Backlash, mixed emotions greet judge’s order to initiate sale of Surfside condo property
Since the shocking collapse of a Surfside condo building, killing almost 100 people under a mountain of rubble, a wrenching question has hung over the oceanfront property: what should be done with it?
Earlier this week, a Miami-Dade judge given that Solomonic task initiated a plan to sell the valuable site to a possible developer to generate as much money as possible for the victims, saying it was the wisest course of action for those who lost their homes and loved ones. The property is valued at more than $100 million.
But by Friday, after a bit of a backlash to his order, Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman relented to other options. He said he had heard from different voices in the Surfside community and beyond who believed that the site of the former 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building would be better suited for a memorial honoring the dead or redeveloped as a new high-rise for those who survived the June 24 tragedy.
A prominent Miami-Dade lobbyist and a lawyer offered their services to raise funds from local, state and federal governments to pay for a memorial on the Surfside property, while the mayor of Miami Beach, just south of the condo collapse, offered to build one at a nearby park.
“It should be understood that all competing interests will be considered,” Hanzman said, “before any decision is made.”
Friday’s Champlain Towers South hearing
The judge made this diplomatic point at a hearing on Friday in which some 50 lawyers in his courtroom and on a Zoom connection waited for directions, as they debated how to generate potentially hundreds of millions of dollars from insurance coverage, the property sale and other sources to compensate the people who owned or rented condos in the 136-unit Champlain Towers South building.
A condo owner who had left the building just three hours before it collapsed in the middle of the night told the judge that he had met with many other survivors and they felt deeply concerned about the future of the property as the recovery of bodies nears conclusion.
“We are very concerned about how the process is going to work,” said Oren Cytrynbaum, who owned Unit 905 next door to another, Unit 906, that belonged to his family from Canada. Those condos were in the front half of the building, which remained standing after the collapse but was later demolished by Miami-Dade County.
Cytrynbaum, a lawyer himself, said there are two groups of people, Champlain condo owners and injured or deceased victims, who must be reconciled: it’s “very hard to separate them” because “we know it’s going to be unfair.”
He implored the judge to consider the emotional toll, not just the monetary issues, asking him to hold a moment of silence in his courtroom to remember the dead on Friday.
After the brief tribute, Hanzman assured everyone that he would keep an open mind and consider all viable options, but then injected a sense of reality: “These allocations [of money] are going to be difficult and they will require negotiations.”
A lawyer who was appointed by the judge as a receiver for the Champlain condominium association, which has been sued by more than 30 people so far, said coming up with an ideal solution for the oceanfront property won’t be easy because of the site’s sensitivity.
“There is not unanimity with what people want to do with this property,” said attorney Michael Goldberg, the receiver, who has met with more than 100 people affected by the Champlain building collapse.
Still, Goldberg told the judge that he has hired a real estate expert at no cost to help with the potential sale of the building.
Conflicting opinions
Several people contacted by the Miami Herald said they were upset about Judge Hanzman’s initial order to begin pursuing the sale of the 8777 Collins Ave. property at the expense of other options.
Martin Langesfeld, who lost his sister, Nicole Langesfeld, and brother-in-law, Luis Sadovnic, in the collapse, said he was opposed to a rush to sell the property to a developer for a new luxury high-rise.
“There’s bones being taken out day by day, trying to build body pieces as a skeleton,” Langesfeld said outside Surfside Town Hall earlier this week. “And during this time they are already thinking of covering it up with another building,” he said.
He said a memorial should be set up at the Champlain site.
“Money cannot cover the catastrophe that just occurred,” he said. “This court order came as a shock for many of us. So going forward we need to make this right. We need to think as people, not as paper.”
Steve Rosenthal, 72, a survivor of the condo collapse and a close friend of several victims, told a representative from the White House on July 6 that he wanted to see the site of his home of 20 years turned into a permanent memorial, honoring the lives lost.
“Kind of like a 9/11 memorial, or Oklahoma City [bombing] memorial. I don’t know about a museum — make it a park kind of thing,” Rosenthal told the Herald at the time, saying he hoped the federal government would purchase the property.
But on Friday — 10 days later — as stress over the loss of his property and financially uncertain future has escalated, his priorities seemed to have changed. Rosenthal, who lived in Unit 705, said he’s “very happy” with the judge’s initial ruling on selling the property to a developer.
“At this point, honestly, I’m looking for whoever comes up with the most money,” he said on Friday. “If the government comes up with the most money, that’s great. If a developer comes up with the most money, that’s great.”
Still, he said no new condo or development should erase the memory of those who perished in the tower. “I think a plaque should be erected somewhere on that site,” Rosenthal said.
Earlier this week, Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said Hanzman’s decision to pursue the sale of the Champlain site has unnerved some families of those who died in the collapse.
“That has unsettled, to say the least, quite a few families,” Burkett said. “And quite frankly, it’s unsettling to me because it seems as though it’s premature.”
Burkett said he appreciated Hanzman’s efforts to help the families and those who survived the collapse with financial assistance, but said a decision as permanent as a sale should be made only after thoughtful consideration and hearing input from those directly impacted by the tragedy, some of who clearly want to see a memorial on that site,” he said.
At the same time, Burkett said he has heard from some survivors who would like to live at the site of the condo collapse after losing their homes.
“That’s their home,” he said. “Their home was destroyed and they’ve said they want their home rebuilt.”
For Surfside Commissioner Eliana Salzheur, news of Hanzman’s inclination to sell the site to a developer enraged her.
“I would love to be alone in a room with someone who can walk in here and tell me they want to build there because that is a person with no soul. It’s the lowest of the low,” she said earlier this week. “There’s a special place in hell for people that prioritize money over life like that.”
Rabbi Aryeh Citron, a leader of a small Jewish community in Surfside, told the Herald that while “of course, I do feel a memorial is appropriate, somewhere on or near the property,” building a new condo on the lot would likely not constitute a violation of Jewish religious law, as some have suggested.
“It is not forbidden by Jewish law to build — a development or whatever — on the site of a tragedy as long as no one is still buried there,” he wrote in a text message.
Asked about concerns from a Jewish perspective that some remains may never be discovered in the rubble, Citron said that he has been told all debris will be moved to an off-site location for forensic analysis. “So, if there are any remains left, I would imagine that they would be there, not at the original site,” he said.
But Rabbi Raphael Tennenhaus, the leader at the Chabad of South Broward, said a plaque near the site of the collapsed condo is insufficient to honor the victims’ memory.
“It’s hallowed ground. Especially if there is a possibility — even a possibility — of human remains, it should be treated with the utmost respect and dignity,” Tennenhaus said. “People should be able to pray there and remember the victims of the collapse.”
Miami Herald staff writer David Ovalle contributed to this story.
This story was originally published July 16, 2021 at 6:52 PM.