The start of what was supposed to be a “flagship project” for a Brazilian billionaire developer suffered a major setback on Monday after the building being demolished unexpectedly collapsed, sending a project manager to the hospital and shutting down a large portion of Collins Avenue in Miami Beach. A pile of rubble was all that was left of the former Marlborough House as firefighters and police officers rushed to the scene a little after 10 a.m. A video captured the dramatic collapse of the 13-story building. Conventional demolition by subcontractor AlliedBean Demolition Contractors was set to begin at 8 a.m. on Monday, and last for two weeks, according to Ana Salgueiro, Miami Beach’s building director. Contractor Winmar Construction and the developer first applied for an implosion permit in August of 2017, which was denied. They reapplied for a conventional demolition permit in November and received the permit in May. They performed interior demolition until Monday, said Miami Beach spokesperson Melissa Berthier. “It wasn’t supposed to come down the way it did this morning,” she said. Samuel Landis, a 42-year-old project manager, remains in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital, according to a Miami Beach Police spokesperson. The property was set to be developed into a 17-story, 89-residence luxury condo led by José Isaac Peres’ Multiplan Real Estate Asset Management – a project’s design that was highly contested by neighbors before gaining approval from the Miami Beach Design Review Board last December. The contractors behind the demolition Miami-based Winmar Construction is listed as the contractor on Miami Beach records, but the company shifted responsibility of the accident to its subcontractor, AlliedBean Demolition Contractors. Winmar said AlliedBean was responsible for performing all of the project’s demolition work. According to its website, AlliedBean was founded in 2012 in Fort Lauderdale and is led by its president Kevin Bean, who could not be reached for comment. AlliedBean has been involved in a number of marquee demolition projects in South Florida. The company’s website says it handles total building demolition, selective structural demolition, interior soft demolition and interior structural demolition. Some of its projects included the removal of the pedestrian bridge linking the former Coconut Grove Bank building to the nearby parking lot. It also performed work on the Crystal Lake Country Club, Deerfield Beach to demolish a 55,000 square foot clubhouse, according to its website. AlliedBean was inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for work at the Deerfield Beach development in 2015. The case was closed and AlliedBean was not fined, according to OSHA. In South Florida, Winmar’s projects include Aquamar, a 20-unit luxury condo, and Aquavue, an eight-unit building, both developed by Ocean Land Investments in Fort Lauderdale. Winmar also completed the $40 million renovation of the Shelborne South Beach at 1801 Collins Avenue; the $1.3 million buildout of Le Zoo, a Stephen Starr restaurant at Bal Harbour Shops; and sales centers for Oceana Bal Harbour, Paramount Bay and other condo buildings, according to its website. Winmar partnered with Coastal Construction in 2012 to create a small projects division. The Miami-based company, which shares an address with Coastal, is led by Luis Leon. Leon could not be reached for comment. Winmar has had four cases with OSHA, including one for its work at the Shelborne in 2014. No details were available. Coastal Construction is the second-largest construction company in South Florida according to a June 2017 ranking by The Real Deal. It has worked on high-profile projects that include Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles Beach, 1450 Brickell and Bacardi’s headquarters. It is currently facing at least one lawsuit for its work on the Porsche Design Tower. A Davie-based subcontractor, Zarrella Construction, alleges in a civil suit that Coastal Construction owes the firm at least $1.42 million in unpaid work and supplies. The planned new development at 5775 Collins Avenue Peres founded Multiplan Real Estate Asset Management to focus on real estate development in South Florida after successfully turning Rio de Janeiro-based Multiplan into one of the largest retail real estate companies in Brazil. After starting his first real estate company at 22, Peres, now 78, has a portfolio of 19 malls. Forbes estimates the family’s net worth at $1.2 billion. The native Brazilian has deep ties to South Florida, as a part-time resident of Miami-Dade County since 1998. He developed the Il Villaggio in Miami Beach, a luxury condo and retail development on Ocean Drive, which faces Lummus Park and the beach. Peres also acquired a development site on Brickell Avenue in the late 1990’s, which was later developed by Fortune International Group into Jade Brickell, according to Multiplan Real Estate Asset Management’s website. In an interview last month, Marcelo Kingston of Multiplan called the 5775 Collins Avenue development a “flagship project” for the company. Multiplan was set to launch sales in time for Art Basel, and planned to build an on-site, beachfront sales gallery. Fortune International Group will handle sales, according to the developer’s website. Kingston declined to provide pricing, but said it would be comparable on a per-square-foot basis to Eighty Seven Park, the Four Seasons Residences at the Surf Club and L’Atelier Residences. Multiplan distanced itself from the collapse on Monday afternoon, directing any questions to Winmar Construction. It’s unclear at this time what the collapse means for the new project’s timeline. The designer of the project is Miami-based Arquitectonica, which is behind some of South Florida’s most well- known luxury developments, including The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Sunny Isles Beach and Icon Brickell. Plans for 5775 Collins include a beachfront pool, a lounge and a social area. The two largest penthouses would offer private terraces with pools. Ina Cordle contributed reporting.<doc-sep>Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter MIAMI (CBSMiami) – When that building collapsed to the ground in Miami Beach, neighbors said it felt like an earthquake, as they watched large chunks of the building fly through the air. “The debris just blew out,” recalled Eli Portnoy who lives nearby. “If it just was dropping demolition stuff, it would go here, but this blew across 100 feet of road,” he said. While it may look like an implosion it was not. This was slated as a demolition. “The building was not scheduled to be imploded,” said Miami Beach Building Dept. Director Ana Salgueiro. “They had tried to ask for a permit to implode and they’d been denied. So it was standard demolition that was supposed to be taking place,” she said. The permit calls for a “Total demo of multi-family residential structure by conventional methods. No longer using the implosion method.” The Miami Beach building director said it obviously did not go as planned. “It appears that something happened,” said Salgueiro. “We’ll need to investigate further to know exactly what happened, but there was no, they did not have a permit to implode.” A man identifying himself as a crew member told us the demolition team carefully made plans to dismantle the building. “They get in there first with crews, take out all the loadbearing walls, they’re very precise,” he said. “Demolition companies, when they get in there and do this, they just don’t show up with equipment and say let’s go. He said a common way to bring a building down is by wrapping a thick cable around a support pylon, then pulling. “What happened?” Asked CBS 4’s Ted Scouten. “It just, one of the columns fell a different way. It happens,” replied the worker. Late Monday afternoon, Winmar construction released a statement regarding the demolition by subcontractor Allied Bean Demolition. It said in part, “We are working closely with City officials and industry agencies to understand what happened during Allied’s demolition of the structure.” Miami Beach city officials checked nearby buildings for damage. They deemed all of them to be safe. Miami-Dade County checked the air quality, it found asbestos from the building was mediated before the collapse.<doc-sep>
Crime & Safety WATCH: Oceanfront Building Demolition Goes 'Terribly Wrong' Cellphone video captured the collapse of a Miami Beach high-rise that was undergoing demolition. Reply MIAMI BEACH, FL — The former oceanfront Marlborough House condominium building collapsed Monday when a planned demolition went horribly wrong, sending one person to the hospital. Witnesses described hearing a thunderous crash as the high-rise building came tumbling down like a house of cards. The building was located at 5775 Collins Avenue. "Obviously during that demolition something went terribly wrong," Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber told reporters at the scene. Subscribe to Miami Beach Patch's free email news alerts and newsletters The victim was identified as 42-year-old Samuel Landis, who was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical condition, according to Ernesto Rodriguez of the Miami Beach Police Department. Landis was associated with the demolition project. A dog (bottom left) searches the rubble on Monday for possible victims in the collapse of Marlborough House on Miami Beach. Photo by Paul Scicchitano. "This is now a criminal investigation led by the Miami Beach Police Department," Rodriguez said late Monday afternoon. "As such, no additional information is currently available." Workers from GC Construction of Miami captured the building collapse on cellphone video. GC Construction was not involved in the project but happened to be in the area at the time. Company officials gave Patch permission to include the video with this article. It shows first responders treating the victim. Nearby residents received a notice stating that the demolition work was getting underway on Monday but they were left with the impression that the demolition would take days. Traffic was snarled along busy Collins Avenue as helicopters hovered overhead and a search and rescue dog could be scene sniffing through the rubble for other possible victims. Rodriguez said late Monday afternoon that first responders had concluded their search without finding any additional victims. "Miami Beach police and fire have been on the scene conducting life safety searches and will continue these efforts until we are certain the site is deemed clear," city officials said earlier.