Site Safety Plan (which includes sites that must designate a Construction Superintendent, Site Safety Coordinator, or Site Safety Manager) must receive a minimum of 40 hours of training. Get more information.

 

Meanwhile, on Friday, May 28, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced the arrest of Sina Moayedi, the owner of a construction company, on charges including bribery and fraud. Montage is a U.S.-based business that is primarily involved in worldwide government construction projects, including embassies, military posts, consulates, and similar overseas properties owned and operated by the United States government.

Regarding the Bruckner Boulevard incident, Williamson summed up the situation, saying, “Now, here is a guy that the family will never see him no more and the other guy, I understand, who is injured, who knows what condition he’s going to be in? And these are the kinds of things we want to stop.”

 

Since this story was published, DOB has carried out a number of sweeps/checks of various building sites across the City to check for safety violations, as reported, and OSHA has also taken action at a federal level to reinforce safety measures, as reported.

 

On June 29, Williamson reported that members of Local 79 celebrated a successful campaign at 425 Westchester Avenue in The Bronx to end what he called “Body Shops and Exploitation of the formerly incarcerated” at that job site. “Northbay Builders Corp and its associate vanguard decided to do the right thing,” he said. “Solidarity forever. Feel the Power!”

 

A person accused of a crime is assumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.