Nobody Wants to Live at the Surfside Collapse Site

In January 2025, nearly four years after the deadly Surfside condo collapse, the Dubai-based developer Damac Properties unveiled a luxury condo project at the site of the tragedy. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the 12-story “ultra-luxury boutique oceanfront condominium” boasts “37 mansions in the sky”; the units reportedly start at $15 million, with penthouses that could hit the market for a whopping more than $150 million.

But more than a year after Damac Properties launched sales for the project, known as The Delmore, the firm has yet to sell a single unit, according to The Real Deal.

Jeffrey Rossely, senior vice president of development at Damac, told The Real Deal that the initial sales launch was “likely rushed.”

“The initial soft launch we did in January 2025 was premature. We debated that with the sales team,” Rossely said. “We thought we would have the sales gallery finished in February [2025]. We also thought the market would pick up after the inauguration of the President.”

On June 24, 2021, the 12-story Champlain Towers South condominium building suddenly collapsed in the middle of the night, killing 98 people. Investigators eventually determined that shoddy construction had likely caused the 40-year-old building to crumble.

A year after the collapse, Damac Properties paid $120 million for the 1.8-acre property. The firm purchased the site as the sole bidder through a court-ordered auction of the property, with the proceeds of the sale allocated toward unit owners, including the families of victims who died.

The planned redevelopment has been highly controversial. While the victims’ families wanted to erect a permanent memorial where the building once stood, Surfside commissioners and a family-led memorial committee eventually approved design plans for a memorial park near the site of the collapse.

Construction for the memorial, which will reportedly feature a roughly 20-foot-tall water fountain and original materials from the collapsed building, is reportedly slated to begin this month. The project will border the former condo site.

Last March, during a Surfside Planning and Zoning Board meeting, board members criticized the appearance of the project. Board member Carlos Aparicio called it “ugly as hell” and “the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“It makes me want to throw up, it’s that bad,” he said.