Miami-Dade woman dies after fall from West Palm Beach condo under construction

Giuseppe Sabella, Palm Beach Post
·1 min read
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A construction worker fell to her death Saturday morning from a 13th-floor balcony at the La Clara condominiums at 1515 S. Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach.
A construction worker fell to her death Saturday morning from a 13th-floor balcony at the La Clara condominiums at 1515 S. Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach.

A 23-year-old woman fell to her death Saturday morning while working on a high-rise construction project in West Palm Beach, city police said.

Though authorities were still piecing together what happened, it appears that Dolores Yamileth Martinez-Ponce was doing work at La Clara, the luxury condominiums now under construction at 1515 S. Flagler Drive, when she fell from a balcony, police spokesman Mike Jachles said.

He said investigators believe that Martinez-Ponce, a resident of the Allapattah neighborhood in Miami-Dade County, was installing flooring in a unit on the 13th floor when she fell just before 9 a.m.

"She worked for a flooring company, and for reasons we don't know, she apparently fell off of that balcony," Jachles said.

In a news release, police identified Martinez-Ponce's employer as Jovavesa Corp. of Miami, a subcontractor on the building project.

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Martinez-Ponce dropped to the second floor and died at the scene, he said.

A construction worker fell to her death from a13th-floor balcony Saturday morning at the under-construction La Clara condominiums in West Palm Beach. The 23-year-old Miami-Dade County woman fell to the second floor for reasons unknown, city police said.
A construction worker fell to her death from a13th-floor balcony Saturday morning at the under-construction La Clara condominiums in West Palm Beach. The 23-year-old Miami-Dade County woman fell to the second floor for reasons unknown, city police said.

The West Palm Beach Police Department's Homicide Unit was investigating the death, and OSHA — the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration — is expected to launch its own review.

The site off Flagler Drive was home to the 1515 Tower condos for decades, before a controlled implosion brought down the building in February 2010.

Construction of the 25-story La Clara condominiums began in March 2019 and is expected to finish by spring 2023, according to a past interview with Great Gulf, the project's Canada-based developer.

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new information from West Palm Beach police, including the victim's full name and the name of her employer.

Palm Beach Post staff writer Andrew Marra contributed to this story.

Giuseppe Sabella is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at gsabella@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism and subscribe today. 

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Miami woman falls from La Clara condo construction in West Palm Beach