MIDTOWN — Building management at the Madison Avenue high-rise where Suzanne Hart was killed in December has hired a new elevator repair company to service its lifts.
A spokesman for Cushman & Wakefield, the company that manages the building at 285 Madison Ave., said Long Island City-based PS Marcato has replaced Transel Elevator, which is now being investigated by the Department of Buildings.
Hart, an advertising executive with Young & Rubicam, died on Dec. 14, 2011, when she stepped into the elevator on her way to work. The doors closed on her and the elevator shot up, crushing her to death.
In the days immediately following the accident, investigators discovered that maintenance work had been conducted on the elevator involved in the accident just hours before the fatal malfunction.
The Department of Buildings has launched an investigation into Transel, which services some 2,500 units. A department spokesman said that investigation is ongoing, but sources have told DNAinfo that the probe is focusing on computer equipment that was replaced and electrical equipment that was recalibrated on the lift not long before Hart stepped into it.
After the accident, Cushman & Wakefield brought in an elevator consultant, DTM Inc., which in turn recommended that PS Marcato take the place of Transel.
PS Marcato has been in business in New York since 1903. It has a portfolio that includes more than 2,400 elevators and a staff of more than 150 mechanics, according to its website.
The company boasts online about installing the first “talking” elevators at the now-defunct Gimbels department store and about installing elevator technology that almost doubled speed in a nameless residential high-rise.
PS Marcato declined to comment about its contract with the Madison Avenue building, and the Department of Buildings did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether it has ever investigated the company's work.
The building at 285 Madison Avenue, which is owned by Y&R, closed after the accident. The lower floors remain shut and the elevators out of service while the DOB investigation continues. Most Y&R employees will continue to work off site at 125 Park Avenue until at least the end of the month, according to the company.
But the businesses operating on the upper floors of 285 Madison Avenue reopened on Tuesday, Jan. 3, with building employees on hand to escort workers on the elevator rides up to their respective floors.
Some employees found the increased security presence comforting, but others harbored lingering concerns, and opted to take the stairs.
Alex Parra, 32, said he took the stairs up to his 12th floor office on Tuesday — and planned to continue using the stairs for at least the rest of the week.
"For my own sanity I just want to take the stairs," said Parra, who works for Wunderman, a Y&R sister company. "It's just a mental thing."
