ALLAPATTAH, Fla. – The latest power outage at the 17-story apartment building in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood began on Nov. 8 and continued on Monday night.
Without working elevators, air conditioners, or refrigerators, Humberto Salas was among the hundreds of Santa Clara II tenants who were frustrated.
“I feel very, very bad because my wife can’t walk,” Salas said.
Salas and other residents of the building’s over 200 units at 1250 NW 21 St., said they didn’t know what had caused the power outage or when it was going to be fixed. They knew it wasn’t related to Florida Power & Light.
Capt. Ignatius “Iggy” Carroll, a spokesman for Miami Fire Rescue, said on Monday that they were working on evacuating some of the residents.
“What we are doing right now is gathering the names of everybody with disabilities and medical issues that we may need to tend to,” Carroll said.
Meanwhile, residents like Salas haven’t been able to get a solution. The representatives at the building refused to answer questions. A woman told Fire Rescue personnel that there were three bedridden residents.
“New owners, no light, no elevator,” a resident who asked not to be named said.
Santa Clara II is a Miami-Dade County public-private partnership with ties to Virginia and California.
City records show that the building was part of a program that provides public funding and incentives, so private developers can help increase the supply of affordable rental units.
Property records show that Miami-Dade County owns the land in the Santa Clara station subdivision, which is in a commercial area within walking distance of the Santa Clara Metrorail station.
In 2019, Jorge M. Pérez’s Related Group sold the building to Lincoln Avenue Capital, a five-year-old real estate investment firm, for $18 million, the South Florida Business Journal reported.
Records also show the building, which has an exemption value of about $7.2 million this year, is owned by Lincoln Santa Clara II LLC, a corporation registered to Jeremy Bronfman, of Santa Monica, the grandson of the late billionaire Edgar Bronfman.
According to the Santa Clara II Apartments’ site, the affordable-housing property is now managed by The Franklin Johnson Group, based in Virginia Beach.
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