Residents Await Word on Future of Evacuated Miami Beach Condo Deemed Unsafe

Residents of a Miami Beach condominium building scrambled to find places to live after an evacuation order abruptly forced them out.

Miami Beach posted an unsafe structure notice Thursday evening at the Port Royale condominium, a 14-story, 164-unit building at 6969 Collins Avenue.

Residents had little time to evacuate and find a new place to stay. They said they were told they could possibly be let back in in November.

"We take issues of building safety with utmost priority and won't compromise the safety of our residents and visitors," Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said in a statement Friday.

A structural engineering report prompted the evacuation of the building, which is in the process of undergoing a required 50-year recertification. An engineer discovered that a main support beam identified for repair 10 months ago had shifted and that a crack in the beam had expanded, and other structural supports may need repair as well, the report said.

A letter from inspectors showed that in July of last year, Miami Beach had opened an unsafe structures case after they found violations.

Work began on concrete restoration about four weeks ago and that's when the problems were spotted.

Inspection Engineers Inc. said in a letter to the city that it's working to obtain a city permit so that “comprehensive shoring” can be installed within 10 days. That will be followed by another inspection of the building, which was constructed in 1971.

On Friday, the building was empty and blocked off with caution tape. Public works crews were seen turning the water off to the building.

The handful of condo residents who returned to the site Friday morning to see what was happening included Felicia Flores, 71, who lived in the building 15 years, and now has gone to stay with her daughter nearby. She swung by while walking her small dog. She said work was being done on the building for a few weeks but that something changed Thursday.

"It appears there was something more serious, so we had to leave all of a sudden,” Flores said.

Miami Beach officials said condo owners who rented out their units were on the hook under local laws to cover temporary housing for renters for up to three months or until the building was habitable again.

Samy Bosch, who lived in building for nine years, said the residents were given very little time to move out. They were told at 5 p.m. Thursday that they had to be out by 7 p.m.

"We don’t know exactly what’s going on inside there but we can’t stay. That’s it," Bosch said, as he returned on a scooter to observe the scene on Friday morning.

One resident, renovation contractor Marash Markaj, who lived in the building for more than six years, said the damage extends beyond a single support beam.

"I’ve seen the issues for many years," Markaj told The Associated Press. He said he tried to report the issues – including cracks in a column and water standing in the garage area for weeks at a time – to the building management and to the city’s building department.

“I was never able to get a response," he said, adding that he was feeling “unsafe” living in the building and with the way the building’s maintenance was handled.

The Port Royale is about 1.3 miles south of the Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside, also on Collins Avenue, where 98 people were killed in a June 2021 collapse.

The disaster at the 12-story oceanfront condo building in Surfside drew the largest non-hurricane emergency response in Florida history, including rescue crews from across the U.S. and as far away as Israel to help local teams search for victims.

Other buildings in South Florida have been evacuated amid similar safety concerns since the Surfside collapse.

The disaster focused scrutiny on the structural integrity of aging condominium towers throughout Florida, especially along its coastlines, and the state has since moved to strengthen laws requiring inspections and periodic recertification of buildings.