Why a residential building has spent 13 years on Miami-Dade’s unsafe structures radar

Following the Surfside condo collapse that left 98 dead this summer, Miami-Dade County has faced mounting pressure to address the hundreds of unsafe structure cases in its jurisdiction, including aging residential complexes that have failed to meet a key safety benchmark for buildings aged 40 years and older.

One stands out among the rest: Jade Winds, a sprawling North Miami Beach complex where one building is 13 years past due on its 40-year recertification — the longest-standing unresolved recertification case among buildings flagged by the county in a post-Surfside audit. More than a decade after the case was opened with the county, the building remains occupied.

The condo’s story, mired by allegations of embezzlement, bankruptcy and homeowner association intrigue, is a window into the long and treacherous path residents can face on the road to getting the county’s formal assurance that their homes are safe — and the lengths the county will go to accommodate a condo board’s delays when it can’t afford repairs.

“The cost of the repairs for the entire complex has exceeded the association’s reserves,” a Miami-Dade County spokesperson explained.

The county first identified Jade Winds’ unresolved case in June, shortly after the fall of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside. The tower’s collapse — the cause of which has not been determined — redirected attention to building codes, inspections and South Florida’s unique 40-year recertification requirement, created to ensure the structural integrity of older towers in the wake of a 1970s federal building collapse.

Built in 1981, Champlain South was awaiting recertification when it partially collapsed. The Allamanda Gardens building within Jade Winds, a 916-unit community, was built in 1968, yet still hasn’t received its 40-year certification.

Engineers hired by the condo association, however, have told Jade Winds that the building remains structurally sound and safe for residents. And the president and attorney of the complex’s condo association say they’re now close to resolving the issues that have prevented it from gaining the county’s formal stamp of approval.

Falling into disrepair and bankruptcy

The problem, they say, has been clawing out of the hole dug by past financial mismanagement and malfeasance.

The complex’s one-time condo board president and property manager, who left their positions in 2014, were accused in court of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars, including through all-cash parking fees, and of causing damages of up to $3.1 million.

In one instance, then-Property Manager Donna Mantin was accused of having taken $60,000 of association funds to pay for her personal dental work.

First Services Residential, the property management company Jade Winds used at the time, and Mantin, their former employee, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Former HOA President Santiago Perez, who was also accused of impropriety, could not be reached directly or through his former attorney.

Amid the turmoil, problems with the buildings languished. Some residents, like Peter and Debbie Orlowsky, were left with balconies to nowhere — pieces of concrete attached to the building with no safety-guard or railing — due to unfinished work by the association, according to a 2015 Local 10 report.

“It was especially frustrating because owners and tenants lost the enjoyment of their property after balconies were ripped apart, sliding doors bolted closed from the outside,” Jeffrey Allen, a North Miami Beach resident who moved out of his Jade Winds condo in around 2012 and never looked back, told the Herald.

In the fallout of the mismanagement, Jade Winds sued those accused of perpetuating it and eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2015. Their case was only officially closed four years later, in 2019. According to the condo association’s lawyer, Kevin Peters, who helped with that process, the entire affair left the condo “basically toxic to contractors and lenders.”

“They couldn’t get a loan, they couldn’t do anything because they had this reputation for failing to pay contractors, for not having the funds necessary to do things,” Peters told the Herald.

More than they could afford

Cristina Moinelo, the current condo association president, now faces the task of righting the ship. The original recertification processes for the Allamanda Gardens building at 1660 NE 191st St. and the four other condos within the complex due for their 40-year approval may have been started as early as 2010, but the “work was stopped because they stole our money,” she said.

“We had to start all over again, so the county has worked with us well in keeping tabs on what we’re doing, giving us extensions as long as we are giving them proof that we’re working continuously on the buildings,” Moinelo explained. “Show us permits, show us who the contractors are, what are you doing.”

Peters said that, in his experience, if not for the association’s demonstrated diligence, the county would not have been so accommodating.

The county seemed to agree. Their approach since 2011, according to a county spokesperson, has been ensuring the cash-poor condo association stays “in regular communication with the Unsafe Structures Section” to “provide updates on the progress.”

“Because of the incremental progress and to avoid additional litigation, the Unsafe Structures Section has been agreeable to entering into additional Agreements to allow the association additional time for completing the recertification process,” the spokesperson said.

The top priority for repairs as the condo association began its recovery became fixing the damage left behind by the previous board — including those defective balconies.

“When we were able to get a loan, it wasn’t enough to do all the work,” Moinelo said. “We had one or two buildings that had no balconies, people lived without balconies for five years. So we did those first.”

And after those repairs, Peters said the lingering effects of the bankruptcy continued to get in the way.

“The lending underwriters, their credit departments ... when they see a bankruptcy, they want to see between three and five years pass from the end of the bankruptcy, and we’re right at the two-year mark, so for them it’s just a non-starter,” Peters said.

But despite problems financially, as well as problems at one point with pulling the proper permits for the repairs, the association lawyer stressed, “It’s not like the building hasn’t been touched in 13 years — there’s been work that’s been done, it just hasn’t gotten to the clean 40-year report.”

Close to a clean bill of health

The Jade Winds condo association would not grant a reporter access to the condo’s property, so the Miami Herald could not get a close-up view of Jade Winds. But some residents said the pending 40-year certification doesn’t necessarily raise alarm.

“The recertification process, a lot of it is paperwork, honestly,” said Eric Roman, 39, whose mother lives in the condo building at 1660 NE 191st St. and who has lived in Jade Winds since age 11. “Am I nervous about it? Yes, it’s my mom that lives there. Do I think the building’s structurally unsafe? No, not at all.”

The condo does seem to finally be close to getting that “clean” report Peters mentioned. As of July 23, the county confirmed approval for all structural reports on the 1660 building but left a number of items on the electrical and parking reports rejected — giving Jade Winds until Aug. 31 to provide reports of those final repairs to obtain the 40-year recertification. Some of those items met the code at the time those reports were first initiated — such as the location and number of smoke detectors — but no longer do, according to the county.

The county also confirmed to the Herald that it has received letters from engineers hired by the association deeming the building both structurally and electrically “safe to be occupied while the repairs are in progress.”

“The pending structural and electrical repairs are not deemed by the engineer to be imminent life safety hazards,” the county spokesperson said in the statement, confirming assurances from Moinelo.

Still, to this day, even with the completion of county-required repairs presumably around the corner, the history of delays and obstacles sits heavily with Roman — even as he commends the work of the new association board in doing due diligence on the repairs. He said he still sees the former management’s alleged ”stealing” as “really the stem of it all.”

“I blame myself for letting that money get stolen,” said Roman, who lives in the building next-door from his mother’s. “I should have been more active in my community.”

Herald staff writer Douglas Hanks contributed to this report.

This story was originally published August 3, 2021 at 8:15 AM.