Residents of the collapsed Florida condo complained about construction next door causing 'shaking all the time,' official says

• Eighty Seven Park, a luxury condo, was being built next to Champlain Towers South from 2016 to 2019.
• Last week, Champlain Towers South partially collapsed, killing 12 and leaving almost 150 missing.
• Champlain residents had complained of construction causing their building to shake, CNN reported.

Residents in the Surfside, Florida, condo that partially collapsed last week had previously complained about their building shaking during the construction of a luxury building next door, CNN's Casey Tolan reported.

CNN obtained an email that Champlain Towers South resident Mara Chouela wrote to a Surfside building official in January 2019. Chouela wrote that she was concerned that the tower being built next door was "too close."

"We have concerns regarding the structure of our building," Chouela said.

Less than a half-hour later, a Surfside building official responded to Chouela's email, saying there was nothing he could do because the building next door was in the neighboring town of Miami Beach, CNN reported.

Eliana Salzhauer, a Surfside town commissioner, also told CNN that she'd heard from residents saying the building "was shaking all the time" during Eighty Seven Park's construction.

"They were very traumatized and shook up," Salzhauer added.

Eighty Seven Park was built between 2016 and 2019.

There is no evidence its construction contributed to the collapse of Champlain Towers South, CNN reported.

"We are confident that the construction of 87 Park did not cause or contribute to the collapse that took place in Surfside," the development group behind the building told CNN in a statement on Tuesday.

Terra Group, one of Eighty Seven Park's developers, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Chouela wasn't the only resident who was concerned about the shaking.

Magaly Ramsey told CNN that her mother, who is among those missing in the collapse, had complained "of a lot of tremors and things that were being done to the other building."

"She sometimes was concerned what may be happening to her building - that might be putting it at risk," Ramsey said.

Marta Castro, a former board member of a neighboring building, told CNN she knew people who lived in Champlain Towers South, and that "everyone in town knew the problems they were facing."

"My neighbors could feel the vibration - they protested, they complained, nothing happened. I signed so many petitions," Castro said.

Joy Malakoff, who was a Miami Beach commissioner at the time, said she wasn't aware of any complaints about tremors from Surfside residents during Eighty Seven Park's construction.

"As far as I know, Eighty Seven Park was very carefully built, well built, and expensively built," Malakoff said.

It's unclear what caused the collapse, but there were concerns about concrete cracking in the building's basement.

Florida officials are launching multiple investigations into the collapse, and two residents so far have filed lawsuits.