Lake Success building where tour bus sank closed off due to structural issues, North Hempstead Town says

Workers have been barred from entering the Lake Success office building where a tour bus collapsed through the roof of a parking garage last week, while repairs are made to structural problems at two entrances and exits, the Town of North Hempstead said Wednesday.

Town spokesman Umberto Mignardi said that in addition to the compromised entrances, inspectors from the town, as well as from the Nassau County Fire Marshal’s Office, had found structural issues that have forced the closure of the on-site parking garage. That multilevel garage at the building, located at 1979 Marcus Ave., is where a parked tour bus sank into a hole on the upper deck on June 24.

There were no reported injuries in that incident, but Mignardi said a subsequent joint inspection conducted by fire marshals and town inspectors uncovered a series of structural and fire safety issues that forced the immediate closure of the garage. Entrances to that site have been "chained off" pending potential remediation efforts, Mignardi said.

Mignardi said that if remediation to the structure was not possible, the garage owners could ultimately decide to demolish the site.

On Monday, town inspectors slapped a red cease and desist notice on the building, warning workers that the building was in violation of several structural standards that needed to be addressed by midnight. Mignardi said that while the building owners immediately began to address those concerns, work had not been completed as of Wednesday — and so the site remained off-limits to all but construction workers, who were on site making repairs.

The building owners and the building's management company could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The cease and desist notice posted by town inspectors read: "Unsafe Structure. Deterioration of beams + columns at entrance staircases and parking garage."

That order mandates that the building owners "Immediately shore up staircases and portion of parking garage or VACATE building by midnight June 30, 2025."

It was not immediately clear how many businesses — or, employees — occupy the building on a daily basis.

Northwell Health leases space at the property and uses it for training clinical employees, Northwell spokesman Jason Molinet said.

Northwell employs about 35 people at the building and officials were working with the Northwell building department and fire marshals. Northwell officials said there was no impact to patient care and that Northwell was implementing contingency plans.

Newsday's John Asbury contributed to this story.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”