Federal investigators have identified issues with the pool deck as the initial cause of the 2021 collapse of a 12-story Florida beachfront condominium, which resulted in the deaths of 98 people.
According to a report released Wednesday by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Champlain Towers South pool deck began to collapse at least seven minutes before the tower, implying that the pool might have contributed to the building’s downfall.
Glenn Bell, a co-lead investigator at NIST, explained that thorough analysis and computer simulations “suggest that the failure likely started at a connection between a slab of the pool deck and a column.”
Most of the residents were asleep when the Surfside, Florida building collapsed into rubble at 1:22 a.m. on June 24, 2021. Amid ongoing investigations, a Miami judge sanctioned a settlement exceeding $1 billion for personal injury and wrongful death claims arising from the tragedy.
Surfside is located a few miles north of Miami. NIST said its final conclusions on the collapse will be released in spring or summer 2026.
The preliminary findings also indicated that “the building showed signs of distress in the weeks before the collapse.” Some indications of underlying issues included a door that had become dislodged from its frame, cracks in a wall near heavy planters, and a gate that became misaligned and stuck.
One day before the accident, the NIST report highlights that water was leaking from a ceiling in the parking garage, which had multiple cracks, and the water flow “increased dramatically in the hours leading up to the collapse.”
NIST previously said the construction flaws that led to the collapse were present from the time the 40-year-old structure was built. The findings of the Champlain Towers investigation will improve building safety, both new construction and repairs for older structures, said investigative lead Judith Mitrani-Reiser.
“This tragic event has revealed flaws in our systems, and quality is at the heart of it,” she said.
After the collapse, state legislators enacted a law in 2022 requiring condo associations to have sufficient reserves to cover major repairs. Some residents were caught off guard by hefty fees imposed to cover years of deferred maintenance expenses required to bring their buildings into compliance with the law’s standards. That led to another law providing condo associations and residents more flexibility in handling the costs.
Meanwhile, a luxury condo building called the Delmore is being constructed on the collapse site, which was purchased at auction by Dubai-based DAMAC International for $120 million. The starting price is $15 million each for the new condos, expected to be completed by 2029.
