A criminal investigation has been launched into the sagging New York City skyscraper, according to city officials.  

The 37-story high-rise in Midtown Manhattan was suddenly evacuated on Tuesday morning after construction crews discovered that two inside columns had begun to buckle. 

The 21st to 26th floors of the building near Grand Central Terminal caved in under stress, officials said. 

Multiple cracks and sagging floors have been reported throughout the high-rise, which was undergoing a conversion from offices to apartments. 

Now, the New York City Department of Investigation and the Manhattan district attorney’s office are probing what caused the terrifying event, the DA’s office confirmed to The Daily Mail. 

The investigation was still in the early stages on Friday as workers continue to work on stabilizing the building, the outlet reported. 

The probe is predicted to be complex as the construction project was supposed to be the largest residential conversion in the US, involving dozens of subcontractors, companies, and developers. 

Because there are so many factors and parties involved, the investigation itself can take months to years, and there is a possibility it might be closed without any charges being brought, The New York Times reported. 

A criminal investigation is underway in the buckling of the 37-story skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan after it had to be evacuated on Tuesday

Construction crews discovered that two inside columns had begun to buckle

After the building buckled, Nathan Berman (pictured), the managing principal and founder of MetroLoft, told The New York Times that it was ‘nothing more than a typical construction mishap’

There is no indication that the building’s developers, MetroLoft and David Werner Real Estate, and its many contractors and subcontractors, are targets of the preliminary investigation, the report stated. 

After the building buckled, Nathan Berman, the managing principal and founder of MetroLoft told The Times that it was ‘nothing more than a typical construction mishap.’

Berman appeared to shrug off the incident further, stating that issues happen ‘unfortunately far too often on construction sites: falling cranes, people – God forbid – falling off buildings, windows falling out.’ 

But this isn’t the first time MetroLoft has been in the hot seat, as the prominent real estate management and development firm is currently battling a lawsuit linked to another property mishap.  

The company is facing a more than $350 million lawsuit over a celebrity-filled apartment building in Tribeca, according to city records obtained by the New York Post. 

The building on Greenwich Street has housed A-listers like Meg Ryan, Harry Styles, and Rebel Wilson over the last 10 years. 

The suit alleges a number of structural issues in the building. 

It initially sought $250 million in compensation and insurance claims, but that price has skyrocketed to $376 million as litigation continues, the report stated. 

The investigation was still in the early stages on Friday as workers continue to work on stabilizing the building

The legal complaints started to pile up in 2022, just a few years after MetroLoft took over the former bookbinding factory and marketed it as a luxurious enclave for celebrities. 

But soon after big names moved in, they started to spot construction and engineering issues, the Post reported. 

MetroLoft has made several attempts to dismiss the mounting case, but Supreme Court judges have ruled against them. 

While Berman believes the buckling at the Midtown building is common in the industry, union and city workers have pointed to glaring issues, including the bent columns that were only caught when the property nearly collapsed. 

The evacuation of the building itself caused mayhem, with surrounding blocks shutting down, offices clearing out, and neighboring apartments and hotels taking cover.  

After the structural scare on Tuesday, experts warned that the building, which was formerly the headquarters for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, would require some demolition. 

But even attempting that could trigger a collapse and create a scene that would likely traumatize many New Yorkers who witnessed the fall of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. 

‘The images we have seen show a buckled column, you can see cracking, you can see floors that are sagging, those generally are damage that is not reversible,’ structural engineer Emily Guglielmo previously told the New York Post.

‘It’s not like we can just push a cracked floor up and it can maintain its capacity, so there will absolutely be removal and replacement of some of these elements.’

She suggested crews will need to add ‘temporary bracing and shoring’ to quickly stabilize the building, but warned that it could be ‘too risky’ to do so.

The evacuation of the building itself caused mayhem, with surrounding blocks shutting down, offices clearing out, and neighborhood apartments and hotels taking cover

Union workers led a rally outside the buckling building on Wednesday

Her analysis was echoed by Ronald Hamburger, a structural engineer who investigated the World Trade Center catastrophe, who warned that the building is in ‘significant danger’ of suffering a local collapse. 

Although only some of the columns buckled, Hamburger explained that the beams and columns that remain intact are now ‘highly stressed.’

He said the failed columns are now only able to support one-third of the load they were meant to bear, which in turn puts more pressure on the other supports.

The expert predicts workers will need to install brackets on the columns on the 20th floor to re-level the building and ease the load. 

They will then need to replace the columns that failed, and all of this needs to be done ‘rapidly’ to prevent more damage, Hamburger added. 

The Daily Mail contacted MetroLoft and the New York City Department of Investigation for comment.