MTA Using New Headquarters Without Occupancy Permit

They made sure the chandeliers glittered and the Italian granite was polished before the Metropolitan Transportation Authority moved into its spiffy new headquarters last October, but they left out one detail: an occupancy permit.

The city’s chief building inspector confirmed Tuesday that MTA employees have been working in the 26-story, $145-million building without a temporary certificate of occupancy.

“We nor the city would ever let 1,900 people occupy a facility that was unsafe,” assured Robert S. Vogel, project director for Catellus Development Corp., which has overseen construction of the office tower next to Union Station.

“There’s not going to be anybody kicked out of the building,” Vogel said, dismissing the controversy as a problem with the paperwork, not the building’s safety.

City officials Tuesday gave the building contractor until March 8 to get a certificate of occupancy or face possible court fines. “The first step is a city attorney hearing that invites them in to say, ‘What’s going on here, guys?’ ” said Chief Building Inspector Russell Lane. The permit is required to show that city inspectors have signed off on such things as plumbing, electrical wiring, sprinkler systems, fire alarms, elevators and heating and air-conditioning equipment.

Vogel said the failure to get an occupancy permit was the result of an internal dispute in the city building department over the amount of force required to open fire doors. Lane said he was unaware of any dispute.

The city in September issued a temporary occupancy permit for MTA to move into a portion of the office tower, but that permit expired Oct. 13. “We gave them permission to move in, and then apparently they exceeded that approval,” Lane said.

On Feb. 9, “we issued them an order to obtain the certificate of occupancy or discontinue the use of the tower,” Lane said. On Tuesday, the city issued the new ultimatum.

Lane said he considered the building “generally safe.”

Vogel said that the permit would be secured by March 8, “providing that the city can give me a decision” on the requirements for the fire doors. He also contended that it is not uncommon for workers to move into a building before a certificate of occupancy is issued.

Responded Lane: “It’s not a common practice.”