Paraiso Bay Condominium Association, Inc. — Local services in Miami

2023 Review: I've lived here for years and would like to give a measured and (as much as possible) objective opinion for those looking to buy or rent here. Here's some important context:

There's a lot of reviews on this page that are about other nearby properties which aren't Paraiso Bay. Paraiso Bay is a specific building within the Paraiso district in Edgewater, Miami. Do not confuse this building with Gran Paraiso (its sister tower), One Paraiso, or Paraiso Bayviews which are right next to this building. Gran Paraiso shares the same management company and shares amenities with this building. The other two do not.

The views and amenities are beautiful as you can see from pictures others have posted. There's 24/7 security, private elevators, and it's kept clean. Huge boardwalk and dog park within its own pocket of Edgewater. What other community has all of this going on at these price points?

See it for yourself in person!

Relative to the bay and the direction of the sunrise, this building has a unique 45 degree angle, and I have found it runs at much cooler temperatures year-round, likely due to not facing the sun directly. I've never had issues with my A/C and the Edgewater area I've found to be generally cooler than other places in Miami, especially around summer time.

This building opened in 2018. The property management company running the building is different from the time when a lot of the negative reviews were sent in. This Google page got hit with a lot of negative reviews after opening due to management going through a learning curve on dealing with water issues and elevator repair uptime. These are valid criticisms. However, these issues have improved DRASTICALLY in recent years and the management communicates very frequently, honestly, and transparently. That is a very good thing always, because every property has issues that will come up and need to be addressed.

Like any other property, it is not perfect. This building is located in Edgewater, and like many places in Miami, is prone to King Tide plus heavy rainwater that may cause flooding once a year. This is a Miami issue as a whole. When this happens, management stops elevators from going to the bottom garage floors to protect elevator infrastructure. This is a result of where we live, and in my opinion doing something about the issue and managing the situation is a GOOD thing, despite the temporary inconveniences.

This property had a big party crowd in its earlier years, and the rental and common area rules did not address that properly. That is no longer the case. There's minimum term rental rules in place to ensure more accountability and commitment from both tenants and those who rent out their property to tenants. It is extremely quiet here now. There's rules in place to address people who do not respect their neighbors and they are enforced. No one likes conflict, but the overall peace of the community is more important than an individual who feels they are above the rules.

As mentioned in negative reviews, it's true that there's currently rules in place to take your dogs through a specific service elevator. This elevator opens up to the dog park. There's a reason for this rule; to prevent irresponsible dog owners from dirtying up the lobby and the private elevator systems. Again, nothing's perfect, but the management came up with a solution to improve the community as best they could.

It is true that there's rules pertaining to common areas, particularly what you can or can't do in the pool (drinking, smoking, etc), whether or not you can hang out in common areas without a shirt, smoking, drunk, etc. I would rather there be rules like this in place than have a building spiral out of control. This is a good thing for responsible working adults or people who enjoy peace and quiet.

Rating: 5/5 Stars. No building or community is perfect, and I've lived in many. The most important thing about a system is directionality, and Paraiso Bay has been on a constant improvement path...

TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE BUILDING. Stay away! Don’t be deceived by the looks. Nice view, nice front desk team, nice valet team, ONE nice guy in the management office, but TERRIBLE management and even WORSE of a Board. The Board members make rules that make you feel like you are in a dictatorship, you are not allowed to breathe in the building. The president will suddenly literally show up out of nowhere to police everyone. While you’re at the pool, they have a bunch of people in business attire walk around and take pictures, some of them checking out the residents, very, very unprofessional. Trust me, it is not worth all the money you will pay. The ground floor has major flooding issues, which results in problems accessing the garage every single time it rains. There is no ramp from the valet ramp to the building, there is one on the side of the building in a dusty and disgusting room that you will share with the access to the service (read: dogs, movers, etc.) elevator. There are absurd rules for absolutely everything! You can’t bring a friend (and I am talking adult, educated professionals) to the amenities because they harass and observe your every move until you just want to leave, and this is pre-COVID! Now, during the COVID crisis, guests are not allowed. Even worse, they come kick you out of the pool every three hours to "sanitize", which means, they spray every sunbed with sanitizer and that is all. The pool remains closed for an hour for absolutely no reason. They do not clean it and are not taking any other precautions that require pool closure for an hour. When it rains, the elevators don’t work. They literally send you a message that the elevators don’t work. If you have an emergency, you’re screwed. There are roaches in the lower level apartments and nasty, huge toads in the garage level. The garage is absolutely disgusting and that's where you have to go to pick up any packages and throw away your carton boxes. The spa is currently closed due to COVID, but before COVID, half the time either the steam room or the sauna were out of service. The jacuzzi by the pool? Half the time... you guessed it! Out of service! The amenities such as the tennis courts, bowling, etc. are stunning at the first sight but in order for you to use them, you need to reserve (which is understandable) but only get an hour, even if there are no other residents waiting. And they come to kick you out on the hour. My friends with children complain all the time. Even though this building has 3 and 4 bedroom units, which obviously attracts a lot of families, the rules are anti-children. The beautiful bowling alleys do not allow children under 16, even accompanied by an adult. I understand children can be annoying but with proper adult supervision, why would a well-behaved child not be allowed to play bowling with his/her family? The pool has an arrangement with Amara which is awesome, you get food delivered at a discount, for poolside dining. Great right? WRONG. You can order the food, have it delivered but to eat, you can't eat in the lounge area, you have to take all your stuff and go to one of the dining tables away from the pool. The movie theater... the one time we rented it (you have to pay to use it), we had people from management show up to tour the theater mid-movie. You'd think they would apologize and leave, you're wrong. They did not. They turned on lights, showed the room and had a full conversation. We had to stop the movie and wait. The club room, beautiful, you'd think it would be wonderful to have your friends for a little gathering. Good luck with that. They don't let you reserve it and if you get lucky and reserve it, they harass you so much that you just want to leave. Anyway, you get it, you've been warned. Stay away until the Board...

This is a lengthy review but I highly encourage prospective residents to read all the way through:

Put simply, the residential experience here is awful and I strongly advise all renters/buyers to stay away.

Just like every other prospective tenant/buyer, we were reeled in by the beautiful amenities and the presumed 5 star living experience they would offer…. Unfortunately though, it didn’t take long to realize that this place is an HOA hellscape where high paying residents are bound to the excessively restrictive policies of a power-hungry HOA warden.

Here are some highlights:

-The system in place for fines is extremely unreasonable and hostile. They handout $100 citations like candy even for the SMALLEST violations. The front desk concierge are not there to serve you, but instead function as the Warden’s personal henchmen to watch every step on the CCTV feed and report your “crimes” to HOA. New residents who unknowingly commit a “crime” (such as going shirtless in the elevator after the pool) aren’t even given a courtesy warning but instead are presumed guilty, given a $100 fine and an option to plead their case to a "Grievance Committee” in meetings that tend to be taken over by one of the pretentious HOA hall-monitors who enjoy flexing authority (ugh🤢).

-Using the spa isn’t as simple as you would think. You cannot leisurely go enjoy the sauna or stream room on your day off, but instead must plan spa days ahead because advanced reservations are required, and if you happen to miss yours they will suspend your access for a week. The spas are massive with two saunas and two steamroooms that can easily fit 10-20 people, but HOA prefers to only allow 2 units per hour. This is an archaic COVID policy that these tyrants have kept in place as a matter of personal preference.

-The pool is shutdown right as the sun sets, which means in the fall you are not allowed access beyond 6-7ish PM. A FAR stricter approach than other properties I’ve lived in Miami where you're at least allowed to enjoy the lounge chairs at night. In addition, you are only allowed 1 guest-per-resident at the pool.

-Every single furniture delivery or large package you receive requires a $100 deposit in order to use the elevator. This adds up and is a hefty burden for owners who just paid a lot of money to purchase their unit. Tanzania (property manager) says this is the norm for Miami high rises; she is a liar.

-The Paraiso buildings are also notorious in Miami for being a genuine pain for contractors. Even handymen from TaskRabbit who you hired to mount your TV are not allowed onto the premises without advance notice to management, a Cert. of Insurance, and elevator deposit… I recommend sneaking them in as your “friends”.

Lastly, this building was constructed by horrible developers who maximized their profits by cutting corners and using extremely cheap materials inside the units. Don't be fooled by the realty salespeople who use misleading and fancy language to describe these units (their job is to sell you even if it means being dishonest).

And don't even get me started on the paper thin walls. You will hear your neighbors snoring, talking, and various other disruptive noises you shouldn’t be hearing, if it wasn’t for the paper mache walls.

I could go on, but you should be convinced by now. The Paraiso Buildings are awful. Go elsewhere. There are many other nice properties that know a thing or two about hospitality and don't treat their residents as terribly as Paraiso does.

Don’t say you...