Queens<\/a> store that was part of a 2025 building collapse that injured three people, according to the New York City Department of Buildings.<\/p>\nInvoice records show that Rico Creative Art LLC, owned by Hempstead\u2019s Enrico Barthol, had been hired to create a 48-by-four-foot metal-and-canvas sign with LED lighting for $14,000 at 245-13 Jericho Turnpike in Bellerose, Queens, the department said.<\/p>\n
The sign, along with a fa\u00e7ade wall and awning, collapsed on July 23, 2025, less than two weeks after the installation, injuring one adult and two children, causing the investigation.<\/p>\n
The company did not hold a Department of Buildings license to hang signs, did not obtain the required permits to hang the sign, and did not submit the required plans to the department for review, the department said.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, March 31, Barthol was issued one Construction Code violation, specifically, an unlicensed sign hanging.<\/p>\n
Barthol was charged with one construction code violation of unlicensed sign hanging, and his business was charged with engaging in the sign hanging business without first obtaining a license from the commissioner of the Department of Buildings, working without a permit, aggravated due to the unpermitted work that caused injuries, and unlawful acts for failing to comply with a commissioner\u2019s order.<\/p>\n
Barthol and his business face up to $87,500 in penalties if they are found guilty of the violations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Construction Code supports safety and as these violations show, failing to follow it can have serious results,\u201d acting Department of Investigations Commissioner Christopher Ryan said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe use permits and approvals as a critical bulwark, protecting communities from unlicensed work and the real danger unchecked construction and structural maintenance can pose,\u201d New York City Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tiganii said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Hempstead company and business owner were issued violations by the New York City Department of Buildings after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[2823,28008,73941,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-183718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-department-of-buildings","9":"tag-hempstead","10":"tag-jericho-turnpike","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-queens","15":"tag-queens-headlines","16":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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