Despite multiple complaints to City of Miami officials — and at least one citation for violating the city’s noise ordinance — residents say repairs at a Center Grove office building have left them sleepless.
A four-hour night of sleep has become a luxury for Center Grove resident Caroline Chiaroni, who’s been kept awake each night by the incessant rumbling of a portable air-conditioning system, or chiller, outside the neighboring Offices at Grand Bay Plaza near the corner of SW 27th Avenue and Tigertail Avenue.
The chiller is part of a $3-million construction project, providing air conditioning to the building while its permanent cooling system is undergoing repairs. While city-issued construction permits are in place, permits or “waivers” to produce excessive or after-hours noise are not, city records show.
Chiaroni and other residents of the adjacent Mr. C Residences condo tower say the noise began in early October, prompting dozens of phone calls to the city’s Department of Code Compliance and several conversations with property-management officials at both buildings. Forty or so condo owners also signed a petition demanding corrective measures be taken.
Inspectors with the city’s Department of Code Compliance complied. On Oct. 21, Grand Bay Plaza’s property owners received a “warning letter” for emitting “unacceptable levels of noise” for a residential area. No fine or penalty was imposed, but a fine of up to $500 per day could be levied, the letter explained, if corrective action is not taken by October 31.
And the noise continues.
“I’m sleeping intermittently from, call it an hour or two hours a night. But other than that, the noise is so strong that it’s sleepless nights,” Chiaroni said. “We’re all operating on zombie mode.”
Chiaroni said she tried to reach Code Compliance nearly every night since the noise began and each time she was told compliance inspectors do not come on site after midnight. Middle-of-the-night calls to police were also futile, she said, as they told her they were precluded from getting involved in noise situations involving construction permitting.
Some residents insist the chiller grows louder between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.— a stretch when Code Compliance is unavailable for part of the night. The city’s after-hours hotline runs only until 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, with the regular line resuming at 8 a.m., making it nearly impossible to log, on the record, the chiller’s early-morning noise.
As of the time of publication, the Offices at Grove Bay Plaza have not responded to requests for comment.
Center Grove resident Paris Wallace said the lack of responsiveness by the city’s Code Compliance officers is not new.
“People are being kept up every night. We’re having to get a city commissioner involved,” said Wallace, referring to a plea made to Miami District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo. “It’s just absolutely outrageous. And so, the question is, you know, how do you actually get code compliance in the City of Miami?”
The day after the Oct. 21 violation was issued, Mr. C residents were awakened around 5:30 a.m. by the sound and bright flashes of welding work on the construction site and filed additional complaints with Code Compliance for after-hours construction violations.
The disturbance has become so frustrating that Marina Rossi, who rents a one-bedroom unit on the seventh floor of Mr. C Residences, is temporarily moving out. After several nights paying for hotels, she’s relocating to her live-work office building.
“I can’t handle this anymore. I am on the verge of a breakdown,” she said.
Rossi said the lack of sleep has made it impossible for her to do her job as the head of construction management company. If the problem persists, she said, she’ll walk from her lease entirely. Doing so would cost her over $10,000.
The Offices at Grove Bay Plaza is not the only source of noise complaints in the neighborhood. Just a stone’s throw away, a noise waiver has been issued for construction work at Four Seasons Private Residences. The waiver allows construction-related noise and activities from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., or a total of four hours outside the typical weekday construction hours, starting just days before Thanksgiving and ending in late March 2026.
Chris Lunding, president of the Condo Association of Coconut Grove, Inc. at the nearby Ritz Carlton, said construction vehicles on site have already begun arriving long before the current allowable start time of 8 a.m., prompting resident complaints.
“The residents in my building, to my knowledge, are very upset about this. And they’re upset to learn that there’s no actual permit at this time at all, and yet they’re starting at 6:15 a.m. in the morning,” Lunding said.
Construction waivers like this have become commonplace for new developments. A Spotlight investigation earlier this year found that city officials approved every one of the more than 1,100 requests filed over an 18-month period, 40% of which were in District 2, which includes Coconut Grove.
The construction of the Mr. C Residences building itself was aided by the permitting of noise waivers over many months that allowed crews to work overnight shifts generally ending at 5 a.m.
Earlier this year Pardo angered residents citywide by sponsoring a city ordinance that would have extended the allowable hours for construction noise by two hours per day. Faced with strong pushback, he withdrew the measure earlier this month but promised to push for the change at a later date.
