Hempstead company, owner charged with illegally hanging Queens sign that fell in building collapse, injuring 3

A Hempstead company and its owner have been charged with illegally hanging a storefront sign in Queens that was part of a building collapse that hurt two children and an adult, the New York City government said Tuesday.

The 48-by-4-foot canvas and metal sign, with LED lighting and a price tag of $14,000, collapsed last year along with a façade wall and awning less than two weeks after being installed in Bellerose, Queens, at 245-13 Jericho Tpke., the city's Investigation and Buildings departments said in a news release.

The company owner, Enrico Barthol, of Hempstead, was not licensed as a sign hanger in the city, as is required by law, nor did his company, Rico Creative Art LLC Signs and Murals, obtain the required permits or submit the plans for review to the Buildings Department, the release said.

Barthol and his business face fines of more than $87,000 if found guilty. The charges, issued as violations under the municipal construction code, can be contested before a civil proceeding of the city's Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings.

"We use permits and approvals as a critical bulwark, protecting communities from unlicensed work and the real danger unchecked construction and structural maintenance can pose," Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said in the release. "As evidenced by this major collapse, the danger posed by poorly designed and poorly executed construction is not theoretical. It is immediate, tangible, and capable of creating life-threatening hazards for New Yorkers."

Barthol said he didn't know about the charges against him and his business until Newsday contacted him Tuesday afternoon for comment.

He acknowledged he isn’t licensed but said he didn’t hang the sign personally. His workers did, but he said he didn’t think the workers had the required license either. He also said he didn’t submit the plans as required to the Buildings Department.

"Of course not," Bartol said. "There were no plans for the installation."

He said, incorrectly, that the onus was on the store to seek a permit for the project.

Store owner Billy Rashid told Newsday the permit was supposed to be obtained by the sign hanger, but that the sign had nothing to do with the collapse, which he said was caused solely by the façade wall of the building structure.

Andrew Rudansky, a Department of Buildings spokesperson, said the agency hasn’t made a final determination as to all the contributing factors that led to the collapse.

Diane Struzzi, a spokesperson for the city Department of Investigation, said whoever does the construction must obtain the necessary permits.

"A store owner cannot pull a permit that requires a licensed professional to do the work," Struzzi wrote in an email to Newsday. "It is the hanger of the sign who has to obtain the sign-hanging permit and be licensed — this individual was cited for both of these violations."

The July 23 collapse was at a store called Plaza Furniture just over the Nassau-Queens border. It injured a pedestrian and two girls who were inside a parked car, according to published reports at the time.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.