Southgate Towers Apartments & Hotels

I have stayed in Southgate for the past 15 months. I would advise anybody who is considering moving here to avoid it. While they have done a good job renovating the building, the management of the building is petty and terrible, they are all about the side hidden charges, very unresponsive and with a feeling of entitlement that they can do anything just because they own the building. Forget about the laws or about treating people with respect given that they are in the market of renting homes. Due to a mistake they made for my parking charges in January (a mere $ 100) they failed to collect parking for that month so they slapped me with $ 50 as a fine. 50% of the parking charge as a fine, and they never even told me they had not received the payment. Have explained to them on multiple occasions what happened but they don’t even respond to email and as of recently they blocked me out of the web payment system and I have to submit payments with cashier’s checks (and occur costs) for future months just because they don’t like anybody questioning their perceived authority. In addition they locked my car in the garage for a weekend by disabling my card which is entirely illegal, this was done without notice that they had not received the payment or that they were about to lock my car in the garage. The contract for the lease is 50 pages, FULL of small print and side charges, there is one for every scenario possible. They also charge you water and garbage separately and while they told me it should be no more than $ 40 per month it is always close to $ 70. There is a $ 15 admin fee because they have outsourced the expenses billing and instead of them absorbing it they pass it back to residents 100%. They also pass back to residents the increased levy to the building from road water pumping systems ($ 18/​month) which they should be capitalizing and absorbing in their accounts over a period of time given that this is charged by the City of Miami to building owners for upgrade of the streets that would protect their properties over the long term. Worst of all, they pride how they manage the building like a budget airline, they change the rent schedule every week, they have a pretty elaborate monthly rental scale starting from 1month to 14 months, and even though it is illegal to do leases below 6 months in Miami Beach they still do it. The experience of renewing a contract is a complete nightmare and they are very aggressive. On my first year when my contract expired (past December) they asked me for a 25% rent increase. After talking to other residents I discovered that they were doing that to everybody and people were up in arms, many people left. To fill the gap they lowered their admission standards and now the police is often here and the building is full of noise people you would not want want as neighbors. Really a BIG SHAME as they did a great job renovating this property but the are managing it to the ground. Never seen so much incopentence and short-​termism in my entire life, this should be a case study in a psychology book on greed and disrespect but definitely not an option if you are thinking to live in Southgate Towers.

Ghetto living in the middle of south beach. I lived there for almost 5 years (the first 2 were Ok just because it was cheap for South beach, but from then on it was a really poor experience).
The only good thing this place had (location) is now not only not good, but terrible. The avenue in front of the building is closed for repairs and it has been this way since 2 years ago without any sign of ending or improving soon. Prepare for heavy traffic to enter or get around the building, and if you want to walk around you better get your rain boots because you will walk over mud and/​or trash. I can’t say enough about this: walking around this area was a great experience a few years ago but now it is a nightmare.
2 years ago the building was «renewed» so it’s now even more expensive than most of the buildings around. It doesn’t have a pool or any common areas (they’ve been building the pool for the last 2 years and it’s not even close to completion) The floors hallways are horrible and they look like you are in a not finished place. It has a small gym with very basic exercise equipment. It was supposed to have a yoga and gym classes room but they are using it as a leasing office.
You have to pay for trash and water (?), and for a small 1 bedroom apartment with only 2 people spending most of the day outside it is around $ 60 dollars that you have to add to the monthly lease.
The public trash room is closed because of the construction in the back of the building so you have to put all of your trash in the floors trash rooms that are only a couple feet wide so expect to find those rooms full of garbage.
The rent doesn’t include any parking spot so you have to pay $ 100 or more for a space in the other side of the street. Forget about parking in the street, it is not a residential zone so it’s impossible to find an available spot.
The staff is mostly very rude with a few exceptions (maintenance and some of the guys at the concierge office). The leasing and front office staff is terrible (especially the woman named Elizabeth) so practice your patience in case you need something from them.
Before renewing, basic cable was included but now you have to look for your own provider. You have to put a big deposit in case you have a pet, and then add a fee to the monthly rent.
The bedrooms have a low budget carpet that gets ugly really fast. The paint in the walls is really cheap so anything that you want to put on them is going to leave a scratch.
If you have any doubt just look at the other reviews. I don’t even post reviews frequently but in this case I needed to. Stay away from there, it is not worth it.

It’s too bad that I have to rate at least 1 star. For those of you that don’t know… Southgate Towers owns the parking garage across the street from Whole Foods. And guess what? They send their employees over at about 7 PM on week nights to tow any and all cars that are 15 – 20 mins late on their meters. They call their buddies over at Tremont towing and tow any poor sucker working out or eating across the street. Thanks Southgate!!! Glad to know you’re as bad a scum as your Miami Beach parking authority friends. FYI: if you happen to get there in time as your car is being put on the ramp, you have 5 minutes to dish out $ 140 CASH to the towing Neanderthal standing in front of you…

Just went to the rental office. Some colossal douche bag was manning the rental office which is dump in the middle of a construction zone. He didn’t greet us nor introduce himself. He simply stated that if we were there for a tour, he would be conducting a group tour at 4p only. The pool is not even close to being finished! Luxury??? I didn’t think any building could have less customer service than the flamingo, but south gate takes the cake. A dump

Management is impersonal and makes no effort to personalize your experience. Don’t expect any help with your apartment issues, if anything, expect a defensive management that seems to have a perpetual powertrip. Depressing place, really. This is not a «homey» place at all, and if you can afford it I would recommend steering clear.

This is still the cheapest highrise on South Beach but you get what you pay for. There are perpetual problems with the elevators and air conditioning. Mold and termites are guaranteed. Shower temperature fluctuates. The pool is unheated, so it goes unused for the winter and in the summer it is overrun by kids. The garage costs around $ 100 extra per car but it is elevated which is critical as the roads flood with each heavy rain.
But! The view is great, the location is top notch, and the apartments are larger than what you would get for the same price in a deco building.