A massive, crumbling concrete hotel marquee suddenly collapsed onto a Brooklyn sidewalk Sunday morning in a terrifying scene that onlookers said was straight out of a “Final Destination” movie.
This historic 10-by-20-foot Hotel St. George awning, perched above the Clark Street subway station in Brooklyn Heights, came crashing down in a thunderous roar just after 7 a.m., according to witnesses and startling footage obtained by The Post.
No one was injured or walking near the Henry Street subway entrance when the collapse occurred – but a city council member warned the outcome could have been far worse during the weekday rush hour.
“I was shocked by the collapse,” Councilmember Lincoln Restler told Gothamist.
“We are very lucky that this happened at 7 a.m. on a Sunday, because if it happened at 7 a.m. any other day of the week, we would’ve in all likelihood encountered serious injuries, if not fatalities.”
Restler, who shared video and images of the dramatic scene on social media, said he’s received complaints from constituents about the “grimy” and “abysmal” station for years.
He added that the head of New York City Transit toured the property Friday — just days before the near disaster — at the city council’s request.
“It’s grimy. It’s very rarely cleaned and we have a number of small businesses that are based in that space and it’s often so hot that they struggle to stay open on the warmest days of the summer,” Restler told Eyewitness News.
“So this is not a landlord that has been investing or caring for or properly maintaining the Clark Street subway station, and clearly they’re not maintaining the exterior of the building either.”
City building officials said a similar marquee above the station’s other Clark Street entrance is also showing signs of neglect and poor maintenance, Gothamist reported.
The famed Hotel St. George was once the largest hotel in New York City, with sections dating back to the 1800s. Today, it houses retailers and apartments, with its former lobby serving as an entrance to No. 2 and No. 3 trains – which reportedly bypassed the mangled station all day Sunday.
Alyeen Rojas, a 19-year-old New York Film Academy student who lives at the iconic hotel, said it sounded like a thunderstorm when the façade crashed down onto the sidewalk.
“Imagine that someone went to that station in the morning,” Rojas told The Post.
“Someone could have died. The building is so old, I think that’s why [the awning collapsed].”
The steel and concrete overhang is now dangling from the building, nearly covering the entire sidewalk, with debris scattered across the cordoned-off site, according to photos taken at the scene.
“Thank God it didn’t happen at 7 a.m. on a Monday,” Jamie Dalton, a 21-year-old Brooklyn Heights resident, said.
“It’s very ‘Final Destination.’”
Restler could not immediately be reached.
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