TV6 Investigates: Former worker: The Davenport got worse and worse ... all the way up

DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) - TV6 Investigates the background of the partially collapsed downtown Davenport apartment building’s owner, Andrew Wold, some of the people that worked with him, and concerns raised about the building.

Chuck Noyd is a licensed contractor very familiar with The Davenport, the downtown apartment building that collapsed Sunday.

He examined it with the new owner, Andrew Wold, when Wold bought the building in 2020.

Noyd noticed major problems right away, namely massive cracks that ran the length of the floors and transferred up the wall.

“I pointed out to him immediately,” Noyd said. “And on almost every floor as it got worse and worse that this is going all the way up the building. This is not a one-floor thing. This is every single floor.”

TV6 has been unable to reach Wold, but it is clear from newly released documents that Wold and his buildings have been the target of city officials since he purchased the property.

Despite more then 145 interactions with The Davenport, city officials never reached the conclusion the building was unsafe for its residents.

That proved wrong late afternoon on Sunday.

Noyd said he reached out to Wold’s team several times with warnings.

“As recently as two weeks ago, I had a conversation with (a former project manager that worked with Wold) telling ‘em, once again, in the back of that building wasn’t going to hold it up. I still believe it’s going to fall down.”

People who worked for Wold say he has a pattern of ignoring obvious problems with his buildings.

Nick Smith handled maintenance for some of Wold’s other properties.

“There’s a lot of, you know, black mold and unfavorable living conditions in a lot of these different units that just kind of go covered up. That could be fixed really easily if you just kind of tear it down to the bones.”

As for Noyd, he believes the tragedy could have been prevented had someone heeded his warnings.

“For two years, I’ve been explaining to people and telling random folks ... that I still think this building’s gonna fall down.”

Noyd gave a deposition to Davenport’s city attorney earlier this week, telling him the same details he gave to TV6.

INSPECTION ‘GLITCH’

Meanwhile, Mayor Mike Matson has said one city employee has already lost their job for misfiling Davenport’s most recent inspection permit. City officials say an outside agency will investigate not only the collapse but how problems were missed during the inspection process.