Soon after the catastrophic collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside in 2021, board officers at an aging condo in neighboring Bay Harbor Islands realized they had better get their act together.
Their far more modest building, the three-story Golden Key, was in okay shape. Luckily, it had been solidly built, in 1964, but president Andre Williams and fellow board members knew the concrete balconies badly needed reinforcing, the roof was at the end of its life span, and that sickly, faded pale-yellow color the exterior had sported for the previous 20 years just had to go.
The Golden Key was facing its 60 – year recertification, and — as in many other condos in South Florida — owners of mostly limited means had avoided saddling themselves with assessments for the expected repairs, Williams said…