Construction Worker Dies at Sam Chang Hotel Site [Updated]
By Lauren Elkies Schram September 24, 2014 10:39 am
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A construction worker at a future Sam Chang hotel was trapped and killed yesterday by a concrete slab on West 37th Street.
Mr. Chang told Commercial Observer he doesn’t know exactly what happened, but that the construction company on the project, Cavo Construction, was meeting with the city’s Department of Buildings now and he would learn more afterward.
According to the DOB, a concrete slab from the adjoining 320 West 37th Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues dislodged from the underpinning area and fell on the worker at 326 West 37th Street. A DOB violation was written for 320 West 37th Street for “failure to maintain and a partial vacate for the store at first floor on the exposure side,” the DOB’s spokesman said. A stop-work order was issued at the hotel site. The building at 320 West 37th Street was evacuated due to concerns about the structural stability, according to a spokesman for the Fire Department of New York.
Officials told The New York Times, “the man was working to secure the foundation of a building next to the site when a piece of concrete from that building came loose around 1:30 p.m.”
Mr. Chang’s McSam Hotel Group purchased 326 West 37th Street for $18.6 million on Feb. 24. The 10,000-square-foot parking lot will become a Gene Kaufman-designed hotel with 242 rooms, as Commercial Observer previously reported. At 22 stories, the hotel will have a gym, meeting room and ground-level restaurant/bar.
Update: The story was edited to include a detail from the Fire Department of New York.
