New Orleans Building Collapse: Causes, Victims, and Lawsuits

The Hard Rock Hotel collapse in New Orleans killed three construction workers on October 12, 2019, when the upper floors of an 18-story building going up at 1031 Canal Street gave way, injuring roughly 30 others and leaving two cranes dangling over downtown for months. Federal investigators tied the failure to engineering defects. A grand jury declined to indict anyone in October 2023. Civil cases are still being resolved.

What Happened on October 12, 2019

On a Saturday morning, the upper floors of the steel and concrete structure collapsed, sending debris down onto Canal Street and destabilizing two large construction cranes. Three workers were killed: Quinnyon Wimberly, 36; Anthony Floyd Magrette, 49; and Jose Ponce Arreola, 63. Approximately 30 others were injured.¹

The project was a planned 350-room mixed-use hotel developed by 1031 Canal Development LLC, an entity controlled by New Orleans developer Mohan Kailas, in partnership with Florida-based Hard Rock International, which held a brand licensing agreement to manage the finished property.² Citadel Builders was the general contractor and Heaslip Engineering was the structural engineer of record.³ Hard Rock International said it had “no involvement in the construction of the project.”

What Caused the Collapse

Federal investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined that columns on the 17th and 18th floors were spaced too far apart, compromising the building’s structural integrity.³ In April 2020, OSHA cited Heaslip Engineering for “willful” and “serious” violations and imposed fines exceeding $150,000.⁴ Ten other companies, including Citadel Builders and steel contractor Suncoast Projects, received a combined $160,000 in additional penalties for various safety violations. The project developer, 1031 Canal, was not cited by OSHA.

Heaslip Engineering denied wrongdoing. An attorney for the firm and its principal, James Heaslip, said in April 2020 that the company “unequivocally denies any ‘willful’ or ‘serious’ wrongdoing and will vigorously contest all of the citations.”⁵

Workers at the site had documented hazardous conditions before the collapse. Beams were observed bending under excessive weight, and at least one worker had raised safety concerns with supervisors. A later investigation by the New Orleans Office of Inspector General also found that three city inspectors had signed off on the construction site without physically visiting it.⁶

Why Workers’ Bodies Stayed in the Wreckage for Months

Anthony Magrette’s body was recovered two days after the collapse. The remains of Quinnyon Wimberly and Jose Ponce Arreola stayed trapped in the ruin for months.⁷ City officials said the site was too unstable for manual extraction and no experts could devise a safe recovery plan without risking additional lives.⁸

In January 2020, high winds tore away a tarp covering one victim’s remains, exposing them to public view from the street. Critics called the city’s handling of the situation “irresponsible and indefensible.”⁸ A controlled dynamite blast had brought down one of the destabilized cranes on October 20, 2019, but the question of how to demolish the ruin produced a prolonged standoff between the city and 1031 Canal Development. Mayor LaToya Cantrell favored implosion, calling it safer; the developer preferred piece-by-piece dismantling.⁷

A Civil District Court judge eventually mandated an agreement, and a demolition permit was issued in late April 2020. Demolition began in late May. Wimberly’s body was recovered on August 8, 2020, and Arreola’s on August 17, 2020, roughly ten months after the disaster.⁷ The demolition also required destruction of three historic adjacent buildings, including the old Post Office at 1022 Iberville Street and the former Alamo Theater at 1027 Canal Street.⁹

Why No One Was Criminally Charged

Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams initiated a criminal investigation in 2021 focused on potential gross negligence charges under Louisiana law, which carries a four-year statute of limitations. The DA’s office presented evidence and testimony to a grand jury over several months. Williams said the effort was hampered by the lack of a traditional law-enforcement-directed investigation and accused OSHA of obstructing it by withholding critical reports.¹⁰

On October 5, 2023, the grand jury returned a “no true bill,” declining to indict anyone. At least nine jurors found insufficient evidence to establish criminal liability. Williams called it “a disheartening day,” noting that “criminal negligence carries a much higher burden than civil negligence.”¹¹ The decision came just days before the statute of limitations would have expired.

Victims’ families reacted with anger. The sisters of Anthony Magrette described the legal system as “cruel” and said they had been “strung along” for four years. His twin, Angela Magrette, warned that without accountability, a similar collapse “is going to happen again.”¹¹

Civil Lawsuits and Settlements

More than 400 workers, bystanders, and business owners filed lawsuits. The families of the three deceased workers settled their individual wrongful death claims in early 2024, though the amounts remain undisclosed.¹²

As of September 2025, a tentative settlement had been reached between 1031 Canal Development and a plaintiff steering committee representing the broader group of claimants. The dollar amounts are under seal, with funds to be placed in a trust and distributed according to a court-approved plan based on individual injuries and losses. The agreement is partial. Lawsuits against the project’s engineers, contractors, and steel manufacturers remain pending. The case is being overseen by Judge Kern Reese in Orleans Parish Civil District Court.¹²

The city itself filed a civil suit against the developer and more than a dozen contractors, claiming the collapse cost taxpayers over $12.3 million.³

The Developer and Political Contributions

Mohan Kailas, the majority owner of the project, was a prolific New Orleans developer tied to more than 100 residential and commercial ventures across the city. His business record included hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid inspection fees.⁶

Investigative reporting by The Lens found that partners of 1031 Canal Development contributed at least $69,838 to Mayor Cantrell and her political action committee, and $23,400 to current and former City Council members. Much of that money arrived before council votes that permitted the hotel to exceed the 75-foot zoning height cap and bypass Historic District Landmarks Commission standards. The Cantrell administration maintained that the contributions had “no bearing whatsoever on any decisions made by this administration concerning the Hard Rock project.”¹³

The New Orleans Office of Inspector General confirmed that the collapse was part of a broader local, state, and federal corruption investigation into the city’s Department of Safety and Permits.¹³

What the Collapse Exposed About City Inspections

Audits by the city’s Office of Inspector General have painted the Department of Safety and Permits as plagued by dysfunction and, in places, corruption. Over the past decade, OIG investigations into the department have resulted in 19 arrests, indictments, and resignations, including the guilty plea of an assistant chief mechanical inspector for bribery.¹⁴

A 2022 audit found that 20 percent of inspections were not performed in person and 40 percent took ten minutes or less.¹⁴ An April 2025 audit focused on third-party inspections found that 44 percent of reviewed inspections lacked required reports entirely, none included the mandated inspection checklists, and the department had approved inspections performed by individuals with expired licenses.¹⁵ The department also lacked a compliance officer to perform quality reviews, a position the OIG had recommended filling years earlier.¹⁶ As of late 2024, that position remained unfilled.

Two years after the collapse, in November 2021, the City Council unanimously passed “responsible contractor” legislation. The ordinance requires the city to evaluate a contractor’s financial resources, performance history, regulatory compliance, and business integrity before awarding a public contract. Companies found to be “non-responsible” are placed on a list and barred from city work for three years. A companion ordinance requires construction contracts exceeding $50,000 to hold primary contractors accountable for their subcontractors’ violations.¹⁷ The laws apply to public works and certain city service contracts but not to private construction projects.

The Hard Rock, caused by engineering defects in new construction, stood as a singular event for several years. In late 2024, a run of collapses involving older buildings drew fresh scrutiny: a building at 1410 O.C. Haley Boulevard fell on September 21, 2024, after years of unaddressed structural violations; the 156-year-old Turners’ Hall on O’Keefe Avenue partially collapsed on December 14, 2024, during facade work, with stabilization alone costing $6.5 million; and a building collapsed at Magazine Street and Hastings Place in the Lower Garden District in late December 2024.¹⁸¹⁹²⁰ On January 29, 2025, the City Council voted unanimously to seek an engineering consultant to develop a structural review program for at-risk buildings.²¹

The Site Today

The corner of Canal and Rampart Streets remains a vacant lot, enclosed by chain-link fencing and barricades. Mohan Kailas has declined to comment on future plans, citing pending litigation.²² In July 2025, the Central Business District Historic District Landmarks Commission found that 1031 Canal Street meets the criteria for historic landmark designation, recognizing both the 1960 Woolworth lunch counter civil rights sit-ins that took place at the original building and the 2019 collapse. The designation gives the city greater control over any future development on the property.²³

1
CNN. Hard Rock Hotel Collapse New Orleans No Charges
2
WDSU. Restaurant Group Sues Developer, Contractor of Hard Rock Hotel Project
3
Engineering News-Record. No Grand Jury Indictment in Hard Rock Hotel Construction Collapse
4
U.S. Department of Labor. OSHA Citations Related to Hard Rock Hotel Collapse
5
Legal Reader. Firms Faulted by OSHA for Hard Rock Hotel Collapse
6
Southern Cultures. The Great Unbuilding
7
Engineering News-Record. Workers Bodies Are Finally Removed From Collapsed New Orleans Hotel
8
NBC News. Hard Rock Hotel Collapsed Months Ago, Two Victims Are Still Inside
9
Very Local. Collapse, COVID, and Uncertainty: How Businesses Near the Hard Rock Hotel Collapse Site Are Surviving
10
Fox 8 Live. No Charges Filed in Deadly Hard Rock Collapse, Grand Jury Rules
11
Toronto Star. No Charges in Deadly Hard Rock Hotel Building Collapse in New Orleans
12
NOLA.com. Hard Rock Hotel Collapse New Orleans Lawsuit
13
The Lens. Hard Rock Developers Have Contributed Nearly $70,000 to Mayor Cantrell and Her Political Action Committee
14
New Orleans OIG. Safety and Permits
15
New Orleans OIG. Department of Safety and Permits Third Party Inspections Audit
16
Fox 8 Live. City Approved Inspections Without Reports or Licensed Inspectors, OIG Says
17
The Lens. Two Years After Hard Rock Collapse, City Council Passes Responsible Contractor Requirements
18
Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans. Why Are Buildings Collapsing in New Orleans
19
Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Turners Hall
20
Axios. Why New Orleans Buildings Collapse
21
Fox 8 Live. New Orleans Council Committee Decides Engineering Consultant Needed After Rash of Building Collapses
22
Fox 8 Live. What Will Happen at the Site of the Hard Rock Hotel Collapse
23
New Orleans City Council. 1031 Canal Street Receives Historic Landmark Designation