Collapse demolition contractor was ‘totally incompetent, inexperienced’
The owner, property manager, and architect whose Center City demolition project ended in the deadly 2013 collapse that crushed a Salvation Army thrift store failed to follow construction industry “customs and practices” in hiring their demolition contractor, an industry expert testified Thursday.
Estrin testified for the plaintiffs in the Common Pleas Court trial of lawsuits filed on behalf of six people killed and 13 injured on June 5, 2013.
Estrin said Richard Basciano, the New York real estate speculator who owned the vacant four-story Hoagie City building at 2136-38 Market St., and his property manager and top aide, Thomas Simmonds, did no due-diligence research before hiring North Philadelphia demolition contractor Griffin Campbell.
Instead, Estrin said, Basciano and Simmonds relied solely on a recommendation by Center City architect Plato A. Marinakos Jr., whom they hired as their representative monitoring demolition of five Basciano properties in the 2100 and 2200 blocks of Market Street.
And Marinakos recommended Campbell, the lower bidder against two established demolition contractors, despite the fact that Campbell had no city contractor’s license and had demolished just two burned-out rowhouses.
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