Lucille Maundrell’s three-story Williamsburg property was getting an additional floor and penthouse when the structure went tumbling to the ground yesterday, trapping one worker under the rubble and injuring four others.
Maundrell, the mother of aptsandlofts.com president David Maundrell, owns the brick residential building at 34 Conselyea Street, which was slated to have five residences following the renovation. No one was living there at the time of the collapse.
“It appears that critical support members were removed from the building and we believe that contributed to the collapse,” said Tony Sclafani, a spokesperson for the Department of Buildings.
An investigation into who is responsible for the collapse is ongoing as the city hopes to speak with both the contractor, Brooklyn-based China Perfect Construction, and the engineer, Anthony Gennaro, of Manalapan, N.J., Sclafani said, noting that the owner is ultimately responsible for the property.
“We are working with the Department of Buildings to determine the cause of the collapse,” Lucille Maundrell told The Real Deal in an e-mailed statement. “Our thoughts are with the workers injured in this unfortunate accident.”
While building permits show that David has done work on the building in the past, he said he is no longer affiliated with the property and is involved only by virtue of the fact that it belongs to his mother.
In May, an inspector from the Department of Buildings observed cracks on the exterior of 34 Conselyea Street and cited Maundrell for failure to maintain the property. That issue had
since been resolved.
Neither China Perfect Construction nor Anthony Gennaro responded to requests for comment. The architect, Hernan Galvis of Fractal Architecture, declined to comment.