The facade of the seven-story building that suffered a partial collapse Monday in Morris Heights was deemed “unsafe” by an engineering firm hired by the owner in February 2020 just before COVID-19 struck, but required repairs were then put on hold due to the pandemic, according to Building Department records.

The 46-unit Billingsley Terrace building partially collapsed late Monday afternoon, pancaking on the bodega on the ground level below and prompting a search-and-rescue operation. Eyewitness photos and videos show five corner units exposed, with their residents’ beds, clothes and personal belongings spilling out through the twisted metal. 

“All people have been evacuated from the partially collapsed building at 1915 Billingsley Terrace, Bronx. The building has 47 residential units and 6 businesses. Search for potential victims ongoing,” the FDNY posted on X shortly before 6 p.m.

When an engineering firm, Koenigsberg Engineering PC, returned to the site in March 2021, nothing had been done and the conditions remained as is, including vertical cracks at window sills, loose and damaged mortar, a bowed section of parapet, and cracks at the parapet’s interior, the records state.

Scaffolding was put in place, and the owner’s were ordered to draft plans to bring the facade up to code. On Monday Building Commissioner James Oddo said the owners had recently submitted these plans and that the department would be taking a “close look” at them.

The records note that the 2020 facade check performed by Koenigsberg involved visually scanning the brickwork with binoculars and a “digital camera equipped with lenses ranging from 17-300mm for high resolution photographs.” The engineering firm also tapped on the bricks with a hammer and rattled the fire escape to make sure it was securely fastened.

Limited “hands on” inspection involving erecting scaffolding to get an up-close look at the bricks did take place, but only on one section of the building. As the building records note, “Even though this location was selected to be representative of the remaining facade, conclusions drawn regarding the remaining portions of the façade may not be done with complete certainty.”

The engineer noted that “while nothing on the Building was imminently hazardous, the Building was considered ‘Unsafe’” because prior conditions cited in earlier inspections had not been corrected and “there was significant masonry damage throughout the facade.

In an interview with THE CITY Monday evening, the engineer Richard Koenigsberg said that based on his observation at the site, it appeared that the corner column collapsed, likely at the first-floor level, bringing down the rest of the floors above. This would be a structural flaw, not a problem with the facade, he said.

“There’s no reason from what I’ve seen to expect that the work we were doing on the facade had anything to do with this,” he said, noting that all the facade work at the building was taking place from the second floor up and that the facade work on that corner was finished in late September.

“It looks to be the problem would be at the first floor. I say that because of the way it collapsed,” he added. “It looks like the failure of the corner column at the first floor level. And then rest comes down.”

The scaffolding at the Billingsley Terrace building, located roughly a mile west of the Twin Parks disaster, was also cited by Department of Buildings inspectors as recently as Nov. 3 for “broken or deteriorated” sills at its base. Inspectors issued a $2,400 penalty, pending a hearing, noting that the damage “can compromise the structural stability causing a potential collapse injuring pedestrians/damaging property.” 

A man who lived in the building who said he was from Venezuela but would not give his name said, “Imagine how I feel. I come home from work and this is what I find. I’m an immigrant — I get out of one bad break and onto another,” he told THE CITY.

Records show that the building is owned by a limited liability company called 1915 Realty, which acquired the building in 2004 for $3 million. The owner is listed in building department records as Charlie Clark with an address in Brooklyn.

DOB records show more than a half-dozen 311 complaints since August logging concerns about the safety of the building’s facade and scaffolding.