NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Newport News City Council on Tuesday night saw a presentation about what's next in the process to possibly reopen the formerly condemned Seaview Lofts apartment building.
RELATED: Newport News judge lifts condemnation of Seaview Lofts after 8 months
Last July, tenants got a two-day notice to move out of their homes.
The building was originally condemned because of a broken elevator, and issues with the hot water boiler system and the HVAC systems.
News 3 was at Tuesday's meeting where city leaders discussed the progress of the building re-opening and what they called "severe violations of building life safety systems."
Harold Roach, the director of the city codes and compliance department, said officials are waiting for the owner of Seaview Lofts to notify them of when the building is ready to be re-inspected.
"For the past several months, we've been working with the owner of Seaview Lofts apartments to bring the building into compliance," Roach said. "They had a number of very serious problems with building life safety systems—the elevators, fire alarm systems, boiler systems that provide both heat and hot water to the apartments there—as well as smaller issues with electrical hazards, plumbing hazards and egress issues—being able to get into and out of the building safely. It's taken a lot of work and a long time to get those things corrected."
The city said it has a team ready to re-inspect the apartment building, where they will make sure the building meets the state's property maintenance codes.
