The day after Surfside collapse, condominium in ‘sister’ tower was posted for sale
A day after the Champlain Towers South condominium collapsed, a condo was posted for sale in one of its sister towers. Realtor Siarhei Zavadski says the timing was a terrible coincidence and after receiving hate messages he took down the listing.
Zavadski said he got permission from the owner Tuesday to sell the condo located in Champlain Towers East, which is less than 400 feet away from where its sister tower collapsed but was built about 15 years later.
The property was listed for sale on Friday, as per the listing agreement, but was quickly taken down hours later after Zavadski received vulgar messages from people who mistakenly thought the condo was in the South tower.
One person called him a “f------ idiot.” Others had continued to harass him after this story published.
Zavadski said he won’t be relisting the condo anytime soon, which was originally the plan. Zavadski and the owner weren’t worried about the sale since it was in a different, newer tower, he said.
“I have no idea what to do next,” Zavadski said.
The three-bedroom, two-bath condo was listed on Zillow for $1,375,000. He said it took a couple of days for photos of the condo to be taken and uploaded to the site.
When he tried to clear up the confusion with screenshots showing it was in the East tower and not the South, some people apologized and others did not, he said.
“They see Champlain and they sent hate messages,” Zavadski said. “I understand it is a tragedy, but people misunderstand the situation.”
The current owner had bought the condo for $1,080,000 in October, according to Miami-Dade County’s property appraiser. Zavadski said the owner was moving to a new home and wanted to quickly sell the condo.
Zavadski has been a Realtor in South Florida for 10 years, but this was his first Surfside property. He’s sold high-end properties in the past and wasn’t expecting a challenge until the building collapse.
Worries about the integrity of Champlain Towers North and East have mounted. By late Saturday afternoon, voluntary evacuations were under way at the other two towers. As of late Sunday, the official death toll has climbed to nine, with 152 people still unaccounted for.
The North is the same age and similar design to the South tower. An consulting engineer report in 2018 flagged a number of issues with the South tower, including “major structural damage”
around the pool deck from poor drainage as well as cracking in some garage columns. It may take months to determine what caused the building to
collapse.