Removing fallen crane in downtown St. Pete will take days, city says
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Oct 10, 2024

A construction crane that crashed into an office building in downtown St. Petersburg on Wednesday night will likely remain there for a few days, a city building official said Thursday.

One of the cranes on the site of the Residences at 400 Central, a condo tower under construction, fell onto the office building at 490 First Ave S. during Hurricane Milton. The building houses the Tampa Bay Times' St. Pete offices and was known for years as the Times building, but it bears the signage of law firm Johnson and Pope, which expanded there in 2020. The building is owned by Dallas-based Lincoln Property Group, which opened a Tampa Bay office in 2020.

Lincoln representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Red Apple Group, the New York-based developer of 400 Central, is flying in an engineer to assess the other cranes on its property, a city official said. The company is also working with the city determine next steps with the debris on the ground.

John Catsimatidis Sr., founder of Red Apple Real Estate, said he expects work on the building to restart as soon as possible. The building itself is in good condition, he said.

“We are grateful that no one was injured in the area, and that the only damage was to bricks and not to people,” Catsimatidis Sr. said in a statement.

Don Tyre, a city building official, said at a media briefing Thursday that the 400 Central crane was the only one that fell during Milton. Tyre said there are no city regulations governing wind speeds that construction cranes must withstand but that the city could look into that.

"You have to remember, we haven't seen wind speeds like this in 50 years, maybe longer," he said. "It's really just a devastating event that happened due to windspeed from the storm."

Mayor Ken Welch had warned residents this week that several cranes around the city would be particularly vulnerable to Milton's wind gusts, which approached 100 mph in St. Pete. The winds also tore the roof off of Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays.

"It was definitely a wind gust that took off the section of the tower with the jib crane, and that’s what struck the Times building," Tyre said. "It’s wedged into the fourth and fifth floor, so it’s somewhat secure right now."

Tyre said the developer and general contractor, Suffolk Construction, will need a portable crane to remove the fallen crane, and the process will take "a few days."

"This is the developer’s responsibility," Tyre said. "They obviously have liability insurance to protect surrounding buildings."

Beyond the fallen crane, St. Pete has "serious issues" that crews are working to address, Welch said, including major water main breaks that forced the city to turn off drinking water. Pinellas County also has 400,000 people without power, and Welch said the city is working with Duke Energy to repair outages as fast as possible.

Welch implored residents to be patient.

"We really need folks to stay in place today and allow them to do that work," Welch said of repair crews. "The roads are very dangerous at this point. The more space our crews have to do their work, the faster we can restore services to our community."