Lights On
After Tenants Are Forced Out and a Court Hearing Held, Power Suddenly Returns to Apartment Building

The judge wanted Mr. Lieberman to contact the manager … it was odd, the power was immediately turned back on.”

Residents of 2000 Liberty Avenue have been in a state of confusion, and near homelessness, for more than a week. Photos by Mitchell Zachs.

By Ryan Brown

On Monday, tenants of 2000 Liberty Ave., a 52-unit apartment building located a few blocks east of the Miami Beach Convention Center, were allowed back into their building after a week of homelessness.

The residents’ troubles started on Jan. 23 when the city of Miami Beach was notified that the emergency electrical system (fire alarm, emergency lighting), as well as lighting to the building’s common areas, had gone out.

“In fact, one tenant fell down some steps,” said Jeffrey Hearne, of Legal Services of Greater Miami Inc., a private nonprofit that represents low-income people in civil matters, which is representing seven tenants of 2000 Liberty Ave.

Tenants were forced by building inspectors to vacate the property. Many of the tenants were relocated to hotels, paid for by the city of Miami Beach.

“It’s unclear why the power went down, if it was cut or the bill was not paid. We sent a letter last week Thursday [Jan. 25] demanding the power be put back on or legal action would be taken against them. They never acted, so we filed a complaint last Friday,” Hearne said.

Detective Bobby Hernandez, Miami Beach Police Department’s spokesperson, said a criminal mischief investigation has been opened to determine whether or not the power was cut intentionally. “Unfortunately we have no witnesses, no video, no tips.”

“Of course they shut off the power! They did the same thing with the gas! They want us out.… They already offered us $1,400 each to leave and everyone rejected it,” said Diego Lamora, a tenant of 2000 Liberty for the past four years.

Lamora is referring to the new owners of 2000 Liberty, Alan Lieberman and his son Nathan.

The property was sold roughly a month ago to the Liebermans by Jeff Cohen of Esslinger, Wooten and Maxwell Realtors.

“This was a complicated transaction,” said Cohen of the 2000 Liberty sale.

According to Cohen, the building was owned by a group of Italians who don’t live in the United States.

“They wanted to sell their position, which was the building at 2000 Liberty Ave.,” said Cohen.

But the land on which the building stands was owned by several different members of a family residing in the United States, outside of Florida, Cohen said.

“I would imagine that because of the cost of the building plus the land, a better mousetrap had to be conceived to get a proper return on their investment…I think they need to rehab the property and get higher rents, or do a condo conversion and sell the units,” he adds.

“We allege in our complaints that this may be a way to do an end-run around the eviction process,” said Hearne. “During the hearing, he [Nathan Liebrman] couldn’t really explain why the utilities were shut off. He said they just purchased the property and there might have been a bill misplaced, that he sent out an electrician and he didn’t know what was going on. He said it was really the responsibility of the building manager, who wasn’t there. The judge wanted Mr. Lieberman to contact the manager … it was odd, the power was immediately turned back on.”

According to one tenant of 2000 Liberty, who wishes to remain nameless, “It was a problem that could’ve been fixed immediately … the lights to the hallway worked, it just wasn’t the emergency system that worked…It was all the landlords’ doing, because the power to the emergency system came on immediately after the hearing.”

“This is the beginning of the case,” said Hearne. “There will also be a claim to damages.”

Neither Alan Lieberman, president of Art Deco hotel chain South Beach Group, nor his son Nathan, the building’s manager, returned repeated calls from the SunPost but he told NBC-6 that sparks from a transformer caused the power outage and that tenants were living there on a month-to-month basis. NBC-6 also reported that, during the power outage, the Liebermans offered $400 to assist them with moving expenses. A $100 discount on regular monthly rent was also offered for those wishing to move to another property, the station reported.

Nathan Lieberman told NBC-6 that the loss of power had to do with the building’s age (it was built in 1947, according to the Miami-Dade Property Assessment Department.)

“I’m sure part of the reason we got such a good deal is because of the age of the building,” Nathan Lieberman told NBC-6. “We’re in the business to have a full building, not an empty one.”

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