Residents of a 14-story beachfront condominium building in Miami, Florida, on the same street as a condo that collapsed and killed almost 100 people, were forced to move out of their apartments after officials deemed the property unsafe and issued an evacuation order.
At 4 pm on Thursday, Melissa Berthier, the Miami Beach spokesperson, said that the city was going to post a notice that the Port Royale building was an unsafe structure and order residents to vacate. At around 5 pm the same day, all residents received an evacuation notice stating they had to be out by 7 pm.
Miami Beach officials had informed residents of the 164-unit building on Wednesday that they would be required to evacuate, but the notice came a day later on Thursday.
A report by the building’s structural engineer prompted the evacuation of the building, which was in the middle of getting a 50-year recertification. One of the engineers found that one of the building’s main support beams, which an inspection firm had identified for repair close to a year ago, had moved, and a crack in the beam, which was small at the time it was identified, was now significantly bigger. The report also identified other support beams that needed to be repaired.
One of the building’s residents, who is also a renovation contractor, Marash Markaj, had lived in the building for close to a decade, and he said that the damage was not just to a single beam. He told reporters that he had noticed the issues for years and tried to report them to the Port Royale building management and the Miami Beach Building Department.
His futile attempts to report the damage made him feel unsafe living in the building.
Inspection Engineers Inc. wrote a letter to the Miami Beach Building Department saying that they were working on getting a city permit for comprehensive shoring on the building. Shoring, a reinforcement method for areas that need to be repaired, like the garage support beam, was expected to be through in ten days.
Arshad Vioar with Inspection Engineers Inc. said they conducted an inspection on the building about ten months ago and found areas that needed to be repaired as soon as possible.
The building started on the repairs about a month ago, and during a routine inspection by the firm which was supervising the repairs, one of the engineers noticed that one of the building’s main beams had moved about a half an inch, and the crack that was supposed to be repaired had significantly extended.
According to Miami Beach officials, local laws required condo owners who had rented their units out to cover costs for their renters’ temporary housing until the building was declared habitable.
The Port Royale building is less than two miles from the Champlain Towers South Condo building, which is also located on Collins Avenue. In June 2021, the Champlain Towers building collapsed and killed 98 people. The tragic incident on the 12-story building drew numerous emergency response teams, including crews from Israel, to help search for victims.
The structural integrity of old buildings in Miami has come into question as the state imposed stricter rules on recertification. Now, all buildings must be recertified after 30 years, and 25 years for buildings within three miles of the coast.
