A city effort to fast-track fire safety inspections for public facilities and small businesses came to include hulking office towers, luxury high rises and even a Midtown sushi restaurant owned by one of New York City’s most influential real estate developers, according to a list of “prioritized” projects obtained by Gothamist.
An internal spreadsheet from June 2022 shared between fire department officials and City Hall shows roughly two dozen projects that were bumped to the front of the line for fire safety inspections amid a pandemic-induced backlog of tens of thousands of properties. The list, which is now part of a federal probe into the Adams campaign, includes expedited inspections for a homeless shelter, a preschool in Laurelton and a facility for kids entering foster care, as well as high-rise luxury buildings owned by some of the city’s most prolific developers.
Though the Adams administration has denied the existence of a list of prioritized inspections, three fire department officials confirmed the existence of the list and it was mentioned in a lawsuit filed last spring against the department. Fire department officials spoke to Gothamist on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution or termination for speaking publicly about the internal document.
“We had people waiting patiently who didn’t have access [to City Hall], who booked months ago and we had to cancel because we had to do one of these high-priority projects,” said one of the officials.
The list began under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2021 to help small businesses facing monthslong waits for inspections from the fire department, according to a March lawsuit filed against the department by former Fire Prevention Bureau Chief Joseph Jardin and six other high-ranking officials. They claim they faced retaliation from current Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh for speaking out against “corruption” on behalf of well-connected developers.
But under Mayor Eric Adams, the list has…
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