What’s next for the building evacuated in North Miami Beach after it was deemed unsafe?

The owners of a 60-unit apartment building in North Miami Beach that was evacuated last month after an engineer found it was “structurally unsound” are now looking to sell it — at less than half its original listing price.

“This property was on sale for $15 [million], but we were recently informed that the building has structural problems,” states a listing from the real estate website Crexi. The asking price is now $7.15 million.

Maria Nardi, the Realtor on the listing, told the Miami Herald on Monday that the decreased price reflects uncertainty over whether the structure can be salvaged. Residents were ordered April 4 to leave the building known as Bayview 60 Homes at 3800 Northeast 168th Street after an engineer said its concrete slabs were “deflecting,” or sagging, at dangerous levels.

“There is a big question mark: Are you going to fix the 60 units? Is that feasible?” Nardi said. “That’s a question for an engineer.”

Meanwhile, residents who were forced to evacuate are still scrambling for permanent housing.

One resident, Jimmy Palombizo, told the Herald he was staying with his son and struggling to find his own place amid soaring South Florida rents.

Nardi said Bayview 60 Homes was a “working class building.” Recent online listings before the evacuation included a one-bedroom apartment for $1,300 and a two-bedroom unit for $1,900.

“As a Realtor, I know it’s difficult to find housing and I know it was a very good rent,” she said. “It’s such a pity for me to see a building like that having these problems.”

Representatives for the building owners did not immediately respond to questions Monday.

The apartments are located in Eastern Shores, a neighborhood north of Oleta River State Park that consists of several man-made canals. The property’s total assessed value was around $5.4 million in 2021, according to Miami-Dade County records.

After the evacuation, the building owners agreed to give residents $150 per night for a three-night hotel stay and return all security deposits and April rent.

The city of North Miami Beach shut off the building’s water and electricity in late April after residents had finished retrieving their belongings. The owners have since installed a temporary fence to ensure no one can get inside, said Susset Cabrera, a city spokesperson.

Cabrera said the city rejected a request to remove windows and doors that the owners had recently bought for about $200,000. North Miami Beach Building Official J. Daniel Ozuna was concerned that the removal could have been unsafe for the overall structure, Cabrera said.

Property records show the building is owned by Bayview 60 Homes LLC, based in Coral Gables. The entity’s manager and registered agent, Ronald Salinas and Maria Dolores Nardi Ariza, hold those same titles for Bayview 30 Homes LLC, the owner of another building on the same block.

Residents were ordered to leave the building after city officials received an engineer’s report that said it “must be evacuated immediately.” The report said elevation points taken by a general contractor had found that “the deflection in the slabs is exceeding” guidelines by the American Concrete Institute, meaning there was excessive vertical sagging in the concrete slabs.

The building, which was constructed in 1972, had been undergoing repairs as part of its 50-year recertification process since July. Records from a decade earlier show the building passed its required 40-year recertification. That review didn’t cite any of the same issues flagged this year.

Most multi-story structures in Miami-Dade County must be recertified 40 years after their initial construction and every 10 years after that. County officials are considering pushing up that requirement to 30 years.

Bayview 60 Homes is one of several buildings in South Florida that have been evacuated since the catastrophic partial collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside last June, which killed 98 people. Crestview Towers, a 156-unit condo building in North Miami Beach, was evacuated due to structural concerns in July and remains vacant. Cabrera said the condo association has begun making repairs in hopes of making the Crestview building habitable again.

Since the Champlain Towers tragedy, engineers have told the Herald there were warning signs that should have indicated to inspectors that the Surfside building was unsafe. Miami-Dade County officials are now pushing for more frequent and thorough building inspections — changes that experts say are a positive step but still insufficient. State lawmakers have so far declined to enact condo safety reforms.

Miami Herald reporter Nicholas Nehamas contributed to this report.