Formal Demand Letter Requesting Immediate Long-Term Solutions to Resolve Ongoing/Systemic Power and Safety Issues at Camden Pier District Budling in St. Petersburg Florida

I along with other residents, both live and work full-time from home at Camden Pier District (aka CPD). Living and working here should be a privilege given the substantial amount we pay for a "luxury" building. We are so fortunate to be living here, and some of us have had to relocate here due to having their homes decimated and being displaced from Helene and Milton.
Here is our reality: ongoing power and safety issues persist that have been present 5+ months at least prior to the impacts of Helene and Milton at CPD. This directly affects our daily lives, our ability to work, and above all, our sense security and well-being.

Many of us have reached out through traditional/proper channels. For example, CPD has been made aware since Helene. These managers include Masha Duda (Tampa Reginal Camden Living) and Nick Brenton (St. Pete CPD Bld). We have documentation beginning in early October post-Helene, expressing our power and safety concerns and the urgent need for resolutions and a specific timeline to reach solutions to the following issues:
1. Elevator 2. This is one of the 3 main elevators in our main lobby that has experienced power outages (not mechanical) starting in June/July of 2024. There are residents who are disabled who cannot stand for long periods of time and this elevator has caused a bottleneck traffic issue into Elevators 1 and 3. The service Elevator works, however, that’s also reserved for our service/maintenance team and for when residents are moving in and out of the bld.
a. We were told number times that that Elevator 2 was going to be fixed weeks ago. I can support this with separate documentation
b. Broken transformer. A large truck backed into one of the several transformers near our loading doc that’s contributed to the main breaker failing. I have photos to support this and that were sent to Masha on 10/29.
c. Two residents – Vanessa and Denise, who allowed me to mention their first name were both on separate occasions stuck in Elevator 2 this summer (2024) for 30-40 minutes. The local St. Pete fire department had to rescue them and her elderly relatives.
d. We have documentation that CPD’s elevator service companies don’t adhere to their contract and customers like CP are unaware of this negligence.

2. Safety Issue/Generator: Post-Helene there continues to be a large generator truck funneling large/thick power cords from the truck into a side residential entrance door, which remains open 24/7. I have witnessed homeless people and strangers ‘lurking’ around this entrance point. The power cords also present issues of tripping over these cables at night where it’s not well lit to see the cords. The generator also emits loud noise and gas pollution.

3. Negligence regarding CP portal communication for Safe Hurricane evacuation during Helene and Milton. We received ZERO instructions during Helene and Milton that CP was in Zone D evacuation group. Technically, A-C had to evacuate, but had zero communication of our options, only the gov’t alerts to evacuate that I got on my cell phone. Zones A-C were mandatory and given the impact of Helene we expected more transparent and frequent communication to our residents as Milton’s eye approached Tampa about evacuate procedures and options.

CPD cannot control the weather, but they can 100% control communication to inform residents of options to evacuate, including water safety, weather updates, power updates, etc. We got nothing.
a. CPD was negligent in stating in an email confirming that we were in Zone D Most of Pinellas County and St. Pete (Zones A-C) had to evacuate. The confusing was very alarming, as the local gov’t put out mass cellular evacuation alerts (similar to an “Amber Alert”) mandating that we needed to evacuate. CPD should have explained our options.
b. As of today, October 29th, we just received an email from CP management that power will be shut down in our entire bld for at least 6 hours tomorrow as they attempt to fix the main breaker. They sent an email last week saying this power outage was going to happen on Thursday October 24th but it did not b/c CP did not have the proper permits to allow Duke Energy and electric engineers to begin work. As of 8pm ET on October 29th we are unsure when power is going to be shut down in our bld.
Other issues that are important that we want to document:
1. Pool/roof deck renovations: Began in August 2024 because a pregnant woman slipped on the tiles with her baby. When I first moved in, I noticed that half the roof deck consisted of safe/concrete title, but the other half used cheap slippery tile b/c I was told by a service maintenance employee that CPD “ran out of concrete when finishing construction to this building years ago.”
a. Loud jackhammering and construction noise from these renovations prevents residents from working from home and leading client/work calls.
b. Lack of access to CPD’s Sky Lounge
c. The furniture is coming apart or stained and is hardly sanitary.
d. Lack of security is another issue. I have videos and photos documenting that residents who did not evacuate during Milton were partying on the Sky Lounge during the storm (which was closed) and left the door opened which caused unnecessary and prevenatable water damage.
e. 41 Units had leaky windows during the storms.
f. Water leakage also came through CPD’s walls.
Therefore, it’s time to formalize our requests and a call to action. We are asking that you please – senior management at Camden Living and Camden Property Trust – communicate to us directly and provide us with a specific timeline to resolve the above issues no later than November 4th 2024.