At least six fire trucks responded to the area, firefighters said. Some traffic was diverted, and streets were closed.
The struck building and two buildings next to it were evacuated as a precaution, police said. The buildings are in the Financial District, but at least one of them is residential.
Maiden Lane runs east to west, parallel to Wall Street, from near the South Street Seaport to lower Broadway near the World Trade Center site.
One of the evacuated buildings, at 100 Maiden Lane, is an art deco residential tower in the heart of the Seaport area with views of landmark buildings and the East and Hudson rivers. It's not far from the New York Stock Exchange and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
New York has been blighted by crane accidents the last few years. On Tuesday, the city's former chief crane inspector admitted taking more than $10,000 in payoffs to fake inspection and crane operator licensing exam results over nearly a decade.
The inspector, James Delayo, was arrested days after the second of two huge cranes collapsed, killing nine people, in 2008. The charges against him weren't tied to the collapses, but authorities portrayed the case as one in a series to go after builders and inspectors accused of shortchanging safety for profit.
The cause of Saturday's episode hadn't been determined.
