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Policy Pro: Council eyes construction oversight rules after Pfizer HQ scare

Plus other news at the intersection of policy and real estate

Caroline Spivack

Jul 9, 2026

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Hey there, let’s get into today’s news at the intersection of policy and real estate:

Structural failures at the former Pfizer headquarters have put the developer, its subcontractors and the Department of Buildings in the City Council's crosshairs.
DOB Commissioner Ahmed Tigani says New York’s building code is stuck in regulatory quicksand.
A state report flagged staffing shortages and slower reviews at DOB, while the agency insists inspections remain on track.

In this edition we mention: City Council members Virginia Maloney and Pierina Sanchez, MetroLoft Management’s David Werner and Nathan Berman, Department of Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and others.

We Heard

Regulatory reckoning? Structural failures at the former Pfizer headquarters on East 42nd Street have City Council members questioning whether the developer, contractors or the city’s building agency failed to prevent the incident — and if tougher oversight is needed. The Department of Buildings is investigating the cause of buckling structural columns at the office-to-residential conversion project led by David Werner along with Nathan Berman’s MetroLoft Management. City Council member Virginia Maloney, whose East Manhattan district includes the project, said officials need answers. “We need to fully understand where things broke down,” said Maloney in an interview. “I’m eager to see what comes back from the investigation to make sure that we are holding our developers to the highest quality standards.” Once DOB releases its findings, Maloney said she plans a close review “to ensure our safety guidelines are modernized” — signaling that the incident could spur new City Council legislation on building safety and construction oversight. Maloney said it’s unclear whether office-to-residential conversion projects require additional protocols, but if the investigation uncovers project-specific issues, she said any new rules need to be careful not to tie up a tool to build more housing with red tape. Council member Pierina Sanchez, who chairs the Council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings, also cautioned against using the incident to derail office-to-residential conversions. Instead she zeroed in on questions of construction oversight. “Was work being performed in accordance with approved plans, permits and any post-approval amendments?” said Sanchez. “Were the engineer of record, special inspection agency, construction superintendent, site safety manager and other required professionals fulfilling their responsibilities?” Sanchez also questioned whether DOB’s inspection and enforcement systems functioned as intended. “Our regulatory framework is strong,” added Sanchez, "but standards only protect the public when enforcement agencies are staffed, resourced and able to ensure that developers, contractors and construction professionals are following the rules.” She pointed to this year’s budget, which cut 16 positions from DOB’s enforcement division, including seven inspector roles. DOB spokesperson Andrew Rudansky pushed back on concerns about staffing levels, saying 78 new inspectors graduated from the agency’s training program last month and another 58 inspector hires are in the training pipeline to fill vacancies.
Code bottleneck: On the topic of regulatory reform: DOB Commissioner Ahmed Tigani is backing a faster path for updating the city’s building code, arguing that New York’s current system moves too slowly to keep pace with safety needs. Testifying Wednesday night before the city’s Commission on Government Efficiency, Tigani said he supports charter amendments that would let routine technical code updates move through the city’s existing administrative rule-making process rather than requiring City Council review. He pointed to the more than seven-year regulatory slog behind the rollout of the city’s 2022 construction codes as proof the process needs an overhaul. “The result is that New York City consistently lags behind peer cities on adopting more modern standards, which include safety enhancements,” Tigani testified. He added that the Council would still retain its authority to direct specific code changes, but that reform would “simply remove delays on the back end.”
Capacity concerns: A late June report from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office found that DOB’s staffing and budget have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, contributing to “deteriorated” turnaround times for construction plan reviews and inspections. DiNapoli suggested the challenges may have played a role in the conditions at the former Pfizer headquarters this week. “The incident Tuesday suggests the city’s slowing response times to inspection requests are taking a toll,” DiNapoli said in a statement, adding that the city “must look seriously at its ability to inspect and safely encourage” development. Still, the same report found that DOB responds timely to high-priority complaints and that in 2025 construction-related injuries fell to 355 — the lowest level in a decade. DOB spokesperson Rudansky said that the agency conducted multiple inspections at the 42nd Street building (spurred by complaints and also proactively) to confirm compliance with the city’s construction safety codes. “None of those inspections that occurred this year found unsafe or non-code compliant conditions,” said Rudansky. The department regulates more than one million buildings and over 44,000 active construction sites across the five boroughs. The agency had 1,645 employees as of May, with a vacancy rate of roughly 10 percent, according to data from city Comptroller Mark Levine’s office.

Have a tip or feedback? Reach me at caroline.spivack@therealdeal.com.

The Catch-Up
The office-to-resi boom is facing a big test after the Midtown high-rise scare, but the projects haven’t fallen out of favor with the mayor just yet, reports The Real Deal’s Ben Miller.

Washington is walking away from a voucher bailout for New York: The Trump administration says it won’t use federal money set aside by Congress to replace rental assistance set to expire, shifting the burden back to the city, reports Gothamist.

A Legionnaires’ outbreak is putting building cooling systems in the spotlight, with Council Speaker Julie Menin calling on the city to order inspections and cleanups of potentially contaminated towers, reports the New York Post.

The Kicker
“Time is money, and we are going to give New Yorkers some of that time back — six minutes to be precise,” said Mayor Mamdani, on his and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to make city buses run faster.