Crows Nest building collapse, Alexander Street: Fears of collapse

A probe has been launched to find out why an office block suddenly collapsed on Sydney’s north shore. It comes amid fresh fears further buildings in the vicinity could crumble.

An investigation is underway after sections of a four storey office block collapsed in dramatic scenes on Sydney’s north shore.

Ten people scrambled to safety just minutes before a section of the office building collapsed on Alexander St after a worker inside the building noticed a metre wide crack in the rear interior wall at 3.25pm on Monday.

Employees at the site quickly left the building and within minutes the northern section of the rear wall came crashing to the ground.

Nobody is thought to have been injured. Picture: 9News

A section of an office block collapsed in Crows Nest on Monday. Picture: Toby Zerna

The building – run by co-working company Excen Workspace – usually has around 100 employees at 40 businesses on site, but in a stroke of luck many had taken the day off on Monday to extend their Australia Day weekend. 

Nobody was injured in the incident.

The wall faces onto a construction site where earthworks are currently underway and the collapse resulted in damage to cars on the site along with machinery.

A worker at the Excen building, who asked not to be named, praised the efforts of the building manager who rushed to get everyone out moments before the collapse. 

The rear of a building has collapsed: Latest details tonight at 6.00pm on #9News. Picture: 9News

“We heard the crack and the building manager got into gear so quickly and took responsibility,” she said. 

“There was no time for laptops, or to take anything out – people were the priority – and if it wasn’t for that it could have ended very badly.

“She’s the hero of the day.”

NSW Fire and Rescue Act Insp Rob Jansen on Wednesday said no further sections of the building had collapsed since Monday but there was ongoing concern about the structural integrity of the site.

A section of an office block collapsed in Crows Nest on Monday. Picture: Toby Zerna

He said the site and sections of surrounding streets remained fenced off and evacuation orders are still in place for two homes directly east of the site.

All eyes are now on findings of a SafeWok NSW investigation into the incident, along with a structural engineers report that will determine whether the remaining sections of the Excen building will have to be demolished and when evacuation orders can be lifted.

The North Shore Times understands that one of the families of the homes cordoned off is currently on holiday.

“There is still plenty of concern of further collapse – there are major cracks in the remaining walls. It’s dependent on further movement,” Insp Jansen said.

“SafeWork NSW has put a stop on the (Excen) site and no one is to enter that building until a structural engineer has determined if it can be entered or has to be demolished.

“Two homes immediately behind the building are still evacuated because there is potential for the back wall to collapse on to (the houses).”

An investigation is underway into the cause of the incident.

Insp Jansen said an investigation has been launched into the cause of the incident, however it was too early to determine a cause.

“There were some new footings going in at the construction site adjacent to the wall and whether that has something to do with (the incident) is still to be determined,” he said.

North Sydney Council records show the construction site is for a four-storey apartment and commercial building that includes excavation works for two levels of underground carparking.

The development, lodged by Armada Property Group, was approved on a condition that “care must be taken to not undermine or render unstable the footings” at the Excen building.

A photo from the scene. Picture: Toby Zerna

A council spokeswoman said SafeWork NSW issued a non-disturbance notice to the construction site on Tuesday.

“Advice from NSW Police and Public Works NSW was that the development works were to stop and the site was handed over to the adjacent (Excen) building to allow for their insurance broker’s structural engineer to assess the building and determine the next course of action,” the spokeswoman said.

Robyn Nori, who has worked as a business manager at the Excen building for the last 18 months, visited the site on Wednesday morning and said many of the businesses and employees based in the building are now in a state of limbo.

”I don’t think we’ll ever be allowed to go back in and most of us are now all working from home,” she said.

The building is home to various businesses.

“After the cracks appeared we ran out onto the street without possessions – some people left their laptops in the building, their mobile phones – and we don’t know if we’ll ever get (those items) back.

“I was fortunate that all my work files were backed up on the cloud but there are businesses who have everything still inside. There’s a chance they’ve lost everything.

“It’s not what you’d expect to happen when you turn up to work on a Monday.”

SafeWork NSW, which is leading the investigation, in a statement said inspectors are “continuing to investigate” the incident but “further comment at this time was not available.”

The council said surrounding streets would remain closed until the building’s structural engineer is satisfied that no further collapses would occur.

The North Shore Times has contacted the directors of Excen and the developer of the construction site Armada Property Group for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.