The suit was brought by owners of a neighboring building that was damaged in the course of renovating the church. In 2001, the Church of God of St. Albans in Queens Village, Queens hired Harold Gebhard as design architect for a renovation of the church. The project involved demolishing part of the existing church structure and replacing it with a new building. During excavation of the building site in 2009, the neighboring building at 223-05 Hempstead Avenue was severely damaged, leading to the Department of Buildings issuing a full vacate order on September 20, 2009.
