New York City has paused construction at several office-to-apartment conversions since Pfizer tower structural problems | CNN Business

New York City is counting on office-to-apartment conversions to help relieve its housing shortage. But after structural problems earlier this month threatened a partial collapse at one of the city’s largest such projects, regulators have intensified scrutiny. Since then, three more Manhattan office conversion projects have been ordered to partially pause or halt construction this month over issues ranging from missing paperwork to cracks in concrete beams. Most recently, inspectors from New York City’s Department of Buildings issued a partial work stoppage this week at 750 Third Avenue after finding unapproved modifications to several steel columns in the building, according to an online database from the agency. The 34-story office tower, built in the 1950s, is undergoing a conversion into roughly 678 apartments, according to its architect, Gensler. The project is located not far from the former Pfizer headquarters on East 42nd Street, where structural columns buckled and floors sagged on July 7 during its conversion into roughly 1,600 apartments. The incident prompted city officials to evacuate several surrounding buildings and reroute nearby bus lines over fears of a partial