Factory Town festivals disrupt neighborhoods in Hialeah, Miami Springs, residents say
Factory Town, originally envisioned as an entertainment district in industrial east Hialeah to host multi-stage electronic music festivals running until sunrise, was meant to bring excitement to long weekends at a six-acre former mattress factory. However, nearby residents say it has turned into a growing nightmare in the city and surrounding neighborhoods, which are complaining about the disruptive noise.
What started as lively concerts at Factory Town has turned into a maddening cacophony, with booming sounds shaking windows and rattling doors, making it nearly impossible for residents in nearby communities to sleep, even those located far from the city limits, residents in surrounding areas say.
Factory Town’s 190,000-square-foot outdoor space, at 4800 NW 37th Ave., has transformed a series of warehouses into a vibrant hub for music, food, and events, led by Avra Jain, the developer behind the ambitious entertainment district.
An elderly couple from Miami Springs, Gigi and Lou Grasso, attended the Nov. 12 Hialeah City Council meeting to request Mayor Esteban “Steve” Bovo’s help in dealing with the persistent noise from Factory Town, which they say has been disturbing them and their neighbors even though they are 3.5 miles away.
“The noise is back, and it’s unbearable,” Gigi Grasso said. “It started on Halloween night and continued through Sunday.” The Halloween Party called “Hocus Pocus,” which lasted four days, is one of the events Factory Town runs throughout the year.
In January 2022, Miami Springs sued Factory Town Holdings LLC citing the persistent loud noise from events that continued until sunrise, which the city said in its complaint left residents “scared and unable to sleep, constituting a public nuisance.”
The lawsuit was dismissed after Factory Town hired a sound engineer and put in place measures to reduce the noise. The efforts successfully kept the noise levels in check for more than two years — until recently, when the festivals once again became a source of disruption.
“This is not the first time we’ve come here,” Grasso said at the council meeting. “It’s our third time, and we were hoping the issue would be addressed by now. We’re 3.5 miles from the epicenter of the noise, and yet we’re hearing the concerts for free. We don’t want that. We want to be able to sleep. This has to stop.”
“It’s not fair. No matter your age or stage of life, everyone deserves the right to sleep at night. Our hearts break for the people who are just blocks away from the source of the noise.”
People from several jurisdictions, including Hialeah, Brownsville and Miami Springs, expressed their frustrations at the council meeting over the chaotic Halloween weekend.
“I live six blocks from Factory Town. I heard the noise at 6 a.m. and called the police. I come to the city council meetings, but they’re not going to do anything. We have to live with this noise,” said Jose Azze, a Hialeah resident who regularly attends council meetings to advocate for the city’s parks.
“People are suffering, and it feels like you don’t care,” Azze told council members. “Are you going to help us with this noise that’s preventing us from sleeping?”
The noise extends eastward, reaching the Brownsville community, an unincorporated area that Hialeah recently attempted, but failed, to annex.
Kenneth M. Kilpatrick, president of the Brownsville Civic Neighborhood Association, told the Hialeah City Council that members of his community have been repeatedly complaining about the noise from the Factory Town area.
“That music is very loud and comes into Brownsville, and it’s disturbing,” Kilpatrick said. “ We’d like to work with you to resolve that.”
Bovo said in the meeting that during the four-day Halloween festival, Hialeah police received only five complaints. But he said he would reach out to the event promoters to revisit the issue and reassess the positioning of the speakers to deal with the noise.
Jain, the developer of Factory Town and its landlord, confirmed to the Miami Herald that she was notified by Hialeah officials about the complaints received during the council meeting, but said they came as a surprise.
“Nobody knew there was a problem,” Jain said. “When we first received complaints two years ago, we immediately implemented a protocol to address them. We installed operator sensors at key locations, and residents were advised to call the police hotline. They were instructed to report any issues right away so that authorities could respond quickly to the location of concern, but no one called at the Halloween party.”
Jain said that the facility, located among empty warehouses that lack bathrooms inside, is not set up the same in every party. “There’s different installations, but the equipment can rectify the issue when there’s a complaint,” she said. “But nobody called. There’s no registered complaints to Hialeah police.”
David Sinopoli, co-founder of III Points in Wynwood, a major festival that brings together than 25,000 people a day, is one of the operators of Factory Town. He told the Herald that the venue established a hotline with Miami Springs in 2022, and there were no complaints regarding noise disturbances the last two and half years, including the latest Halloween party.
“We had a production director or assistant production director on-site managing the sound levels,” Sinopoli said. “We thought everything was fine, but the communication needs to be on their end. If we had known there was a disturbance, we would have immediately lowered the volume or made adjustments.”
Sinopoli added that the hotline was set up specifically with Miami Springs due to concerns raised when the lawsuit was filed, but he said this is the first time neighbors in Hialeah and Brownsville have complained about the noise. “We’re open to meeting with everyone,” he said. “We want to be good neighbors and give to the community.”
Sinopoli said that the last communication with Miami Springs was in March, and that when his company hosted the most recent event on Halloween nobody complained.
“It’s kind of unfair that Miami Springs is upset now when they didn’t communicate any disturbances during the event. I wish they had, because we would have addressed it immediately,” Sinopoli said.
Bovo, the Hialeah mayor, told the Miami Herald that he doesn’t want conflict with his neighbors, but at the same time he doesn’t want his neighbors “dictating what we can and can’t do in our city.
“I want everyone to have a good time,” he added. “If I compare the complaints to the number of people who go and the money it can generate for the city, not directly to the city, but in sales, It’s been quite positive, this adventure that they have now.“
However, residents of Miami Springs reported more than 10 complaints to their police department. Brownsville neighbors said that, because their area falls under Miami-Dade County jurisdiction, their noise complaints don’t reach Hialeah officials.
While Hialeah was holding its council meeting, Miami Springs was simultaneously hearing concerns from its own residents about the noise during the Halloween weekend.
“If we allow this development of a party atmosphere in our city line there will be no way to control this spiraling of these negative influences into our community, so our way of life is quickly disappearing,” Sandra Ruiz, a resident and a former candidate for the Miami Springs council, told Miami Springs council members.
Ruiz called on city officials to take immediate action to protect the quality of life for Miami Springs residents. “The disturbances are impacting much of our city, and the noise can be heard as far as the police station,” she said.
Miami Springs Police Chief Jimmy Deal said to the council he had heard the noise himself. “I could hear it from my own house, in the middle of the night, briefly,” Deal said. “Sound can travel a long way.”
Grasso, the Miami Springs resident, told Hialeah’s council that even the hurricane-hardened, soundproof windows and doors in her home were ineffective at blocking the vibrations from the constant noise. “We can still felt the pounding,” she said. “We really want this to stop. Please, put yourselves in our shoes. Please have some compassion for your brethren.”
Miami Springs Councilwoman Jacky Bravo suggested the city should consider suing the company again.
Miami Springs City Manager Juan C. Jimenez said his city needs to hire a sound engineer and use decibel meters to accurately measure noise levels. He also mentioned that he would reach out to Factory Town representatives to address the issue and prevent similar disruptions at upcoming events scheduled for December.
Factory Town is expected to host another four-day event from Thursday Dec. 5 to Sunday Dec. 8. Tickets for the entire event are priced at $300, with single-day tickets available for $50 on Thursday and $60 on Sunday.
Factory Town has also scheduled an end-of-year celebration for Dec. 27 and Dec. 31, both events running from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
When Bovo campaigned for mayor of Hialeah in 2021, he promised to bring in new development and keep the city’s young people from leaving. He welcomed Factory Town, as did then-councilman Oscar de la Rosa, Bovo’s stepson, who said his peers in Hialeah desperately wanted places like Factory Town to call their own.
This story was originally published November 21, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
