DES MOINES, Iowa -- Three residents of an Iowa apartment building that partially collapsed on Sunday are still unaccounted for, according to police.
Earlier this week, authorities said five people were missing, but Davenport Police Chief Jeff Bladel said during a media briefing Thursday morning that two of them have since been accounted for and are safe. One moved out of the building a month ago and was found in Texas, and the other was found locally.
The six-story building partially collapsed shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday. The city has since released documents, including structural engineering reports, that show the building's owner was warned that the parts of the building was unstable.
An engineer’s report dated May 24, just days before the collapse, suggested patches in the west side of the building’s brick façade “appear ready to fall imminently” and could be a safety hazard to cars or passersby.
The engineer’s report also detailed that window openings, some filled and some unfilled, were insecure. In one case, the openings were “bulging outward” and looked “poised to fall.” Inside the first floor, unsupported window openings help “explain why the façade is currently about to topple outward.”
“The brick façade is unlikely to be preserved in place, but it can be brought down in a safe, controlled manner,” the report stated.
Andrew Wold, the building's owner, released a statement dated Tuesday — his first comments since the partial collapse — saying “our thoughts and prayers are with our tenants” and that his company, Davenport Hotel, L.L.C., is working with agencies to help them.
County records show Davenport Hotel, L.L.C. acquired the building in 2021 in a deal worth $4.2 million. The city later declared the building a nuisance due to numerous solid waste violations, and a judge ordered Wold to pay a $4,500 penalty after he did not appear in court.
On Tuesday, the city filed a new enforcement action against Wold, saying that he had failed to maintain the property “in a safe, sanitary, and structurally sound condition” before the collapse. The city is seeking a $300 fine.
Emails sent to an attorney believed to be representing Wold have not been returned.
