Worker Is Killed in Accident at Trump SoHo Tower
January 14, 2008
A construction worker was killed in a fall this afternoon after a corner of the Trump SoHo hotel and condominium tower under construction in Manhattan was sheared off, city officials said. The building, which is to rise 46 stories, has been a persistent source of controversy, with community groups complaining about its size and proposed use.It was unclear how far the dead worker fell, but initial police estimates said the distance was at least 30 feet. A second worker fell several stories into some netting, and was rescued, with injuries. The collapse occurred at 1:52 p.m. at the hotel and tower, at 246 Spring Street near Varick Street, west of the heart of SoHo. Witnesses reported that a large number of firefighters and emergency medical workers converged on the area, as did police officers from the First Precinct.
The company managing construction at the site, Bovis Lend Lease, is the same company that oversaw demolition of the former Deutsche Bank building in Lower Manhattan, where two firefighters were killed in August in a blaze that swept through the contaminated structure.
The Trump SoHo tower is being developed by the Trump Organization, the Bayrock Group and the Sapir Organization.
Last month, The New York Times reported that an employee of the Bayrock Group who is involved in the project, Felix H. Sater, was accused by federal authorities in 1998 of money laundering and stock manipulation in a federal complaint that remains under seal. A subsequent indictment in 2000 stemming from the same investigation described Mr. Sater as an “unindicted co-conspirator” and an important figure in a $40 million scheme involving 19 stockbrokers and organized crime figures from four Mafia families. The indictment asserted that Mr. Sater helped create fraudulent stock brokerages that were used to defraud investors and launder money.
Mr. Sater and his lawyer, Judd Burstein, repeatedly refused to discuss in detail his role in the stock scheme. Mr. Sater now spells his last name Satter, he said, in an attempt to distance himself from the past. Neither Bayrock nor Mr. Trump has been accused of wrongdoing.
In September, Mr. Trump and his three children held a news conference at the tower to announce details of the project, even as dozens of opponents gathered outside in protest, holding up placards that read “Dump the Trump” and “Don’t Comb Over Here.”
The building will include 400 apartments priced at more than $3,000 per square foot; those apartments will range from 425 square-foot studios to suites of more than 10,000 square feet. Owners will be permitted to live in those apartments for 120 days out of the year, or 29 days out of any consecutive 36 days; when not living there, owners will be able to rent out their apartments.
As Rob Walker noted in The Times Magazine in October, SoHo long ago shed its reputation as a scruffy haven for artists. The project is being cast as “the downtowning of Trump,” Mr. Walker wrote.
A coalition of public officials and community groups have opposed the project, including several state and city lawmakers, the Municipal Art Society and four Community Boards in Manhattan.
“Once the city issued the building permit, the only recourse was to take the city to court, and that is in process,” said Andrew Berman, executive director of one of the groups, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which has argued that the zoning for the site does not permit a hotel-condominium, an interpretation the city has disagreed with. “Neighbors have commented on the phenomenal pace of construction, which some speculated was an attempt to head off the legal challenge. People were amazed at how quickly the construction seemed to go. So tragically, in some ways this is not surprising.”
The city’s Board of Standards and Appeals, where the appeal of the Buildings Department’s decision was filed, has not yet set a hearing date, Mr. Berman said. “The city has seemed to do everything in its power to shepherd this through and put the brake on community challenges.”
Aurora Kessler, a spokeswoman for the Trump SoHo project, referred a request for comment to Mary Costello, a spokeswoman for Bovis Lend Lease, which has been handling construction at the site. Ms. Costello has not yet responded to a phone message.
Charles V. Bagli, Al Baker and Mathew R. Warren contributed reporting.
Source NY Times
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