{"id":346826,"date":"2026-07-21T02:41:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T02:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/346826\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T02:41:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T02:41:16","slug":"brickell-condo-became-a-seedy-hotel-and-miami-chose-not-to-enforce-its-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/346826\/","title":{"rendered":"Brickell condo became a seedy hotel and Miami chose not to enforce its rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

The nightmarish scene at a Brickell condo depicted in the Miami Herald’s recent “Animal House” investigation<\/a> \u2014 people passed out in the hallway, loud music at all hours, 14 visitors to a room, porn shoots, squatters, fights, guns and general mayhem \u2014 would be shocking even in a college dorm or frat house.<\/p>\n

But it’s happening in what used to be a swanky condominium in Miami’s financial district, The Club at Brickell Bay. At this point, only 15% of owners actually live there \u2014 and they have become virtual prisoners in their homes as short-term vacation rental guests seemingly run wild in the 43-story, 643-unit condo.<\/p>\n

Most of the units are controlled by five Homeowners Association board officers who are hosts in the Airbnb business and don’t live in the building. The condo is a hotel in all but name \u2014 and a seedy one at that.<\/p>\n

What can be done? The city can enforce its ban on short-term rentals in multifamily condos, but it doesn’t seem to want to. Now that this information has been aired out by the Herald, Mayor Eileen Higgins and the City Commission must investigate why residents’ complaints aren’t being taken seriously.<\/p>\n

While some vacation rental websites warn investors to avoid cities like San Francisco that track illegal rentals, Miami has been rated among the most “lenient” on restrictions, according to the Herald. When homeowners pleaded for help from the city, they said Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo suggested they call “Help Me, Howard,” a consumer assistance hotline on Channel 7. Absurd.<\/p>\n

This is clearly not an issue of a lack of rules. The city’s zoning code prohibits lodging stays shorter than 30 days in multifamily residential buildings like The Club unless the building has a special Certificate of Use designating it a condo-hotel. The building doesn’t appear to have one; the Herald found only a “hodge-podge of records,” some going back to 2007, and none that seemed to offer permission for widespread short-term stays.<\/p>\n

So why did Miami allow the debauchery at The Club to reach this level?<\/p>\n

We don’t know. Herald investigative reporter Linda Robertson wrote in the story that, “Requests to interview the city’s zoning, code compliance and building department directors about the discrepancies were declined.”<\/p>\n

So you get the picture: a commissioner who suggests frustrated residents call a TV news channel for help; officials who don’t want to answer questions; code inspectors who rarely issue citations \u2014 and when they do, the citations are usually dismissed.<\/p>\n

“We’re screwed by our board and our city,” resident Katherin Fernandez told the Herald.<\/p>\n

To top it off, the condo board’s election last month was tainted by forged ballots, a former board officer accuses The Club of submitting a forged permit application to the city and a former property manager is awaiting trial on charges of grand theft and running an organized scheme to defraud the condo.<\/p>\n

Brickell might be known as a financial and entertainment district, but it is also home to thousands of year-round residents. In fact, Miami-Dade has incentivized people to live in the county’s urban core, close to transit lines like the Metromover. The property rights of short-term rentals should not infringe on homeowners’ rights to a peaceful existence.<\/p>\n

Vacation rental pushback isn’t contained to Miami. Across the world, residents have protested against this $135 billion industry. In Miami Beach, officials blame the industry for taking up housing supply<\/a> and pushing living costs up for residents.<\/p>\n

Let The Club be an example to the rest of Florida of what can go wrong when short-term rentals are allowed to run amuck. The Legislature has preempted many local regulations on short-term rentals and for years lawmakers have tried to reach a consensus on how to regulate these de-facto commercial properties in residential neighborhoods. Pressure from the industry has often skewed legislation. In 2024, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a bill that would have ended policies dozens of cities and counties enacted throughout the state after 2011. That was a good move<\/a> by DeSantis, but other preemptions still limit how local governments can regulate these rentals.<\/p>\n

Vacation rentals are no longer mostly mom-and-pop operations \u2014 homeowners making extra money by renting space to tourists. As The Club’s example shows, this has become a serious business, which requires a serious effort by the city of Miami and the state to ensure that bad players are held accountable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The nightmarish scene at a Brickell condo depicted in the Miami Herald’s recent “Animal House” investigation \u2014 people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[142005,14912,123,1642,125,124,142007,142006,25145],"class_list":["post-346826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-condo-board","tag-homeowners-association","tag-miami","tag-miami-beach","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-multifamily-residential-buildings","tag-the-club-at-brickell-bay","tag-the-miami-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}