Construction worker killed at GFI’s DoBro hotel site

A piece of machinery struck him in the head

61 Bond Street Brooklyn
Construction work at 61 Bond Street in Downtown Brooklyn (credit: Tectonic via NY YIMBY) (inset: Allen Gross)

A construction worker was struck and killed by a falling piece of machinery on Tuesday while working on GFI Capital Resources Group and partners’ Downtown Brooklyn hotel project.

The worker, who has not yet been publicly identified, was drilling piles at 61 Bond Street when a shackle snapped off and struck him in the head, DNAinfo reported. He was pronounced dead at the site at 1:22 p.m.

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GFI is currently building a 13-story, 157,000-square-foot hotel at 61 Bond Street. GFI, affiliate GB Lodging and partner Spruce Capital Partners started to work on the planned 285-key, Stonehill & Taylor Architects-designed project last month. GFI secured a $50 million construction loan for the project in March. The number of construction accidents in New York City has been  on the rise since at least 2012.

The number of construction-related accidents hit 500 in fiscal year 2016, compared to 314 the previous year — a 59 percent jump and a more than 200 percent increase from 2012, according to a reportissued last month by the de Blasio administration. By the city’s count, 11 people died on construction sites in 2015. [DNAinfo]Kathryn Brenzel