A 10-story condominium in North Miami Beach, Florida, was shut down Friday over fears concerning the building’s safety.
Following the recent collapse of a condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, the city of North Miami Beach called for a review of all high-rise condos over five stories to determine compliance with the city’s recertification of buildings more than 40 years old.
North Miami Beach Buildings Department files showed Crestview Towers Condominium was not in compliance, according to WTVJ-TV.
When an inspector was sent to investigate the condo on Friday and city officials were, that same day, provided with a Jan. 11 recertification report by the building’s manager, they ordered the building to evacuate all residents.
The Miami Herald reported the emergency evacuation was the first ordered since the Surfside building’s collapse.
The report revealed the building was neither structurally nor electrically safe.
BREAKING: The city of North Miami Beach has ordered that Crestview Towers Condominium be immediately closed and evacuated Friday evening after a building inspection report found it to have unsafe structural and electrical conditions, officials announced. https://t.co/fL1bQn1En0
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) July 2, 2021
“In an abundance of caution, the City ordered the building closed immediately and the residents evacuated for their protection, while a full structural assessment is conducted and next steps are determined,” North Miami Beach City Manager Arthur H. Sorey III said, according to WTVJ.
The Miami Herald reported the building’s evaluation was issued by Roberto Barrerio of B&A Engineering Services in Miami.
It noted that the 49-year-old structure’s beams, walls, columns, sills, balcony slabs and other structural elements were “showing distress.”
“Cracks and spalls found throughout. Moisture at balcony slabs, walls and other structural features,” the report said. “Spalled concrete and rebar corrosion observed.”
Sorey said the report was only produced when the condo association operating the building was threatened with closure.
“They were keeping [the report] from us,” Sorey said.
Willis Howard, Sorey’s chief of staff, said the building’s recertification was due in 2012, but appeared not to have been done for its 40-year mark. He said the inspections cited in the January report began last August.
“It had been pending for years,” he said, adding the association was fined annually for not filing its reports.
“They were seeing how long they could kick the can down the road,” he said.
Here’s the North Miami Beach condo that’s currently being evacuated. Right next to it is a parking lot filled with dozens of families trying to figure out where they’ll spend the night. pic.twitter.com/Qfv9Pmcrdp
— Giulia Heyward (@giuliaheyward) July 3, 2021
Howard said the city had to act immediately on the report provided, despite the July 4th holiday weekend.
“At this point, it’s about safety,” he said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
