If you followed the news, you, like most people, probably thought Santa Clara was being condemned and 111 families were going to be homeless.  Or worse, you believed the rumors that the building was unsafe and would collapse. 

 

Through a lot of hard work, a very dedicated staff and board of directors, the help of every owner, and a great deal of money, Santa Clara stands tall and proud again, with a new look and a renewed energy.

 

What started as a simple annual inspection snowballed into a massive restoration project.  The building was never unsafe, but in the wake of Surfside, no one was willing to take any chances. What should have been some minor concrete repairs, turned into a 2-year reconstruction project. 

 

The great news is that we made it.  Thanks to the owners for stepping up and paying their share of the repairs, Santa Clara completed an $8M restoration project and the building is better than it’s been in years.  We have a brand-new roof, the building is a much more appealing color, concrete is no longer breaking free from the building and every single crack has been opened, inspected, and repaired. 

 

But that’s not the end of the story.  For years, many projects have been deferred making the building less than desirable.  Over the last 2 years, in addition to the massive restoration project, we’ve also upgraded our electronic access (key card) system, making the property more secure, allowing owners to see who’s at the gate or front door before letting them in, even assigning temporary access to workers and guests.  We resurfaced the pool and cleaned and painted the pool deck.  All exterior lobby doors have been upgraded to impact ratings as well as the lobby windows on each floor.  All the laundry room plumbing was upgraded to stop overflow issues.  A new domestic water pump system was installed to ensure reliable and steady water pressure to the upper floors of the building, our fire pump system was upgraded to current standards to ensure water will aways be available at all floors in case of fire, all the hallways have a fresh coat of paint, a new fence was installed to keep the dumpster out of view, a new bulk pick up area was built to keep the bulk pick up partially hidden, and we’re not done.

 

A new generator has been delivered and is being installed.  This will provide emergency power to one elevator, all common area lighting and one outlet in each unit.  In the coming months, we will be painting every condo door, we will be replacing the carpets in the hallways, installing new flooring in every lobby and laundry room, new signage throughout the building and a new dog park area will be built.

 

We plan on continuing with this momentum going forward, continually looking to improve Santa Clara.  In the last 3 years, we’ve gone from not knowing if the city would force everyone to abandon their homes, to becoming a property that people can be proud to call home.