Demolition work is underway on Fort Myers Beach. Crews are knocking down the Strandview Condominiums.

The condos have been sitting untouched since Hurricane Ian. While it’s not known what will fill the lot, people who owned condos in the building are asking questions.

Those next steps are not up to the owners. Mark Wagner is an attorney at the Law Office of Jursinki and Murphy, PLLC, and he said it’s like rolling the dice when you decide to live in paradise. “As an owner, if it’s not fixable, you know what’s going to happen, so the best thing to do is just cooperate,” said Wagner. Wagner said that the owners of the condo will face different effects based on how long they owned the properties. “Obviously, people who bought recently are more adversely affected because their investment is essentially gone versus the people who bought 30 years ago,” said Wagner. “They have a lot more equity in their property.”

 

Wagner said it is hard to protect your investment when natural disasters come into the equation.

“As far as what you can do to protect yourself in these situations, it’s an act of God,” said Wagner. “Nobody could predict that Hurricane Ian would come and make landfall with the perfect conditions creating such a high storm surge. It’s just not something you can predict.”

David Lockwood is the General Manager of Remove It Pros and he knows someone who was affected by the loss.

“He had a whole year where he was disoriented because he didn’t have a car, and he didn’t have the money to go buy a car,” said Lockwood. “All of his money was tied up in this unit, so he’s got his wheels back on. They’re not like they were. He doesn’t live on beachfront property anymore.”

The money to the condo owners will be split between the insurance money and it would depend on whatever the land sells for.

The demolition company said their goal is to have this completed in the next four weeks.