Surfside: How Building Owners, Boards of Directors and Association Boards Can Help Prevent Disasters
By Maureen Mascaro, Founder, The Common Area, an Owners Rep, and Project Management Company
It is tough to learn about a tragedy of this magnitude in any location but even harder when it happens in our own backyard. Engineering and construction-related incidents are even more rattling to us as professionals in this industry because we spend our entire lives thinking about and building these structures for use by our community.
As an owner’s rep project management firm, The Common Area often represents landlords and various boards that are seeking to navigate complex real estate and construction-based projects. We know first-hand how challenging it can be to bring a group to a consensus so we can start a project and then the additional difficulty of addressing new challenges, cost increases, and delays that are common with an existing building. Quite often there are unknown conditions that get uncovered in the process so even if the original scope is limited, it can quickly escalate to additional work that wasn’t anticipated. This is why having a good project manager lead the effort is important as we help you plan for the risks and the unknowns by setting up a deep discovery process and setting out a smart schedule and budget with contingencies in place for the inevitable surprises.
We manage many new projects from the ground up but in the case of older buildings, we help those owners and board conduct their inspections on a regular basis and address the issues quickly. Under Section 8-11(f) of the Miami-Dade County Code, the owner of a building that has been in existence for forty (40) years or longer is required to have the building inspected to determine the condition of the building and its electrical systems. This inspection had been done EARLY at Surfside, and repairs to the roof had started. They were doing the right thing but were plagued by the inability to come to a full consensus on the game plan for the entire scope of the repairs that were needed. That indecision cost them everything.
The Condo Association for the Champlain Towers East was an active Association. Meetings were well attended. (2) The April 2021 letter to residents noted the concrete deterioration in the parking garage ceiling (directly under the leaking pool deck) was accelerating and had become “much worse”. Recently the Association had interviewed and hired an engineering firm to work on the specifications for electrical and structural changes needed to pass the 40 Year Inspection. It makes one wonder if they had started this work earlier, could they have headed off this catastrophe?
All Boards, Association’s core values, beliefs, trust, candor, and behaviors move them forward with a common purpose. Boards of Directors and Associations should be provided with complete & timely information, so they are able to monitor the performance of a company, or in the case of Surfside, the complex issues at their building. Having an independent Project Manager (PM) involved at the early stages can help Boards and Associations receive and understand information as it becomes available from a variety of sources. PMs can also assist in the research of previous reports, in reviewing documents required by cities, townships, and counties, and reporting back and explaining the information that Board/Association members may not be familiar with. When working with a PM, you also receive first-hand knowledge of reliable contractors in the area that can get the work completed efficiently and in a timely manner.
Seeing and living with the effects of Climate Change happening now in Florida, Boards of Directors, Landlords, and HOAs should now be considering how Climate Change will affect their buildings and aging infrastructure. Building owners, Boards, and HOAs need to find ways to enforce accountability so tragedies like Surfside do not happen in the future.
What we do is critical to the community we serve because we help make the process easier, and less risky. Hopefully what we do also helps prevent potential catastrophes and keep the valuable buildings in good standing in the process. Do you have an experienced Owners Rep Project Manager to oversee your upcoming projects? Make sure your Board/Association is receiving pertinent information to make informed decisions and sharing difficult information with your company/community. A qualified Project Manager will assist you in asking the big questions, ferret out the truth, and assist in making necessary changes.
Please reach out to The Common Area for support in navigating your next real estate project.
Contact:
Maureen Mascaro, Founder, The Common Area
Mobile: 305-878-6868
Email: Maureen@thecommonarea.co
Additional Resources:
The Recommended Minimum Inspection Procedural Guidelines for Building Recertification for Miami-Dade to be utilized by your architect or engineer are available online at the following links:
Structural Recertification
Electrical Recertification
1. Kallergis, Katherine; Dinkova, Lidia (June 26, 2021). "Engineer raised red flags more than 2 years before Surfside condo collapsed". The Real Deal. Archived from the original on June 30, 2021. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
2. Rodriguez, Rene (June 24, 2021). "'The building was in OK shape.' The upscale condo near Miami Beach still collapsed". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on June 26, 2021. Retrieved June 26, 2021.