It’s been two years since the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside collapsed in the early morning hours, destroying half the building’s units instantaneously and killing 98 people.
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Engineers hired to inspect Bayfront Tower, in downtown St. Petersburg, discovered a host of major issues, including possible problems with post tension cables, the metal framing and stucco on the outside of the building, the garage concrete and the roof. The repairs could cost millions. |
Greg Main-Baillie,
executive managing director for the Florida Development
Services Group at Colliers, oversees construction projects
for condos across the state. He said repairs of that
magnitude could cost as much as building a new tower.
The board did not respond to specific questions about the
cost or timeline of repairs. But according to the document,
additional testing will be done on the building and the
board will seek out other expert opinions before finalizing
a plan.
The Times called more than 100 current and former unit
owners in the building over several weeks. All declined to
speak publicly. Some said that negative publicity could
affect their property values. Others said they feared
retribution from their peers in the building.
The Times filed a public records request with the city of
St. Petersburg to obtain a copy of the inspection. But the
city said the board had not yet submitted one.
Slider Engineering Group, the firm that performed the
inspection, declined to comment and deferred to the board.
“Bayfront Tower, like hundreds of other high-rise
condominiums in the state of Florida, has retained an
engineering and construction team to opine on the structural
conditions of the condominium building, and to provide
recommendations for improvements that will ensure that
Bayfront Tower remains one of the most desirable waterfront
high-rises in Florida,” the board wrote in a statement to
the Times.
Now, aging condos across the state will face the same
scrutiny as Bayfront Tower thanks to Senate Bill 4-D, which
the Florida Legislature passed unanimously in a special
session last year. Another bill that made slight changes to
the law passed in April.
Under the new rules:
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Condos three stories and higher must undergo an initial milestone inspection after 30 years and every 10 years thereafter. This will determine whether the building is structurally sound and if it needs any repairs.
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Buildings that are already 30 years or older must have milestone inspections completed before Dec. 31, 2024.
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Condos three stories and higher must perform a study of reserve funds before Dec. 31, 2024, and every 10 years thereafter. This will determine how much condo associations must save to properly maintain the building.
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Condo associations will be barred from waiving or underfunding reserves.
Prior to the collapse
of Champlain Towers South, unit owners in that building
faced steep special assessments after they had postponed
major repairs. The condo association had just over $777,000
in reserves to pay for an estimated $16.2 million in
repairs.
“Moving forward, the structural integrity of a condominium
will be reserved, they will be maintained, and they will be
kept up to par so that future condominiums never have to
worry about another Surfside taking place,” said Rep. Danny
Perez, R-Miami, following the passage of the bill.
Dimitri Karides, a broker associate with Sand Key Realty in
Clearwater Beach, said Champlain Towers South was not an
anomaly. Many condos across the state have neglected routine
maintenance for years to keep costs low for owners.
“They might only fund 25% of the real work that needs to be
done each year, whether it’s rebar, the pool, the roof, the
concrete,” he said. “Now those buildings are going to have
to play catch-up.”
“The cost of living in a safer building will place a burden
on some of our owners,” said the document that was sent to
Bayfront Tower residents. “We are sympathetic to those
owners, but this is something we must do. Each owner will
need to evaluate their ability to handle the special
assessments.”
The Times spoke with eight Bayfront Tower residents. All
said they have not been given an estimate for how much new
assessments might cost but that they are willing to pay
additional fees to keep the building in good shape.
Main-Baillie said that until the board knows what exactly
needs to be fixed it will be hard to put a price on
assessments. Condo owners are typically assessed differently
based on the size of their units.
Bayfront Tower residents already paid a special assessment
in 2022, according to the document reviewed by the Times.
That fee was levied to cover rising insurance costs,
litigation fees from a lawsuit against the building and an
operating shortfall caused in part by rising water costs.
In 2014, Bayfront Tower began a $10 million renovation
project that included updating the exterior and adding a new
roof to help it compete with newer, flashier buildings on
Beach Drive.
Annie Fleeting, the broker and owner of NextHome Beach Time
Realty in St. Pete Beach, said most Bayfront Tower residents
are wealthy enough to afford these kinds of steep
assessments. But those who can’t come up with the cash may
be forced to sell their units below market value.
“They’re going to have to disclose that information to
buyers,” Fleeting said. “Who is going to want to buy that
condo at full price when they’re looking at potentially
thousands of dollars in special assessments?”
Completing the required inspections is just a start. Over
the next year, Main-Baillie said condo associations will
embark on a lengthy and expensive journey that involves
securing loans, hiring engineering firms and contractors and
completing several rounds of safety testing before
renovations can begin.
“The risks are huge if your construction project is not
managed well,” he said. He noted that it’s easy for condo
associations to be taken advantage of since “the contracts
technically give (engineers) a blank check.”
In the short term, “The cost of condo ownership is going to
increase dramatically,” Karides said. But as condo
associations adapt to the new rules and start to better plan
for the future, “I think it’s going to lead to more
financial stability and safer buildings down the line.”