A section of brick and concrete wall at an active Sunset Park demolition site came down July 16, striking the upper corner of the 1931-built Salvation Army community center next door. DOB inspectors have been dispatched; the investigation is ongoing and no injuries were reported.
A section of brick and concrete wall at an active demolition site at 5005 Fifth Ave. in Sunset Park, Brooklyn — BBL 3007920005 — collapsed into the work area shortly before 1:30 p.m. on July 16, striking the upper corner of the adjacent building at 520 50th St., city officials said.
The Department of Buildings confirmed that inspectors were sent to the site for a structural-stability inspection. The demolition was occurring inside an existing building operating under an active DOB permit. No injuries were reported. The investigation remains ongoing, the agency said.
The building next door — a two-story commercial structure erected in 1931 — is home to the Salvation Army Brooklyn Sunset Park Corps Community Center, which runs a food pantry, weekday hot lunches, an after-school program and other services for neighborhood residents.
DOB permit records at the demolition address list IMMORTAL RISE INC. as the owner entity on the most recent filings, with an A2 permit last actioned September 17, 2025 (job no. 340411183). The original pre-filing on the A1 alteration dates to 2014; the same licensed engineer, Mohammad Baalbaki PE, appears across all recent applications. The community center could not be reached for comment; this story will update as the DOB investigation proceeds.
The 1931 Salvation Army building and the communities it serves now sit adjacent to an open inspection — a reminder that in Sunset Park's dense commercial corridor, what a demolition crew does on one lot lands directly on the life of the next.