Residents of Evacuated North Miami Beach Condo Get 15 Minutes to Retrieve Some Possessions

Residents of a North Miami Beach condominium will get 15 minutes to gather their possessions Friday after they were evacuated from the building last week over concerns about the building's structural integrity.

The 156-unit Crestview Towers was evacuated following an audit of high-rise buildings 40 years old or older in response to the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in nearby Surfside.

City officials said Crestview Towers residents will be escorted by police officers when they go to pick up necessary items from their homes. The decision to evacuate the building was reaffirmed Thursday after city officials said the building has not been deemed safe for occupation.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below:

The city rejected conclusions from an engineer hired by the condo association that the building is structurally sound.

The city released records showing more than $500,000 in fines for illegal construction, electrical problems and 18 different fire code violations. Officials said the building must stay unoccupied until the condo association submits a new 40-year recertification report that addresses all structural and electrical issues.

The building is about 5 miles from the site of the condo in Surfside, which partially collapsed on June 24. The audit found that Crestview Towers, which was built in 1972, had been deemed unsafe in January, officials said.

In documents presented to the city by condo officials on Monday, surveys by an engineering firm and an electrical engineer concluded the building's integrity has not been compromised by structural deficiencies. The problems were outlined in the 40-year certification review the association filed in January, according to city officials.

An engineer retained by the board in January had concluded the building was structurally and electrically unsafe for occupancy.

The city said it rejected the condo association's response because the documents didn't comply with the 40-year certification process or address the issues raised in January.

It is the only building so far to be evacuated since municipal officials in South Florida and statewide began scrutinizing older high-rises to ensure that substantial structural problems are not being ignored.