Miami Beach fines itself after city-owned buildings miss 40-year recertification
The Surfside condo collapse has led local governments in Miami-Dade County to pay closer attention to older buildings that are overdue for county-mandated safety checks.
In Miami Beach, that process has also involved looking in the mirror.
Five city-owned buildings are currently in violation of a 40-year recertification requirement: the administrative building at 1701 Meridian Ave., the South Shore Community Center at 833 Sixth St., the shuttered Byron Carlyle Theater at 500 71st St., a Fleet Management building at 140 MacArthur Causeway and a parking garage at 400 W. 42nd St.
Three buildings — the administrative hub, the South Shore Community Center and the Byron Carlyle Theater — were issued $500 fines in June and July. The two remaining buildings were not the subject of fines because applications have been filed for permits to do repairs.
“If they have not received a violation, it’s because the permit extension was granted,” city spokeswoman Melissa Berthier wrote in an email. “City properties are not treated differently than private properties.”
Under Miami-Dade County’s recertification process, when a building turns 40 years old the property owner must hire an engineer or architect to perform an electrical and structural inspection of the building and submit a report documenting the building’s condition. The report is due within 90 days of receiving a notice from the city to begin the recertification. Every 10 years afterwards, the property owner must repeat the process.
The city missed the 90-day deadline for all five properties.
Past due but safe, city says
Building owners are allowed up to two six-month extensions, and during Florida’s COVID-related state of emergency, owners were allowed a separate extension, according to the city. Some of the city-owned buildings were due for their recertification before the pandemic but received extensions. Berthier said the buildings are safe for occupancy, except for the Byron Carlyle, which closed in 2019.
The city has since received the required engineering reports for all five of its past-due properties. Structural repairs are needed for the 42nd Street garage and work is planned to reroute a water line that connects to the 1701 Meridian Ave. building, which is located near city hall and houses the Parks & Recreation, Fire Prevention, Marketing & Communications and a portion of the Housing & Community Services departments.
Structural repairs have been completed at the Fleet Management building, but an engineer needs to submit a certification letter, according to Berthier.
The South Shore Community Center, which currently houses South Florida Seniors in Action and Rainbow Daycare, is slated to be demolished to construct a new fire station.
David McKinney, a resident-activist opposed to tearing down the South Beach building, said the city’s management of the building is “demolition by neglect.”
“It’s gross negligence,” he said. “They’re potentially placing their children and seniors, and the neighborhood, in danger.”
One of the city’s most valued buildings, the Miami Beach Convention Center, should have been due for its recertification in 2018 but still hasn’t completed the process. But according to the city, the sprawling 1958 complex — which has hosted Art Basel, a Super Bowl fan convention and regularly scheduled expos — is not technically in violation of the requirement.
The building’s recertification was due in 2018, amid a $620 million renovation that added 263,000 square feet of space and 10 new meeting rooms to the center. The Building Department deferred the requirement for nearly three years due to ongoing construction but during that time, Berthier said, the city was inspecting the building daily and requiring engineering letters before every special event.
As construction wraps up, the Building Department stopped deferring the recertification requirement in July, and has given the city 90 days to submit its electrical and structural safety report.
“As a result of the Surfside tragedy, we took another look at all of our properties in the 40-year recertification process and realized the Convention Center needed to be addressed,” Berthier said.
‘Everybody needs to be held to the same standard’
After the June 24 collapse of a 12-story condo in neighboring Surfside killed 98 people, Miami Beach building inspectors conducted site visits at all 507 buildings within the 40-year recertification process and issued letters requiring safety reports of about 420 buildings. The reports were due July 19 but about 20% of buildings have yet to comply, Building Official Ana Salguero said at a neighborhood meeting Aug. 4.
Buildings that don’t comply may be referred to Miami-Dade’s Unsafe Structures Board, Salguero said. She said the city has considered hosting its own Unsafe Structures Board in Miami Beach.
“Unfortunately, when there is no compliance we have to bring out the hammer,” she said.
Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Góngora said Monday that the Surfside collapse made everybody more aware of the recertification process.
“I think that everybody needs to be held to the same standard, even the city,” he said.
This story was originally published August 10, 2021 at 3:17 PM.
.JPG)