Development Site Next to Fatal Flatbush Building Collapse Faced Safety Issues
By Amanda Schiavo November 12, 2026 10:26 am
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The development site at 2625 Bedford Avenue in Flatbush, Brooklyn, which is next to an apartment building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue that suffered a deadly collapse on Wednesday, had previously been hit with a stop-work order and a $10,000 fine, New York City Department of Building (DOB) records show.
The three-story mixed-use building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue collapsed on Wednesday afternoon, leaving at least eight people dead and 17 more injured as of Thursday morning.
While the official cause of the collapse has not yet been identified, the building had fallen into a hole left by the construction site next door at 2625 Bedford Avenue, which was acquired in 2024 for $4 million by Judy Swimer and Faigy Fischman through the entity JS1024 LLC and FF1632 LLC, according to property records. Robert Fischman is listed as the owner of the project in the most recent DOB records.
The developers filed plans in October to build a nine-story mixed-use building with 64 residential units on the Bedford Avenue site, according to the DOB. Swimmer and Fischman could not be reached for comment.
Demolition of the Bedford Avenue site began in September of last year, according to news site Clarin, while excavation began in September of this year. Inspectors had issued safety citations at the site in May 2026, one of which was for failing to ensure proper protections for nearby properties. A violation notice from the DOB in April also shows that the developers had proceeded with the demolition while under a stop-work order, but work resumed after they paid a $10,000 fine.
There is currently a new stop-work order from the DOB on the property.
There still needs to be a full and thorough investigation into what exactly caused the collapse — which occurred around 4 p.m. on Wednesday — at the residential building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue. The FDNY and other rescue workers are still digging through the rubble.
“The FDNY responded within one minute [of receiving the 911 call] and immediately started search and rescue operations,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Wednesday evening during a press conference. “This has been an incredibly challenging and fast-moving situation.”
Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.
