A new lawsuit filed on behalf of victims and family members of the Champlain Towers South collapse alleges that the incident was caused by construction work on an adjacent property. 98 people were killed when the condominium tower in Surfside, Florida collapsed suddenly in the early morning of June 24th, 2021.

The neighboring tower, named Eighty Seven Park, was designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop and was completed in early 2020. Before the building was completed, it made headlines in 2018 when the 18th-floor, six-bedroom, 11-bathroom penthouse hit the market at a Florida record-setting asking price of $68 million.

The latest lawsuit alleges that excavation, pile-driving, and other works carried out at Eighty Seven Park between 2016 and 2019 caused vibrations that weakened the Champlain Towers building. The lawsuit also alleges that groundwater was funneled from the new building to the Champlain Towers basement.

According to the lawsuit, the now-collapsed tower “was an older building in need of routine repairs and maintenance, but it was not until excavation and construction began on the luxury high-rise condominium project next door" that the building’s safety was compromised. The lawsuit calls the subsequent collapse “entirely preventable.”

In response, an attorney representing the development company behind Eighty Seven Park said “As numerous media reports have documented, Champlain Towers South was improperly designed, poorly constructed, significantly underfunded and inadequately maintained and repaired. We expect a full review of the facts — and the ongoing investigation by NIST — will affirm our position”

Following the collapse of the tower in June 2020, several questions have been raised about the condition of the building. One week after the collapse, a 2018 report resurfaced which warned of “major structural damage” at the base of the building, including a survey that identified a failing concrete slab on the pool deck and “abundant cracking and crumbling” to the underground parking garage.

The same 2018 report highlighted a “major error” in the design of the 1981 building. “The main issue with this building structure is that the entrance drive/pool deck/planter waterproofing is laid on a flat structure,” the report read. “Since the reinforced concrete slab is not sloped to drain, the water sits on the waterproofing until it evaporates. This is a major error in the development of the original contract documents.”

The cause of the collapse is still under federal investigation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).