The teardown of a well-known Manhattan steam plant, once used as a filming site for multiple Marvel streaming shows, has been put on hold after city inspectors found that asbestos regulations were not being properly followed.
Demolition work at the 87-year-old, city-owned Roosevelt Island steam plant had been moving forward under a plan overseen by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. But the project was stopped earlier this month following an inspection by city environmental officials, according to agency records.
In a June 12 report, inspectors with the Department of Environmental Protection said the asbestos abatement work being carried out by the city violated its own asbestos rules and “poses a threat to human safety.”
The stop-work order states that activity at the site cannot restart until DEP signs off on a plan that “addresses all disturbed asbestos containing materials.”
A request for comment from The Post to DEP was redirected to HPD.
“This is part of a routine interagency process for identifying any hazards and additional work that should be covered throughout the project,” an HPD representative told The Post. The agency also said additional samples were collected Monday and are being sent to a laboratory for asbestos testing.
“HPD and its partner agencies will continue to execute on this process to ensure that the project meets our top priority of keeping the residents of Roosevelt Island safe,” the representative said.
Still, the pause has renewed concerns among some Roosevelt Island residents, who are pressing city officials for more transparency and broader access to records tied to the contentious demolition project.
“The city’s own agency found this work poses a threat to human safety — and we learned about it only because it came up at a meeting,” said Kalin Kresnitchki, co-founder of the Architectural Community Alliance of Roosevelt Island advocacy group.
“The [stop work] order is posted inside the fence, where no resident can see it,” she said. “What else don’t we know?”
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Asbestos abatement at the site — which has been featured in ABC’s TV show “Gotham” and Marvel’s streaming series “The Punisher” and “Luke Cage” — is expected to continue until the fall, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The demolition start date is still months away, the source added.
Residents have complained for months that the decrepit 1930s-built steam plant — which was decommissioned in 2014 and has been slated for emergency demolition in 2024 because of the “deteriorated masonry” along its smokestacks — “very likely” contains toxins such as lead paint, asbestos, mercury and fuel oil No. 6, given its past industrial use.
But the site’s emergency designation allows the city to bypass traditional environmental review procedures – and officials have refused to provide air monitoring in the surrounding community before demolition or even release an environmental review, The Post previously reported.
Hundreds of locals and elected officials have since campaigned city authorities to release a structural assessment, comprehensive environmental study and hazardous materials remediation plan for the site.
“The city says the facility is structurally unsound with a pair of smokestacks at risk of collapsing, but it has yet to produce a single official report or document to support its assertion as requested by residents,” ArchRI said in a statement.
Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal has voiced support for the community’s fact-finding efforts, noting at an April community board meeting that his office is advocating for an “independent air quality monitoring and public release of structural reports.”
Meanwhile, the state and city is eying a “possible redevelopment” of the defunct steam plant site, which is on land leased to New York state, according to a press release issued by the governor’s office last year.
Third-party asbestos air monitoring has been ongoing since abatement work began, and testing thus far has shown no evidence of airborne asbestos, an HPD rep said.
But only asbestos — not lead, PCBs, or combustion residues — is being tracked in this phase, advocates pointed out.
Community air monitoring in the surrounding area will only start during actual demolition – even though debris such as soil and asbestos is already being trucked through Roosevelt Island’s main thoroughfare, ArchRI noted.
“Air monitoring is only taking place within the structure to protect workers, a necessary step that nonetheless fails to protect residents from airborne transmission outside of the steam plant,” ArchRI reps said.
