Carroll Gardens gym collapses
BY KEVIN DUGGAN & BEN VERDE
A Carroll Gardens building
housing a gym completely collapsed
Wednesday afternoon.
The three-story structure at
the corner of Court and Union
streets fell in on itself around
4:40 pm, according to an NYPD
spokeswoman.
One person suffered a minor
injury and was being treated on
the scene, according to a spokesman
for the Fire Department.
A video posted onto the
crime-reporting app Citizen
shows an ambulance arriving
and paramedics standing
next to a stretcher, but a police
spokeswoman said the building
was “believed to be unoccupied
at the time.” It was
later confi rmed that the building
was unoccupied due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The gym, called Body Elite
Gym, boasts four fl oors of exercise
equipment in the building,
according to its website.
The Fire Department is also
investigating the structure of
the building next door, a police
offi cer on the scene said.
One employee at the health
food store next door said he
barely escaped the tumbling
12 COURIER LIFE, JULY 3-9, 2020
structure while he was taking
out the garbage.
“I don’t know how I made
it,” said the man covered in debris,
who gave his name only as
Bob. “I was taking out my trash
when all of a sudden I see this
thing and I run into the middle
of the street and I fell in the middle
of the street.”
Video on the Citizen App
shows the streets and cars
parked near the building in a
coat of dust from the rubble.
“We’re all still in shock,”
said Roddy Evens, an employee
of Body Elite Gym for 17 years.
“We’re just very happy that no
one was seriously hurt. The employees
that were in there got
out safely.”
The city fi ned the owners,
Union and Court Realty Corp.,
$11,250 in the past two years —
twice for failing to maintain
the building up to code in December
2019 and March 2020,
and once for not safeguarding a
construction site on June 10, according
to the Offi ce of Administrative
Trials and Hearings,
the agency which determines
the fi nes.
On June 10, the owner received
a partial stop work order
from the Department of Buildings
after construction workers
left a masonry brick wall
dangerously bulging out into
the sidewalk without protection,
according to the agency.
DOB engineers and inspectors
were on the scene Wednesday
evening and the investigation
remains ongoing,
according to agency spokesman
Andrew Rudansky.
On its Facebook page, the
gym — likely in reference to
COVID-19 restrictions — recently
posted a picture about
the muscle palace’s health
benefi ts saying, “Gyms are
SAFE!”
A June 12 Facebook posts
shows that the gym was having
construction workers do
an “exterior makeover” on its
Union Street side of the building.
“We are getting an exterior
makeover. Doing all the things
we haven’t had the chance to
do and making the most out of
our downtime,” the post read.
The gym’s owner could not
immediately be reached for
comment.
Firefi ghters at the scene of the building collapse at Court and Union streets on July 1. Photo by Todd Maisel
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