Letter to Commissioners Tucker and Oddo Re: Turkish House

By Electronic Mail

Commissioner Robert S. Tucker
Fire Department of the City of New York
9 Metrotech Center, 8th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Commissioner James S. Oddo
Department of Buildings
280 Broadway, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10007

 Re: Turkish House

Dear Commissioners Tucker and Oddo,

On October 1, 2024, following the publication of allegations that Turkevi Center (Turkish House) was unsafe, my office launched an investigation to determine whether the building had undergone all applicable building and fire inspections needed to confirm it is safe to occupy.  Based on the findings related to Turkish House, my office also conducted analysis of the Department of Building’s data concerning the issuance of Temporary Certificates of Occupancy (TCO) in New York City as a whole.

I write to you today to share my office’s findings which confirm that the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) and the Department of Buildings (DOB) compromised the safety of occupants to allow the building to open before all required safety measures were met and also uncovered much larger management deficiencies at DOB.

My office also found that hundreds of office buildings are operating, and in some cases have been operating for years, without final Certificates of Occupancy (COs) and without valid Temporary Certificates of Occupancy (TCOs), even though TCOs are mandated by law as a condition of occupancy.  Cumulatively these buildings have thousands of unresolved violations, including many designated “immediately hazardous” by the Environmental Control Board.

Background

The Federal indictment of Mayor Eric Adams which was unsealed in September 2024 contained damning allegations that, among other things, called into question the safety of Turkish House, both at the time permission to occupy the building was first granted by the Department of Buildings, and beyond.

The indictment alleged that DOB’s first TCO was granted before the building was properly inspected by the FDNY, and referenced conversations between the then FDNY Chief of Department and the Fire Prevention Chief indicating that “if the FDNY did not assist the Turkish Consulate in obtaining a TCO, both [    ] would lose their jobs,”^[1] and that this led the Fire Prevention Chief to draft a Conditional Letter of No Objection, paving the way for the  TCO to be issued by DOB in time for the arrival of the Turkish President’s visit to New York City.

The NYC Administrative Code (AC) outlines the requirements for COs in §28-118 ^[2] and requires that the DOB issue a CO or a TCO before any new building can be occupied. A CO describes the legal occupancy limits, layout, and allowable use of a building. Upon application, the Commissioner of DOB is authorized to issue a TCO before the completion of the entire work covered by the permit, provided that the subject portion or portions of the building may be occupied and maintained in a manner that will not endanger public safety, health, or welfare (§28-118.15). TCOs typically expire 90 days after issuance. If the outstanding issues for a final CO have not been completely resolved prior to the expiration date, a new application for a TCO may be submitted to DOB for renewal. A permanent CO does not expire and can only be issued after all violations have been cleared and once pending applications on the property have been resolved.

First Approval to Occupy the Building Granted Despite Over 40 Defects and Untested Fire Safety Items

The documents produced by DOB and FDNY disclose no record of any fire safety inspections being conducted by the FDNY prior to DOB issuing the initial TCO on September 17, 2021. The documents produced include a September 10, 2021 “Conditional Letter of No Objection” (see  Appendix I), which states that FDNY would not object to the TCO being issued as long as Sparc Fire Protection (SFP) ― the company that designed and installed the fire alarm system ― affirmed that the fire alarm system had been tested and was operational, and further, “assum[ing] that the Department of Buildings has inspected, tested and approved the installed water-based fire suppression systems”.

On September 17, 2021, SFP issued a letter to DOB Borough Commissioner John Raine affirming that the fire alarm system was “substantially installed,” but still noting pages of deficiencies, such as central station and fan shutdowns, as well as other items not yet tested (see Appendix II).  There were over 40 outstanding items documented by SFP.

The documents produced by DOB in response to this office’s Request for Information did not include any evidence that the assumed inspection of the water-based fire suppression systems occurred, despite the request for “copies of any and all inspection records”.

DOB Granted the Initial TCO Despite a Disapproved Fire Protection Plan

The application packet for Turkish House’s initial TCO show DOB granting waivers of several items ostensibly required for a TCO.  The most serious of these was the absence of an approved Fire Protection Plan (FPP).  The FPP had been rejected on the basis that the safety evaluation plan that was submitted with it was inadequate.

FDNY issued a Letter of Disapproval of the FPP dated July 26, 2021, several months before the building was given authorization to open (Appendix III).  This included the notation that “A Fire Department endorsement of an approved Fire Protection Plan is a required procedure towards the issuance of a TCO” and stated FDNY’s intention not to issue the required endorsement until noted exceptions had “reached conditionally Accepted or Acceptance status”.

The applicant subsequently submitted the TCO application to DOB “requesting that the temporary certificate of occupancy be issued without fire protection plan approval” (see Appendix IV).

Although the allegations in the indictment may explain FDNY’s change of heart, there is nothing in the records produced to this office explaining why DOB acquiesced to applicant’s request, waived this requirement, and issued the first TCO to Turkish House.

Successive Fire Inspections Resulted in Notification of Defects and Violations Before Turkish House Finally Received Letters of Approval in March 2023 and September 2024

The first FDNY inspection records produced to this office are from October 26, 2021 — one month after the building opened — and this and related inspections, resulted in the issuance of a Notice of Defect dated November 26, 2021containing approximately 40 outstanding issues related to the fire safety systems on Floors SC1, 2, C, M21, M27, and 1-19; and a second Notice of Defect issued November 30, 2021 containing 15 outstanding issues related to the fire safety systems on Floors 1, 19-35, and the roof (see Appendix V).

The Notice of Defect contained serious safety issues, including defective elevator recall functions, defective smoke purge operations on several floors, incomplete sprinkler installations, defective heat detectors in the subcellar, lobby doors not automatically releasing upon alarm, and missing fire alarm speakers in certain rooms.

FDNY reinspected Floors SC1, 2, C, M21, M26 and 1-19 on March 10 and 11, 2022 and found that seven fire safety defects identified in 2021 had still not been rectified.  By this time, Turkish House had been occupied for approximately seven months.  FDNY issued Violation Order E676274 (see Appendix VI) to the building, requiring Turkish House to:

• Submit an as-built riser diagram as per 3 RCNY R108.01
• Submit the letter of approval for the residential alarm system, filed under separate application number
• Arrange for the purge activation key switch / key to be captured/non-removable on the on position
• Arrange for the smoke verification feature to be inhibited while the system is currently in alarm condition, as per code
• Arrange for the control starter circuit wiring within the automatic transfer switch to the emergency generator to run express to said generator
• Arrange for the smoke damper top of elevator shaft to be 1/3 open in its normal state in accordance with building code
• Arrange for the grounding electrode conductor to be terminated at the cold-water mains or equivalent/acceptable collector bar.

FDNY conducted another unannounced visit to the building on April 13, 2022. Turkish House failed to correct all defects, so another violation order E685090 was issued (see Appendix VII).

The record produced to this office show no additional inspections of this building, but they show that Letters of Approval began being issued for the building by FDNY, beginning in June of 2022.

• The Letter of Approval for the Special Service and Combination Fire Pumps was issued on June 9, 2022.
• The Letter of Approval for the Automatic Fire Detection for Pre-Action was issued on January 12, 2023.
• The Letters of Approval for the Group R-2(Apt Build>125 Ft), FAS, SSC / SPK / OWCS / COC, Co Detection System, Heat Detection, Post-Fire Smoke Purge System, Stair Pressurization, MAC NY/NY systems was issued for floors 1, 19-35, and RF on January 10, 2023; and on SC2,SC1,CEL,MZ1,MZ7 & 1-19 on February 3, 2023.
• Approval of the Auxiliary Radio Communication Systems (ARCS) did not occur until March 06, 2023.

Turkish House did not receive the Fire Protection Plan Letter of Approval from FDNY until September 26, 2024, approximately three years after it was first opened and occupancy permitted.

In the three years between the building opening and the most recent Letter of Approval, the Consulate has been fully operational, with 20 residential units on floors 20-32, hosting events and concerts in an auditorium seating 163 people, and providing regular consular services to the public of New York City, daily.

Turkey House is Currently Without a Valid TCO or Final CO

Turkish House is currently operating without a TCO or Final CO.  It was issued with thirteen separate TCOs, a new one issued approximately every ninety days, from September 17, 2021 until July 26, 2024.  All thirteen sought renewal of the TCO “without change;” these were renewed without exception.

DOB denied the building’s application for a new TCO “with changes,” submitted on September 26, 2024, leaving the building without a valid TCO from October 1, 2024 onwards.

The most recent application was denied for the following reasons (see Appendix VIII):

• Did not provide an updated elevator signoff.
• Did not provide complete TR1 and TR8 for Mezzanine 7 and Mezzanine 18.
• Missing fire alarm documentation for Mezzanine 18.
• Lack of valid fire suppression documentation for 6^th floor kitchen.

According to DOB, “[l]apses of time between TCOs do occasionally occur.”  In response to my office’s request for additional documentation, the DOB referenced the New York City Administrative Code subsection concerning conditions for which the commissioner may issue a vacate order and stated that the lack of a TCO or CO is not a reason for the DOB to issue a vacate order (see Appendix VIII).

Existing Violations Prevent Turkish House from Applying for a Final Certificate of Occupancy (CO)

According to DOB, Turkish House has not yet filed an application for a Final Certificate of Occupancy, but it is in any case not eligible to apply because the building remains in violation of DOB and Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH)/ Environmental Control Board (ECB) codes ─ one related to the building’s glass façade, and five related to required elevator testing.

The elevator-related violations were issued from September 11 to October 11, 2024, with $11,000 in penalties.  The OATH/ECB violation was issued on May 10, 2024 and is for a broken glass panel on the sixteenth floor.  There is no evidence as of this writing that the condition has been corrected. The penalty for the OATH/ECB violation is $1,250 bringing the total amount owed to the city for violations to $12,250. Turkish House is scheduled for an OATH/ECB hearing on January 16, 2025 (see Appendix IX).

At Least 3,546 Buildings in New York City are Operating Without a Valid TCO or CO

Following DOB’s indication that lapses between TCOs “do occasionally occur,” my office obtained and analyzed publicly available TCO data from the Building Information System (BIS), DOB NOW, and the PLUTO land use database to ascertain the extent to which buildings in New York City are operating without a valid TCO or CO. The results are staggering.

The data shows at least 3,546 buildings currently operating without an active TCO, either because their TCOs have not been renewed or an application for renewal was denied by DOB.  Of these, the largest category of buildings is offices. 637 (18%) of these TCOs are from office buildings, including 179 (5.1%) office or mixed-use buildings with twenty or more stories (Building Class O4). Seven of these class O4 buildings, including Turkish House, have expired TCOs for new building.  More than half (52.5%) of all buildings with expired TCOs are located in Manhattan, 1,862 buildings in total.  624 (17.6%) are located in Brooklyn, and 566 (16%) in Queens.  Buildings without a valid certificate are shown in a map in Appendix X.

637 Office Buildings Without a Valid TCO for an Average of 3.5 Years

Many of the 637 office buildings in the dataset have been without a valid TCO for an astonishing amount of time. On average, the offices without a valid certificate of occupancy have been without one for 1,282 days – about three and a half years.  See Table I below.

An average of three and a half years seems protracted, but many others have been in this status for much longer.  For example, 117 office buildings of between one and six stories high, with commercial space (type 05), have been without a valid certificate for an average of 1,440 days, or 3.9 years, and of these, at least one building in the group has been without a valid certificate for 4,246 days, or 11.6 years. 235 office buildings between 7 and 19 stories high, with commercial space (type 06), have been without a valid TCO for an average of 1,335 days, or 3.6 years, and in some cases for as long as 4,366 days, or 11.9 years.

Table I: Office Buildings with Expired TCOs

179 buildings in the same class as Turkish House (category 04) have been without a valid TCO for an average of 914 days, or 2.3 years, with the maximum within this group operating without a valid certificate for 4,303 days, or 11.8 years.

Review of Initial TCO for New Buildings Like Turkish House Show No Similar Waivers

Investigators reviewed the initial TCO applications submitted by the 7 new-build mixed use office buildings with twenty or more stories, that appear in the expired TCO data along with Turkish House.  This was done to assess to what extent new buildings in the same class as Turkish House were granted initial TCOs with significant unresolved safety issues still outstanding.

None of the 6 other buildings were granted initial TCOs without an approved FPP, and none of the other 6 were granted an initial TCO without any FDNY inspection. Unlike the Turkish House, the initial paperwork for each other building’s TCO includes no caveats that would qualify statements that the buildings “conform substantially to the approved plans and specifications and to the requirements of all applicable laws, rules, and regulations for the uses and occupancies specified.” (see Appendix XI)

Hundreds of Open Violations at Buildings with Expired TCOs

To assess potential safety issues in the 637 office building operating currently without an active TCO,^[3] investigators matched the complete list against violations data from 2012-2024 from FDNY, DOB and the Environmental Control Board (ECB). Cumulatively, these buildings have 5191 unresolved violations that remain in pending status — 75% of the buildings (484 in total) have outstanding FDNY violations; more than 55% (356) have open DOB violations; and more than 30% (234) of the buildings have open ECB violations.  See Table II below.

Table II: Violations at Office Buildings with Expired TCOs

Of these agencies, only OATH/ECB’s dataset provides a severity level associated with each type of violation. Of the 816 active OATH/ECB violations issued to these office buildings, 236 violations are designated Class 1, or “Immediately Hazardous.” Per 1 RCNY §102-01, “Immediately hazardous violations are those specified as such by the New York City Construction Codes, or those where the violating condition poses a threat that severely affects life, health, safety, property, the public interest, or a significant number of persons so as to warrant immediate corrective action” ^[4]  These 236 active Class 1 violations were issued to 88 of the 637 office buildings reviewed.  See Table III below.

Table III: ECB Violations Categorized by Severity

Of these, 7 buildings account for 152 of the active Class 1 violations.  The most egregious offender, the building at 274-286 Broadway in Manhattan, has 74 active Class 1 violations and 15 active Class 2 (Major) violations.  See Table IV below.

As the FDNY and DOB violations data do not contain severity level we were unable to determine and aggregate the number of serious violations that remain unresolved.

Table IV: 7 Buildings Account for 64% of Class 1 Violations

Recommendations

DOB’s rationale for waiving something so fundamental as an approved FPP before issuing Turkish House with the first TCO is not known, but it raises serious questions concerning DOB’s exercise of discretion   DOB should establish clear guidelines concerning what standards and requirements are subject to discretionary waiver and what must not be waived before granting a TCO, both to increase transparency and to ensure that safety is never sacrificed.

The TCO data for the City as a whole, particularly given the volume of unresolved violations, including a significant number designated as “immediately hazardous” raises questions about DOB’s degree of oversight over the certification process.  The Comptroller’s office recommends DOB immediately review the buildings identified in this investigation as lacking a valid TCO and establish a process for identifying and clearing major code violations and bringing such buildings into compliance.   These should also be prioritized and addressed, to ensure all buildings remain safe to occupy.

Sincerely,

Brad Lander

New York City Comptroller

---

Endnotes

[1] Indictment page 35.

[2] https://www.nyc.gov/assets/buildings/pdf/code_notes_cofo.pdf

[3] In some cases the TCO covers only parts of an existing building.

[4] https://www.nyc.gov/assets/buildings/rules/1_RCNY_102-01.pdf