ON NOTICE

By Mandy Miles and Sara Matthis

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STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY?

KEY WEST BUILDING OFFICIAL WANTS PROOF THAT CONDO IS ‘SAFE FOR HABITATION’

ANew Town condo association has until Friday, Sept. 3 to prove its building is "safe for habitation.”

The city of Key West's chief building official, Raj Ramsingh, sent a letter to Santa Clara Condominium Association on Friday, Aug. 27, demanding confirmation from the association’s engineer "that all or part of the building is safe for habitation.”

The 111-unit Santa Clara complex at 3312 Northside Dr., which was built in 1980, "is obviously in serious need of repairs, to the extent that I don't think the repairs can be completed safely while the building is occupied," Ramsingh wrote on Aug. 27. "I do not want to condemn this building because doing so would necessarily displace so many residents, but if I have to, I will."

The letter states that on Aug. 25, Ramsingh received an engineering report from JL Sanders that was dated nearly a month earlier, on July 28.

In that report, JL Sanders describes a rapidly deteriorating building and an estimated $8.8 million of repairs that are immediately necessary.

The condo association’s board is holding an emergency meeting on Thursday, Sept. 2 to discuss the city’s latest letter. The board held a previous Zoom meeting with unit owners earlier in August to discuss the building’s deteriorating condition.

“We’ve been acutely aware of issues with our building,” said Travis Doll, a unit owner and vice president of the condo association’s board. “But it’s now gotten to the point where bigger repairs are needed and we’ve started talking with banks about getting an association loan for the $8.8 million.”

In order to repay that loan, condominium owners would have to pay $80,000 to $90,000 per unit, or an additional $600 to $650 per month in condo fees, Doll said.

Those fees currently range between $600 and $860 per month depending on the size of the unit. The fees bring in about $800,000 a year, prompting some owners to question what the property managers have been spending money on each year.

“We’ve reiterated with the ownership at large and with the city that we have completed major projects every year for the last several years,” Doll said. “Those projects and the increasing costs of construction and labor in Key West are where the owners’ money and dues are going.”

One unit owner who asked not to be identified said they are no longer staying at the unit they own.

“I’m afraid we are in dire straits of a building collapse,” the owner told the Keys Weekly, while pointing out a crumbling stairwell, a laundry room ceiling propped up by steel beams and exposed rebar in several places.

“"We've been pressuring our property management company, ICAMCO, to expedite the repairs to our more urgent projects, like those concerns mentioned by the city,” Doll said. "We've recently learned from a few of our main service vendors that ICAMCO has delayed certain projects that the board had already approved. Additionally, just a few days before the city’s visit and the recent letter from the city, we requested updates from ICAMCO on the prioritized projects.”

Property manager Daniel Garcia, who works for ICAMCO property management company, did not return multiple phone calls and text messages from the Keys Weekly.

Doll said on Sept. 1 that Santa Clara had just received notice that ICAMCO was canceling its management contract with Santa Clara.

“Obviously everyone’s really nervous, given the tragedy in Miami,” Doll told the Keys Weekly. “Surfside has spooked everyone, but that is very much not the case with Santa Clara. We have no parking underneath and no pool leaking under the building. The engineers are using some scary language to spur a sense of urgency, and we’re stepping into high gear.

“The city has said they’ll help us with expediting permits,” Doll said. “The last thing the city wants to do is displace so many owners and tenants given the housing situation in Key West.”

Ramsingh acknowledged his reluctance to condemn the building in his Aug. 27 letter to the association.

Ramsingh ended his letter by writing,