Like many big U.S. cities, New York is dealing with rising crime against a backdrop of construction and scaffolding as commercial buildings are revamped in a changing property market. Now the two phenomena are combining in a high-profile lawsuit involving one of the world’s most famous intersections.

At the heart of the dispute is a sidewalk shed, the type of overhead structure that shields downtown passersby from construction, for the redevelopment of One Times Square — home of the world-famous New Year’s Eve ball drop. The problem is that instead of making things safer, one of New York’s well-known property owners argues, the shed creates “an obscured area ripe for muggings, theft, assault, drug use, and other criminal activity.”

The Durst Organization, owner of 151 W. 42nd St. right across Broadway from One Times Square, filed a complaint with the New York State Supreme Court against Jamestown, the developer behind the $500 million overhaul of One Times Square. Durst argues Jamestown seeks to build a “grossly oversized sidewalk shed” extending 100 feet to the east of One Times Square, creating an “unnecessarily dangerous and unsafe condition.” At least part of the shed has already been constructed.

“The unnecessarily extended sidewalk shed — which is not required by the Building Code — will cause extreme congestion," Durst said in the lawsuit. “The sidewalk shed will not only fail to protect the public health, but it will actually cause public health and safety to be severely compromised, imposing an immediate threat to [Durst], New York City citizens, and the millions of tourists that will travel through the Times Square area.”

It’s all playing out as Times Square, the tourism-and-entertainment mecca known as the “Crossroads of the World,” has benefited from a rebound in foot traffic that has moved it closer to levels seen prior to the pandemic. The financial stakes are high: The Times Square Alliance, a business-promoting group, has said the district represents 0.1% of New York’s total area, but 15% of its economic output.

In New York, the Department of Buildings defines sidewalk sheds as temporary structures built to protect people or property. Developers are required to build them when putting up a building more than 40 feet high or demolishing one that's more than 25 feet high, or when there’s potential for danger.

The lawsuit also said the hazard extends to visitors and tenants of 151 W. 42nd, which include apparel retailer H&M and the marketing presence of the Nasdaq Stock Market, which has a portion of the building that displays stock prices on an eight-story cylindrical LED video display. Social media firm TikTok is the building’s anchor tenant, with more than 232,000 square feet, followed by BMO Bank of Montreal with 215,000 square feet, according to CoStar data.

A Durst spokesperson declined to comment beyond what’s in the court filing. The company is awaiting a court decision.

Jamestown told CoStar News it has followed city-mandated safety protocols, and plans were approved by the Department of Buildings earlier this year. “Safety is our top priority, and we remain committed to maintaining a safe environment at the site throughout the construction period,” a spokesperson for One Times Square said in an emailed statement.

The lawsuit comes as New York Police Department statistics show overall crime in the city climbed by 27.8% in May from a year earlier. Each of the seven major crime categories saw increases, driven by a 42.1% spike in grand larceny, a 28.3% uptick in burglary, and a 26.2% rise in robberies, NYPD data shows.

Safety concerns have slowed the return-to-office pace in New York and other major cities more than two years into the pandemic. New York private sector employees have said safety is the single biggest obstacle stopping them from returning to the workplace, according to a study commissioned by the Partnership for New York City, a business group with a membership that includes many major employers.

Only about 40% of New York workers are back in the office since COVID-19 increased the practice of remote working, according to building keycard swipe data from security firm Kastle Systems. Meanwhile, as cities including New York increasingly seek to redevelop and convert their outdated offices and other properties, there have been reports of neighborhood worries about construction sites being a convenient cover for loiterers and illegal activities.

On Tuesday afternoon, Jamestown’s shed could be seen covering a major portion of the sidewalk right outside the windows of the H&M store on Broadway.

In the lawsuit, Durst said it expressed its concerns about the shed to Jamestown “on multiple occasions” and that the developer has refused to amend its intended action.

The filing said Jamestown argued that it wasn’t able to “utilize less intrusive, alternative overhead protection measures” because it didn’t get the needed approval. But Durst maintains that the city would allow Jamestown to pursue a different plan.

“There is no legitimate basis for ... [Jamestown’s] insistence on creating dangerous conditions that are preventable,” Durst said.

The lawsuit said that while the sidewalk shed to the north of Jamestown’s project extends about 30 feet from One Times Square, 29 feet to the west, and 22.5 feet to the south, the shed to the east extends 100 feet and is also much wider than the others.

Durst pointed to its 2021 renovation of what it calls One Five One in New York. About three times the height of the 26-story One Times Square, the project only involved, throughout the duration of that work, a shed over the sidewalk “immediately adjacent” to its property and “nowhere else.”

Regarding One Times Square, “neither the covered portion of Broadway nor the sidewalk adjacent to [Durst’s] property fall within the property line of [Jamestown’s] property,” Durst said in the lawsuit.

The shed there “will be constructed and maintained for the next several years assuming the project is not further delayed,” according to the lawsuit. Jamestown “is hellbent on its project and has already started to construct the sidewalk shed without regard to the consequences,” it said.