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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