Columns buckle at former Pfizer HQ resi conversion
One of the largest US office-to-residential conversions was halted after structural columns failed, triggering a Midtown collapse zone.
Two steel support columns buckled Tuesday morning at Metro Loft’s conversion of the former Pfizer headquarters at 235 and 219 East 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, forcing the evacuation of nine adjacent buildings. The FDNY and Department of Buildings responded to sagging floors and a compromised beam, establishing a “frozen zone” and collapse zone spanning First to Third Avenues between East 40th and 45th Streets. No injuries were reported, and all workers were accounted for.
“Two structural columns have buckled in addition to multiple cracks and sagging floors, and the building remains unstable,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.
Why it matters. Office-to-residential conversion has been promoted as the fix for aging office stock and housing shortages alike. A high-profile structural failure at one of the largest such projects in the country — planned for more than 1,600 apartments — is a warning about the engineering risk of stripping and re-flooring midcentury office towers.
The numbers. The Metro Loft plan, designed by Gensler with GACE Consulting Engineers as structural engineer, calls for 1,600-plus units across the two buildings, one of which was being raised from nine stories to 30 and had topped out roughly eight months earlier. The project was financed with a $720 million construction loan from Madison Realty Capital in 2025 and $75 million in acquisition financing in 2024.
What’s next. Investigators will assess stabilization and whether work can resume, with implications for New York conversions still in the pipeline. Any delay compounds the carrying cost on a nine-figure loan and could chill lender appetite for complex development conversions.