The fight over whether the site of June’s deadly Florida condominium collapse should be sold for development or turned into a memorial boiled over during an emotional court hearing.
FILE - In this Friday, June 25, 2021, file photo, rescue workers work in the rubble at the Champlain Towers South Condo in Surfside, Fla. The fight over whether the site of June's deadly Florida condominium collapse should be sold for development or turned into a memorial boiled over during an emotional court hearing Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021, with some victims' relatives begging for time to find a buyer who won't put a new luxury high-rise there.
“That is sacred land,” said Shrem, one of about a half dozen family members who spoke against development. “Our hope is that we can come to a resolution where we can sell the land, have everybody paid out who needs to be paid out and have a memorial. Please, we beg you, allow us some time.” He said possible sales and land swaps with government entities and others have been explored, but none have panned out and he doesn't expect any will.
“It is one thing to make an effort to get a memorial and to explore those avenues, and it is another thing to go a step further ... and make statements that this property is not buildable, that the developers are vultures and that lawyers are colluding with them to steal the money from the victims,” Hanzman said. “I know that is going to devalue the asset.”
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Memorial or high-rise? Future of condo collapse site arguedThe fight over whether the site of June's deadly Florida condominium collapse should be sold for development or turned into a memorial boiled over at a court hearing Thursday, with some victims' relatives begging for time to find a buyer who won't put a new luxury high-rise there. Several victims’ relatives said the Surfside site where the 12-story Champlain Towers South once stood is hallowed ground. Rabbi Lisa Shrem told Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman that only part of an arm bone was recovered from her 54--year-old sister, Estelle Hedaya, meaning the rest of her was either lost in the debris that was carted away or is still mixed in the dirt at the site.
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