Matt Dunning / Tribeca Trib

A 40-foot-by-20-foot section of a building at 71 Reade St. collapsed around 6:30 a.m., covering the surrounding area in dust and debris. No injuries were reported, and emergency workers had cleared most of the rubble from the street and sidewalk by early afternoon.

A five-story, unoccupied building at 71 Reade Street collapsed Thursday morning, April 30, burying the sidewalk, between Church Street and Broadway, in a mound of rubble and smashing two cars but causing no reported injuries.

Fire Department officials said the collapse occurred sometime around 6:30 a.m., April 30. Dozens of firefighters, police, Department of Buildings and Con Edison personnel flooded into the neighborhood shortly after a 40-foot-by-20-foot section of the building came down.

“I woke up and the building was already down,” said Scott Bornstein, a resident at 74 Reade St., directly across from the site of the collapse. “Thank God it wasn’t 45 minutes later, otherwise it would have been a disaster.”

“I heard like a crash and I thought maybe an earthquake,” said Samantha Dennis, who was evacuated along with the rest of the residents at 85 chambers, a couple of doors east of the site.

“But then my whole building was still asleep and everyone was dead to the world so I thought it musn't be anything," she said. "And then we heard fire engines and helicopters and they banged on the door.”

The collapse occurred next door to the site of a planned six-story, 63,000 square-foot condominium building at 73 and 77 Reade St.  The DOB is investigating whether foundation work on that site contributed to the collapse. A partial stop work order was issued April 9 for the site at 73 Reade for "failing to protect the adjacent property."

Between 125 and 150 firefighters helped pick through the tangled rubble of the collapsed portion of the building, but as of noon Thursday no one was found.

“We have preliminary information from an eyewitness that there was nobody at the site or in the area when the structure collapsed,” FDNY Deputy Chief Ronald Spadafora said as rescue workers continued to search the site.

The exact cause of the collapse remains under investigation. Several streets were closed off near the scene of the accident within several minutes of the Fire Department's alert that the building was down, snarling vehicular and pedestrian traffic in all directions. Roanne Kolvenbach, who lives at 76 Reade St., said she and her family had slept through the sound of the building coming down, but were stirred by the sound of news helicopters circling overhead.

"We came out into the hall, and it was like, 'Holy crap!'" she said. "We didn't have any damage, which I think is amazing."

Matt Dunning / Tribeca Trib

Roanne Kolvenbach stares out her living room window at what remains of the five-story building at 71 Reade Street. None of the neighboring buildings appeared to have been damaged in the collapse, though DOB officials said the planned to inspect each building on the block.

The vacant, 109-year-old structure was in the process of being renovated into a boutique hotel, according to the Commissioner of the city’s Department of Buildings Robert Limandri. Just two days before the collapse, on April 28, Limandri said DOB inspectors told the project’s contractor, FMC Construction, that the building needed immediate internal and external reinforcement.

“We do know that this building was fragile,” Limandri said, adding that the building’s owner, Aron Vaknin, had recently submitted plans to partially demolish the very section of the building that had collapsed.

“Many old buildings that have not been repaired and maintained for quite a number of years have structural issues, and this had been identified by the owner.”

The building has a history of complaints made to the DOB dating back to November 2007. Complaints about the building, which is also addressed as 89 Chambers St., make frequent note of the building’s crumbling façade and the contractor’s failure to maintain the site. The most recent complaints, dated just one and two days before the accident, indicate that the building was “shaking or vibrating.”

Limandri said inspectors had not begun analyzing the dust produced in the collapse, but did not believe it to be toxic.

"We’re taking on precautions,” he said. “We’ve asked Con Ed to shut off gas to the block, however at this time we have no reason to believe that there’s any concern.”

The remaining portion of the building, Limandri said, has “significant additional cracks,” and would need to be torn down before evacuated residents at 67 and 65 Reade St. would be allowed to return home.

Limandri said the DOB also planned to inspect those buildings to make sure the collapse at 71 Reade had not jeopardized their structural integrity.