North Miami Beach evacuates 60-unit building for structure

The city of North Miami Beach ordered residents of a five-story, 60-unit apartment building to evacuate Monday after receiving an engineer’s report that said it was “structurally unsound.”

In the report dated April 1, engineer Brownie P. Taurinski wrote that the building “must be evacuated immediately.”

Since July, the building at 3800 Northeast 168th Street known as Bayview 60 Homes had been undergoing repairs as part of its 50-year recertification process, the city said in a statement.

Residents were being evacuated Monday. “They have to find somewhere to go for now,” City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey said.

Sorey told the Miami Herald he had just learned of the engineer’s report Monday morning. He said city officials received the report in an email after working hours Friday and didn’t see it over the weekend.

Commissioner Michael Joseph said the building was just as unsafe Friday as it was Monday, and wondered why the owner didn’t let residents or the city know about the issue earlier.

“I don’t know how you defend that,” he said.

In a statement Tuesday evening, a spokesperson for the building owners called it a “heartbreaking situation” and said renovations had been ongoing for years.

“Over the past few years, Bayview 60 Homes moved forward with planned safety upgrades, major renovations, and routine maintenance to the property,” the statement said. “As part of this work, the company hired a structural engineering firm to assess the integrity of the building. Upon being notified the building may be structurally unsound, the company notified the city and asked residents to evacuate to ensure their safety.”

Bayview 60 Homes is returning all security deposits and April and prepaid rent to all residents, and has offered financial assistance to help cover lodging costs for a few days, the spokesperson said.

The city said residents would be able to return later in the week to gather more belongings. The city also created a hotline for residents who have questions at 305-646-9101.

READ MORE: What do you do if your building is evacuated?

The apartment building, which faces a canal, is located in Eastern Shores, a neighborhood north of Oleta River State Park that consists of several man-made canals.

Property records show the building is owned by Bayview 60 Homes LLC, which is based in Coral Gables. The entity’s manager and registered agent, Ronald Salinas and Maria Dolores Nardi Ariza, hold those same titles for Bayview 30 Homes LLC, which owns another building on the same block.

Residents showed IDs Monday afternoon to get into the building and walked away carrying suitcases and garbage bags full of belongings.

Many said they were given little notice and that they received a phone call telling them to leave. The residents are being given $150 a night for a three-night hotel stay.

“I was working and they called me to say I needed to evacuate,” said Andrea Tores, who has lived in the building for one year with a roommate.

“We don’t know where to go, we don’t know what to do,” Tores said. “They will book us a hotel but we need to find out where to live.”

Tores said the building owner would schedule a time for them to pick up furniture.

As he hauled away large black duffel bags, Daniel DeFelicia said he had just moved in three weeks ago and paid his rent. Now he’s on the apartment hunt again.

He said he doesn’t know where he will go. “I have to leave now,” he said.

Residents were hauling TVs and whatever else they could carry. Some tossed suitcases from the balcony to speed up the process.

If they can’t find housing after the three-day hotel voucher runs out, the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust will pitch in with housing, city officials said.

Residents were allowed to retrieve smaller belongings until 11 p.m. on Monday. They can return Tuesday morning, but after 2 p.m. no more walk-in visits will be allowed.

This is the second building that has been ordered evacuated due to safety concerns in North Miami Beach following the collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside that killed 98 people last year. In July, North Miami Beach ordered the evacuation of the 10-story Crestview Towers Condominium and residents have not yet been allowed to return to the building, Sorey said.

The disaster in Surfside has led to increased scrutiny of building maintenance and inspection practices. Experts have questioned the existing approach in South Florida, which requires most multi-family structures to be recertified as safe 40 years after they are constructed and every 10 years after that.

In Miami-Dade County, a proposal by the county commission would decrease that requirement to 30 years.

Champlain Towers South was undergoing its 40-year review when it partially collapsed.

The report on Bayview 60 Homes said elevation points taken by a general contractor had found that “the deflection in the slabs is exceeding” guidelines by the American Concrete Institute.

Abieyuwa Aghayere, a Drexel University engineering researcher, said after reviewing the engineer’s report and drawings, the “deflections” — a term that refers to vertical “sagging” in a slab — appeared to be large and concerning.

“I can understand why the engineer wrote the letter that he wrote,” Aghayere said. “When you have deflections that are larger than what the ACI code prescribes or expects, it means that there’s something happening in the structure, the structure is more flexible than it should be.”

This story has been updated to include a statement from a spokesperson for the building owners.

This story was originally published April 4, 2022 11:39 AM.