The city of North Miami Beach ordered the immediate closure and evacuation of the Crestview Towers Condominium on Friday, July 2, 2021, the evening after a building inspection report found it had unsafe structural and electrical conditions, city officials said.
The city of North Miami Beach ordered the immediate closure and evacuation of the 10-story Crestview Towers condominium on Friday evening after a building inspection report found it was uninhabitable due to structural and electrical issues, city officials said Friday evening.
The January 11, 2021 inspection report that the condominium company released to the city on Friday afternoon after the city threatened to close the building on Thursday said the 156-unit building was:
▪ “Constructively no safe for the specified use for further occupancy.”
▪ “Electrically no safe for the specified use for further occupancy.”
The condominium tower is the first to close following the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside on June 24th due to unsafe structural issues. As rescue efforts continue, 22 have been found dead and more than 120 missing.
The city announced that the residents of the building would be evacuated “with great caution”.
By 7:00 p.m., police were already rerouting traffic around the aging building, 2025 NE 164th St., and a command vehicle was parked one block away.
Wilmar Herrera, 40, leaves his apartment with his luggage after the City of North Miami Beach ordered that the Crestview Towers Condominium be immediately closed and evacuated on Friday evening after a building inspection report found it had unsafe structural and electrical conditions City officials on July 2, 2021. Daniel A. Varela [email protected]
The report, edited by Roberto Barrerio of B&A Engineering Services in Miami, described a number of problems with the 49-year-old building. “, It says in the report.
“Cracks and flakes found everywhere. Moisture on balcony slabs, walls and other structural features, ”the report said. “Concrete spalling and reinforcement corrosion observed.”
Additionally, the report said cracks were observed and “some previous repairs were visible”.
The report also recommended repairs to an electrical room on the fifth floor, emergency lighting, the fire alarm system, smoke detectors, emergency power generator, and exit lighting.
City manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey told the Miami Herald that city officials on Thursday threatened the Crestview Condominium Association that they would close the building unless the association provided the latest inspection report of the building.
After the association presented the report on Friday afternoon, city officials decided to close and evacuate the building, displacing dozens of residents over the weekend of July 4th.
“They withheld (the report) from us,” said Sorey.
The City of North Miami Beach has ordered that the Crestview Towers Condominium be immediately closed and evacuated that evening on Friday, July 2, 2021 after a building inspection report found it to have unsafe structural and electrical conditions. Daniel A. Varela [email protected]
The Miami-Dade homeless agency said Friday it will house dozens of residents in a makeshift shelter in a district pavilion on the grounds of the Youth Fair complex near Florida Turnpike and Coral Way.
Ron Book, chairman of the Homeless Trust board of directors, said carts are preparing to load the residents of Crestview Towers for the trip south, where they will have bed and food at least until Monday in the pet-friendly E. Darwin Fuchs Pavilion Would be provided.
“The Red Cross is sending beds there,” Book said on Friday evening. “Our team will go in there tomorrow and evaluate.”
Book did not have details of the residents who would be staying at the Fuchs, a cavernous enclosed event space, but said it could be more than 100 people.
Crestview Towers was built in 1972 and is subject to the county’s 40-year recertification process, which requires that older buildings be checked by civil engineers to see if they are still safe.
Sorey’s chief of staff Willis Howard said the Crestview Association appeared to have missed or skipped its 40-year recertification due in 2012. The inspections that led to the January report began last August.
“It has been pending for years,” he said, adding that the association was fined for any year that it failed to file the report.
“You saw how long you can kick the can on the street.”
Representatives of the housing association could not be reached on Friday evening to comment.
Steven Davis, 37, said he had lived in the building for more than 20 years – and was not surprised by the evacuation on Friday.
“They just knew something was going to happen,” he said, adding that windows and walls that needed repairing throughout the building were often not repaired. He said he sold his unit eight months ago.
North Miami Beach Police helped with the evacuation. The city has temporarily opened two community centers to provide housing to Crestview residents, Councilor Michael Joseph said. The American Red Cross is also helping to find shelter for displaced people.
“Many people are being displaced,” said Joseph.
City officials did not yet have a complete count of the number of people living in Crestview Towers.
The city conducted a survey of all condos after the Surfside collapse.
City officials said Friday night they couldn’t rule out whether other high-rise condos would close due to structural issues.
Howard said the decision to evacuate on the weekend of July 4th was difficult but necessary.
“This is about security.”
The Miami Herald authors, Douglas Hanks and Aaron Leibowitz, contributed to this report.
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