Housing Preservation and Development registered four construction contracts this week, worth $3.1 million combined, according to NYC Comptroller's Checkbook NYC. Three of them show how HPD tears down dangerous buildings without ever putting the job out to bid — and who gets the call when it does.

On August 3, HPD registered a $320,000 emergency demolition contract with Granite Environmental LLC for 2038 Union Street in Brooklyn (PIN 80627E0005001). On August 25, the same vendor landed a second emergency demolition contract for 849 Rear Pacific Street, also in Brooklyn — $240,000 this time (PIN 80627E0006001). Same agency. Same company. Two different addresses, three weeks apart.

'Emergency' is a real procurement category, not a loophole — it means the building is dangerous enough that the city can't wait for a normal RFP to run its course. Vacant structures do fall down, and HPD needs a fast way to deal with that. But it also means a contractor already trusted by the agency can pick up work that never touches PASSPort's public listings. Checkbook's own data shows a companion registration under the same PIN as the Union Street job, this one for $0 — likely an administrative entry tied to the same contract rather than new money, but worth flagging for anyone tracking the exact value.

The fourth contract in this batch ran the other way. HPD registered $2.5 million to Joseph Environmental LLC for lead abatement work under competitive sealed bidding — the open process, available to anyone who wanted to chase it. That contract runs from September 1, 2026 through August 31, 2028, nearly two years of task orders. All four contracts in this batch are marked Non-M/WBE.

If you do demolition or abatement work in Brooklyn, this is the split you're up against. Emergency jobs go to whoever HPD already trusts on short notice. Everything else runs through PASSPort like any other city contract. If you're not already in HPD's emergency-response rotation, the door in is the competitive lane — and a two-year lead abatement contract like this one usually means more task orders are coming before it closes out in 2028.

Watch PASSPort's open solicitations and Checkbook NYC's contract registrations for the next HPD demolition or abatement RFP — that's where a firm outside the emergency rotation actually gets a shot.