Vie Lofts Releases Update, Awaits City’s Determination
Staff Reports
Vie Lofts officials released another update on their meetings with city officials regarding the evacuation of the student-housing complex.
According to Derrick Milam, Co-Founder of Vie Management, who owns and runs the student-housing complex, said city officials and their engineers present for the meetings verbally confirmed their engineer’s findings.
“The findings thus far have been consistent with our initial reports and inspections that there is no question about the structural integrity of the building,” Milam said yesterday. “There is no question about the structural integrity of the building.”
The City of San Marcos said they have not made a determination about the building as of yet; once the determination is made, they will “probably be issuing” a statement and be able to provide their third party engineering report.
The evacuation was called Friday over safety concerns of the building’s structural integrity.
According to the city, the unsafe conditions that resulted in the evacuation order include but are not limited to “inadequate means of egress (exit) which are due to inadequate maintenance. This order was based on the International Fire Code, 2015 edition, Sections 110.1 and 110.2.”
Vie Management spent Monday and Tuesday meeting with multiple individuals from the City of San Marcos to identify the city’s safety concerns.
Milam said while the company completes the repairs to the stairwell and doorframe, they will draft a new safety evacuation plan as requested by the city.
“The city has assured us they will provide feedback within 24 hours of receiving the plan,” Milam said. “Our goal is to have that new plan submitted to the city by Wednesday end of day and once submitted to the city, we are hopeful that we will be able to quickly facilitate returning students to their home.”
Milam and Harold “Ari” Rosenblum co-founded Vie Management, a real estate investment and management company in 2001. According to the company’s website, besides Vie Lofts at San Marcos, the company owns eight additional student housing units including Vie at Raleigh in Raleigh, North Carolina, Vie at University Downs in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Colonie Apartments in Amherst, New York, Hillcrest Oakwood Properties in Big Rapids, Mississippi, Murfreesboro in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Southgate Apartments in State College, Pennsylvania, Vie Towers in Hyattville, Maryland, Vie Villas at Boca Raton in Boca Raton, Florida.
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