The Berkeley apartment complex where six Irish students died in a balcony collapse has been sold with plans to develop the site for affordable housing.
K Street Flats, the 176-unit development formerly known as Library Gardens, where the balcony collapse occurred in June 2015, was sold last autumn.
A public agency called California Community Housing Agency (CalCHA) bought the complex which pledges to provide housing for workers who are often priced out of expensive cities.
Those who died in balcony collapse include Lorcán Miller and Eimear Walsh along with Niccolai Schuster, Eoghan Culligan, and cousins Olivia Burke and Ashley Donohoe died in the collapse – all were aged 20 and 21 when they fell 40 feet from the fourth floor apartment. Seven others were injured – some seriously.
Aoife Beary, whose 21st birthday they were celebrating and who was seriously injured in the collapse, died aged 27 on January 1st this year following a stroke.
Despite her multiple injuries, Ms Beary campaigned alongside Ms Donohoe’s family to force building companies to release public safety records and report any work-related crimes or settlements to California’s building regulator.
She testified before the California state legislature in 2016 saying: “Now my birthday will always be their anniversary,” she said.
At an emotional hearing in August 2016, Ms Beary told US politicians: “Some of my injuries will be with me for the rest of my life. We grew up together and now my birthday will always be their anniversary.”
The Berkeley City Council voted to join CalCHA last year and as a result, the city could one day own K Street Flats.
The structure which was found to have defects in the construction of its balcony, which led to the deadly collapse, prompted state regulators to revoke the license of the contractor who built it.
The tragedy also led to new state laws requiring inspections of balconies and expanding access to contractor records.
A plaque honouring the six people who died in the collapse now stands in Civic Center Park. An informal chalk memorial also occupies a patch of the sidewalk outside K Street Flats, and includes the seventh name of Aoife Beary.
Berkeleyside, a non-profit organisation, which deals with housing in the area, said that defects are still being reported by tenants, which was completed in 2007 and city officials have received complaints about a range of issues with the building, including the partial collapse of bedrooms.
Mike Beary, Aoife’s father queried the revelation that defects are “still showing up at K-Street Flats.”
After the accident, families of the victims learned that the balcony had been built by a firm that paid out $26.5 million in construction defect settlements that were never reported to the state license board.
Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger who represented all of the injured victims and most of the families whose children died in the Berkeley tragedy were not in a position to comment on the sale of the complex.
A long-time tenant, Alex Merenkov, has complained to city officials about a range of issues with the building, including the partial collapse of another renter’s bedroom floor last spring.
“None of us know to what degree this property is going to hold up,” Mr Merenkov said.
A tenant at K Street Flats for more than a decade, Mr Merenkov added he has watched the building deteriorate under several property management companies.