Condos reopen after serious code violations

Select Castle Beach residents might be returning home after a year-long battle of getting the building up to code.

Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald

By SUSAN ANASAGASTI
Published August 27, 2006

Castle Beach Club condominium owners finally might be able to return to their homes this week more than a year after Miami Beach building officials ordered residents out of the building, citing ''life-safety'' code violations.

Problems for owners in the Castle Beach Club, at 5445 Collins Ave., began 15 months ago, when Miami Beach officials were forced to shut down the oceanfront building, which had a growing list of violations the board had ignored for years.

Building Director Thomas Velazquez said Thursday the city is ready to let some unit owners -- at least, those with units on the fourth floor or lower -- move back in as early as this week.

''We don't want to take any risks,'' he said. "All the violations that are related to life-safety have to be corrected before we can reopen the building again. At this point, the only thing that is left are fire violations.''

Owners are anxious to move back. Financially strapped, they have struggled to pay their mortgages and hundreds of dollars in maintenance fees for units they couldn't live in -- not to mention substitute housing.

Caridad Amores owns two units in the 573-unit 18-story building.

''What we've been able to accomplish has been monumental,'' said Amores, who is a member of the condo board. "We had to repair a building with no money. And it's a property that a lot of developers would love to have. It's four-plus acres on Millionaire Row. But we were able to stick together to reopen the building.''

The Castle Beach Club was built in 1969 as a Playboy Hotel. In the 1980s, the hotel was converted to condos. Problems for unit owners escalated after learning that Miami Beach had been citing the building for violations that went ignored.

Repairs were never made, despite owners' complaints.

Some of the code violations included an overloaded and inadequate electrical and sprinkler system. Some owners also illegally renovated units without permits, converting bathroom sinks into stoves and punching holes in fire walls.

Amores said she and other new board members, elected in November, passed a $25 million special assessment to get the building up to code and cover hurricane damages.

''It's amazing to see that, although we've been closed for over a year, everyone has continued to pay,'' she said. "That's why we've been able to do what we did, and that's what nobody thought we would do.''

She said an engineer has met with city officials and has worked out a protocol for which floors should open first.

''They determined that since you need a lobby they would start from the first floor up,'' she said. "Now it's just a matter of continuing to do what needs to be done in those floors so we can open the rest of them two floors at a time.''

Amores is optimistic that, pending additional inspections to resolve city concerns, Castle Beach residents might be nearing the end of the condo-nightmare.

''The residents really love the building, and we stuck together and managed to save it,'' she said. "It's a heart-warming story.''


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