Opera Tower

This place is going down the drain every day that goes by.
Elevators, there are 6. But it seems only 2 work, they stop in every single floor. Most of the time no one gets in.
Also the cleaning and maintenance crew have only one service elevator so you have to ride with them and their cleaning carts. You’ll be lucky if they actually get in, they usually stop the elevators and wait until an empty one arrives, unbelievable.
The ‘gym’ is a mess. Treadmills NEVER work.
Nobody seems to care anymore, which is a pity because I really liked this place. I have no idea what they’re doing with the money they get, rent is higher every year but I don’t see any improvements done.

First of all, I have to say my interactions with building staff (front desk, cleaning, etc). have been pretty good since I moved into my rental unit 3 months ago. Most seem friendly and want to help. There are many, many problems, though, which make it seem like this management company is completely in over its head with such a large building.
Fire Alarms: I’m struggling to find words for how absurd this situation has become in the past couple of months. I’ve lived in large buildings before and understand that the alarms get pulled accidentally every now and then. It’s unavoidable. At Opera Tower, you’re lucky to get a 24-​hour reprieve from the blaring sirens, messages to evacuate, and then, best of all, incoherent, loud intercom messages (in your own apartment!) about a false alarm a few minutes later. Unbelievably, after another false alarm late last night, the staff thought it was a good idea to yell the false alarm message (which all of us have heard dozens of times by now) into our apartment intercoms at 3:30 AM. Woke the ENTIRE building up at 3:30 AM to tell us about a false alarm that had already happened 2 previous times that very day, and probably 5 times earlier this week. It’s pretty unbelievable that something like fire alarms could become such a quality of life issue, but that’s Opera Tower for you.
Internet: Hotwire, this building’s exclusive internet/​cable provider, has about as good a Unilocal rating as this building does. The problems are odd but nonetheless annoying: while the bandwidth seems ok when connected (Netflix usually streams just fine since it has a chance to download ahead), the connection is constantly going in and out all day. This makes regular web browsing a real pain, so have your phone games ready to play for a few minutes every half-​hour or so while you wait for the internet to reconnect.
Elevators: Yeah, they definitely turn some of them off during the day. During peak times, as everyone has said, the waits are long and the elevators are crowded. There was at least one day last month where all the elevators were out for a few hours, forcing everyone to use the freight elevator or the stairs.
Parking garage/​broken doors: many doors in the building are unlocked with our key fobs, and the locks seem to be breaking all the time. The worst is when it happens at the parking garage gate, forcing a line of cars backed up into the street. Or at the door to your parking garage floor, forcing you to go to another floor and walk through the labyrinth of claustrophobia and poor visibility that is the Opera Tower Parking Garage. Seriously, this is the strangest, most poorly-​designed parking garage I’ve ever seen. Maybe it’s due to the shape of the building, but either way, you’re going to wind around more tight, blind curves on your way up to your 8^th floor parking spot than you would on a remote mountain trail.
Opera Tower is in a great location (and looks pretty cool, too), but for the rents you pay here it’s just not worth it.

Where do I begin? Smh. First, Ghetto ghetto ghetto! I live on the 44^th and just get asshole people spilling their nasty water in my balcony ruining my flowers & furniture these ghetto people continue to act as if they were still in the hood. Second, management: don’t Fn’ promote a gym if only one treadmill works and your pull up machine is falling apart promoting 100% death to whoever is gonna fall on their heads! (not gonna get into detail w that shitty little whole) 3^rd, cheap ass paint everywhere, broken doors, broken elevators, broken garage and fab system, no A/​C in the building trying to save energy. Two maintenance guys ONLY for the ENTIRE building. Dogs poo and pee in every Fn’ corner and on the carpets let along in the doorway omg every morning I step on pee!!! And, try to go pick up ur mail and u get hit by trash and mosquitos. Let along in the hallways where the apartments are. It always smells like trash because there is NO ventilation whatsoever, therefore the units smell like trash no matter what you do. ²⁴⁄₇ fire alarm going off for it to b 99.9%of the time a fake one. We are paying $ 1900 for 1 bedroom. IDK wtf we r doing here I’m totally moving ASAP!!! $ 600,000 and up for this unit (of trash, pee and poo)!!! Oh I got lots more to say!!! This building looks nice on the outside but on the inside it’s the Bronx reincarnated, but picture worse!

I’m not a resident of the Opera tower, but I can say that the security guards were very friendly and welcoming.
I’ve noticed a lot of horrible review’s? I guess you can’t judge a building by its cover! The exterior of the skyscraper is beautiful!
The location is awesome and very convenient to everything… and I mean EVERYTHING!
As a visitor, the Opera Tower is gorgeous, but as a resident, it’s hell. At least that’s what it seems like by reading all the reviews.

They deserve a 0 star!!! I do not know where to begin lets just say MANAGEMENT does not know how to run a property with a busy building like Opera! Urine from dogs by the entrance of the building. Accounting is relly off. I am still battling a balance i never had. I moved out 4 months ago and im still waiting for my security drposit do to old management miatake in receivables. Please keep records of your rental payments although I did and they are still struggling! DO NOT MOVE THERE! Safe yourself aggravation!

I wish I could give 0 stars. I’ve been holding off on writing something because I kept wanting to give them a chance, but I’ve had enough.
I’ve had it with this place, the most incompetent staff ever. Rental staff isn’t much better, acting like they are doing «you» a favor by helping you with something. God fobid you go ask who can fix something in your apartment, because they treat you like it’s your fault. Management that can’t even answer simple questions like «Where are the bike racks located»…“Hmm I don’t know Ma’m maybe you can walk around the garage and see if you can find them.” Seriously? This is your job to know the property not my job to play «i spy.»
Where can I start? Garbage disposal stinks in the hallways, elevators always being broken or only 2 working because they shut the others off to save money. Not to mention the elevator certificate hasn’t been updated since last year– lawsuit waiting to happen. The AC has been out in our hallway since we moved in like 7 months ago and they always have an excuse as to why it doesn’t work.
Today, I called about asking how the laundry room works because guess what? When we moved in, they never even told us it existed. But guess what? Youu can’t get answers because «management» doesn’t know… so, they give you the # of the people who operate the coin machines. Again, simple questions that as a management company you should know! I called about asking for storage… Nobody knows anything. What do you know? Just terrible. They do a really good job at marketing themselves. Can’t wait to move out.

If you buy a condo at Opera Tower through the developers rental program, you will get financing through Consumer Asset Management,. Don’t do it!
From the set up of the loan (which took weeks after closing and for which they tried to turn charge me a late fee) to the monthly mightmare of dealing with incompetents who don’t respond or give you totally inaccurate information. YOU’LL BE SORRY!
I thought deceptive mortgage service providers had been stopped after the financial crisis of 2008.
I guess not.

I stayed in a corp apt for 5 weeks. The view is amazing and pool is lovely. The unit is a bit out dated and furniture is in poor condition but works. Service staff are second rate at best. Elevators are shut down to conserve energy and therefore have huge waits and 6 min rides. For a corp apt the cleaning was inconsistent and just bad. The WiFi was the worst I’ve ever had. Besides the view and proximity to public the place was sort of a mess.

This building is littered with incompetent people. Starting from the developer, down to the outsourced «security guards.» For the exception of the location, everything else is a disaster. I wish I could give zero «stars.»

Just moved in. Great view, nice people.

I wasted 1.5 years living here. The management is beyond rude; they act as if you are the lowest form of life wasting their time by asking a question. If they could’ve spit on me, I think they would’ve, except I’m sure they’d regard that as a waste of spit.
The building rents out the upper floors as a short term corporate apartment. Meaning they’ll let anyone live in the building if they pay. You should see some of the winners that had free run of the building. Love that smell of stale booze and marijuana.
Meanwhile I had a hard credit check and background check when I applied. Thanks for that gift showing up on my credit report for two years!
Oh and let’s not forget the attempted triple homicide on the 19^th floor in May 2013. They really check the folks who come in and live there while running a credit card fraud ring.
Every fixture in the apartment is cheap and easily breaks; and if you rent the apartment from an owner and not the building, management won’t help you. They demand a copy of the insurance from a plumber/​contractor etc before they’ll let them in. Now who cares if you have no water for three days over a holiday weekend, the building will actively find ways not to help you.
6 elevators in the building, of which 3 – 4 are shut off at any time (another example of the building saving money). A nearly 60 story building with only two elevators means up to 20 minutes of waiting in or for an elevator to take you to your floor.
I could go on and on, but the bottom line is the Opera Tower is the worst run place I’ve ever lived in. Don’t waste any money in a place that is truly an awful place to live. I’d give zero or negative stars if possible.

Renters: Stay away from the Opera Tower! I rented in the Opera Tower on my second return to Southern Florida from Chicago. At first, everything was amazing until I signed the lease. I first walked into the apartment with half of the stove in the middle of the kitchen broken. The apartment that had been «professionally cleaned» was beyond filthy. The leasing office staff, the front desk staff — everyone is rude. Management claimed that there were several emails sent to me however I never received a single one. Other tenants are beyond rude. Parking is a joke with the garage doors working only 50% of the time.
The bottom-​line, look some place else to rent.

Opera Tower was my first high rise condo and it was cool. The building has lots of amenities and the location is awesome.
It missed the 5 stars because the parking garage is a nightmare and the whole operation is almost too formal. Too formal in if you lock your keys in your room be prepared to fill out a form, if you do it again be prepared to pay a fine. Doors lock automatically when they shut so people such as myself struggled with this. There are lots of other just too formal processes you have to do to manage simple tasks. I suppose with a building that large it may be necessary but, my new high rise hasn’t had that issue so it isn’t 100% needed.

GETTING WORST EVERYDAY!
It’s very sad to say this, I have lived in the building for three years, and the building is getting worst everyday! The new tenats are very shady, no wonder we had a shooting in the building, you can smell the marihuana coming from them once they come into the elevators. The elevators never work, so make sure you give yourself plenty of time to leave in the morning and get ready to sweat in an elevator full of people with out air conditioning. I would recommend any one who is thinking about moving into this building to rethink the decision. This is very sad, because the building it’s in a great location and could have a lot of potential, if just the management would start getting their stuff together, and start checking the criminal backgrounds of future tenants.
STAY AWAY FROM THIS BUILDING

I lived in the Opera Tower for 5.5 years. Why did I live here so long? Primarily, it was because my unit was individually owned and the owners never bumped up my rent. BUT the moment I exited my unit daily, I was always filled with anxiety and frustration. Why? (1) The hallways are rarely air conditioned; (2) The building’s generator is faulty, which caused my unit’s AC to work on over-​drive, resulting in ridiculous monthly FPL bills; (3) Of the six elevators, usually only two were operating, which caused 10-​minute waits and crowded elevators every time you needed to go somewhere; (4) The majority of the cleaning, maintainance, security, valet and management staff are rude and incompetent, i.e. 99% of them (and that’s generous); (5) The parking lot was ill-​designed, allowing only one car to pass at each turn (and when your parking space is on the tenth floor, this becomes your own individual hell!); and (6) The neighborhood has entirely too many people suffering from mental illnesses living on its streets; I never felt safe walking my dogs in the park before dawn or late at night. …Overall, the best day of my 5.5 years as a resident of the Opera Tower was my move-​out day.

«Opera Horror»
Quick Summary:
Location: Excellent
Community: Very Poor
Security: Average
Pet Friendly: Excellent
Parking: Very Poor
Management: Poor
Cost: Very High
Location: You can not beat the location you are smack in the middle of downtown, you can walk or take any bus, trolly or taxi. If you are the person that like to live near transportation walking distance because you fear your car might not start than this is the place to live. Taxis are parked across the street at the Double Tree/​Grand hotel ALL the time. Also you will find yourself walking to the grocery store and see many of your fellow neighbors doing the same because its literally across the street. There is also a park across the street and DOG FRIENDLY… You can watch the half naked guys play volley ball while walking your dog or simply work out… yes the park has some out door gym equipment. While doing this enjoy the view of the bay…
Community: The community in Opera Tower is very poor. It’s a lot of «New Money,» or rather people that drive fancy cars yet have no furniture in their apartment… hmmmm.
From your neighbor playing loud music to the neighbor upstairs wearing her heals… the quality of the tower is super cheap because I am not kidding I swear I could hear my neighbors breathing. NOISE… noise noise… For me Friday’s and Saturday’s I don’t mind… but its EVERY DAY… Have been living her for a year and a half and well this will be my last year. I use to live in Montréal Canado and in Hawaii and the sociological aspect in this community reaks of people with no culture.
Pet Friendly: Yes if you love dogs they are welcomed. Everyday I leave the building I see all types of breeds, for a building such as this to allow pets is a miracle because MANY MANY communities ESPECIALLY towers do not allow pets. But seems downtown is just in favor of granting us the pleasure of having pets. The downfall people who have pets don’t seem to follow the rules… so once in a blue moon find the elevator smelling like animals or find animal poop. BUT its very rare though it’s the type of people that live here that ruin the building.
Security: I never had a problem with security, they are there and respond pretty quickly. The «Opera Shooting,» well guess what was low class people from the ghetto. What’s that saying oh yes, «You can take them out of the ghetto but you can’t get the ghetto out of them.» So three black guys seem to be in an argument and decided to shoot at each other. Mostly drugs… The security does go up the ten flight of parking levels checking for non registered cars. I see them doing this all the time.
Parking: LOL… so it’s ten floors, with one and a half care lane. It’s the roulette of death and nerves. I feel bad for you if you live on the tenth floor because it will take you 15 to 20 minutes to get out. You are literally inches from hitting the incoming car coming to you and when you hit the turn and another car comes well either they back up or you back up to go through which can last another 20 seconds or 10 minutes
Management: Who cares, just get security :) The poor girl Liz seems to be doing all the work while her employees sit there and act stupid. No wonder she is a «hello, gotta go, leave me a voice mail,» kind of girl and when you do talk to her she is very respectful and her stress might come off as mean but you really can’t blame her if she is the only one working. I think she has fired lot’s of staff cause I see new faces all the time LOL… Hard to find decent employee’s.
Cost: I got a bargain only reason I am here, THE ONLY REASON… LOCATION is #1 on my list because it is the only thing you can not change when you set yourself in a lease. Would I buy an apartment here yes but as an investment communities fee’s are low. I leased at a good time, Miami Heat winning, Ultra, Art Basel, I mean I am literally walking distance to everything and that is priceless. If you can deal with the Cubans, the cheap walls, the parking lot of death and if you love doggies this is the place. If you are looking for something more, «POSH.» look somewhere else. Expect long nights of loud Reggeaton music and get the popcorn ready for HUMP WEDNESDAY’S… let the moaning of my neighbors and their bed banging against my wall begin!

STAY AS FAR AWAY AS YOU CAN FROM THIS PLACE…
Lived here for less than a year and in the years I have lived in a few condos in the midtown area, this has been the worst experience of my life ever… my unit got broken into while I was out of town and came back to a ransacked bedroom, hammered into my safe and they had the nerve to deadbolt my door which I never do which shows a clear indication that they had a key to my apt. The idiots made it looked like they went thru the balcony… I mean seriously???, I lived on the 34^th floor and facing another apt complex… management are incompetent and I believe are part of the scam ring in the building providing the idiot thieves a copy of residents’ keys.
A few months after I moved out, similar situation happened to another resident while he was out if town… in addition to the other complaints of past and present residents, this building obviously is NOT a very safe nor ideal place to live. I would give them a negative 5 star if I could…

Units are nicely equipped, parking garage is horrible, MANAGEMENT IS FULL OF A-​HOLES WHO DON’T PAY ATTENTION OR FOLLOW THROUGH WITH TASKS. The way this place is run is not par for the course when rent is in the $ 2k level and up.
Save yourself the headaches and look elsewhere.
I’ve been here for two years and can’t wait to leave.

I lived here for 2 years. Wow, is this building horrible.
Some of the staff are terribly rude and incompetent. The managers just couldn’t care less. They are doing you a favor by being present.
They do not call you to let you know when you get a package. They did for a while, but then that stopped.
The parking garage is horribly designed. It requires many awkward turns.
After living there for a year, I was assigned a parking spot on the 10^th floor. The 10TH FLOOR. I had to drive 20 floors just to leave and come back. I would have never lived there had I known.
Oh, after a year, suddenly I had to pay $ 100 PER MONTH if I wanted an extra parking spot (which we had to have). Get real. Had I known…
The laundry… I knew I had to use a laundry room, but their staff who cleans the hotel room frequently uses them all at one time.
Oh, I almost forgot! The walls are paper thin! You WILL hear all kinds of things coming from your neighbor’s apartments. I heard all kinds of sex and conversations. The designers of this building just didn’t give a sh*t because they didn’t have to live there.
And yes, some units are dedicated as hotel rooms. The tourists made things very noisy, particularly when there is a big game/​concert in town.
The location is nice, I adored the park across the street, but there is a real lack of restaurants to walk to. I also did have a great view.
Anyway, live in another building.
To be fair, a few people who work there are friendly and helpful, but they are overshadowed by the decision makers.
Also, I see they are other reviews that were filtered by Unilocal that you can read that also share some really bad experiences here. The consensus seems to be this place is awful, so seriously, stay away.

I’ll start off by saying I did encounter some of the same problems that others have, but even with some frustrations after leaving, I have to say I really enjoyed my stay at Opera and miss it!
My stay here was only temporary, my company sent me to Miami for two and a half months for work and I decided to stay at Opera. Opera has a hotel wing, which is mostly like a corporate apartment.
I negotiated rates with Ana, the hotel manager, who was very accommodating. It had long been a dream of mine to live in a high-​rise, and Ana hooked me up with a place on the 50^th floor overlooking Biscayne Bay. The place was phenomenal. Living in a high-​rise was everything I hope it would be and more. Internet was included, it was decent. Speedy enough to accommodate online game-​playing. And yes, the Opera parking garage is oddly shaped and annoying, but that can’t be changed, so there’s no use in complaining about it.
The location of Opera is excellent. You can be at South Beach in 10 minutes and if you’re planning on doing some drinking, you can grab a cab at the Doubletree Hotel next door. It will cost about 15 bucks.
So, the bad: the Opera accounting department is full of the most incompetent people in the world. And they don’t admit mistakes. I was charged the proper amount for my stay. However, I was charged multiple times, charged for people I was traveling with because they lost their credit card info, etc. The entire accounting department needs to be fired. In the end everything was resolved, but it took numerous phone calls over the course of a month or two to finally get everything settled.
Without the accounting screw-​ups, this place gets a higher rating. So keep a close eye on your bill if you stay here. It was a nice place and I do miss that view, just be careful if you do stay here.