MANHATTAN — The city hit the owners of an Upper West Side building with criminal charges more than a year after bricks from its facade fell and killed a 2-year-old girl.
Alexander Scharf and Esplanade Venture Partnership, who own The Esplanade at 305 West End Ave., face jail time. They had been told that the building's condition was a danger to the public prior to the incident that killed 2-year-old Greta Greene, Department of Buildings officials said.
The owners failed to make the necessary repairs before the bricks fell from a window ledge in May 2015, fatally striking the child while she was in her stroller.
"When you own a building, you have a responsibility to maintain it — you don't just get to cash the rent checks and call it a day," DOB Commissioner Rick Chandler said.
The city stated that the owners of the 92-year-old building failed to maintain the facade, which carries a fine between $1,000 and $25,000, officials said.
The city filed criminal charges Wednesday that could put the owners behind bars for up to a year, officials said.
Last year, an investigation revealed that an engineer lied about inspecting the building's facade amid a host of "ignored red flags," including another piece of facade that fell but went unreported.