Billionaire Ken Griffin wins a vote on the private helipad his neighbours are fighting

A Miami Beach committee voted on Thursday, Sept. 24 to advance Ken Griffin's plan to build a private helipad beside his new yacht marina, over the objections of residents in eight luxury towers who say the flights will make their waterfront unbearable.

The Land Use and Sustainability Committee approved a zoning change allowing a private helipad as an accessory use in the industrial district. It now goes to the full City Commission and through the city's planning department, and will not reach a commission agenda for two months.

The marina is already approved. Griffin won permission to build it on Terminal Island, a 3.5-acre waterfront site next to the Coast Guard station at the entrance to Miami Beach, and it will hold up to eight megayachts including his own 308-foot vessel, Defy. Plans include an owner's pavilion, a private suite, crew facilities, maintenance space, security offices and a rooftop swimming pool.

The helipad came later, becoming public only in July, which is when the opposition started.

Leaders of eight condominium buildings near the MacArthur Causeway and just south of Fifth Street, including the Icon and the Yacht Club at Portofino, turned up to object. Together the towers house about 2,000 people.

"We are doing all this for one individual?" asked Brian O'Brien, who represents residents at the Yacht Club at Portofino. "We are upsetting our quality of life so Mr. Griffin can land a little closer to his house?"

Griffin already lives nearby, in a compound on Star Island along the same causeway.

His representative is a former mayor of the city. Neisen Kasdin told the committee the helipad would mostly serve Griffin's commute around downtown Miami and to and from Miami International Airport, and called the noise a low-impact issue. He said residents of Star Island, Palm Island and Hibiscus Island support the plan, and that every building objecting sits half a mile away.

Griffin hired a sound consultant to model it. From a high-rise balcony the noise would be barely noticeable, Kasdin said, reaching 65 decibels for the 13 seconds the helicopter is in flight, which he compared to the volume of an ordinary conversation.

Commissioner David Suarez, who chairs the committee, said he wants to hear it himself. Kasdin agreed to arrange a real-world sound test in the coming weeks, and a resident of the Icon offered his apartment for it.

Commissioner Tanya Bhatt voted against advancing the measure and wanted it deferred, telling Kasdin that Griffin has a lot of work to do before she would support it. She also pressed him on the Coast Guard's position. Kasdin said the agency had no objection. Bhatt pointed to documents showing it had taken no position.

Asked who would use the helipad and how often, Kasdin said Griffin would be the only user, and that he had taken a rental helicopter from Watson Island 61 times last year.

Residents doubt the promise will hold. "What if they have a wedding and people are arriving on helicopters? We have no recourse if things get out of hand," said John Stimmel, who lives at the Icon. "We'll be stuck with the helipad forever."

Two commissioners told Griffin's side to go and talk to the neighbours rather than the politicians. "You need to do some more bread breaking," Joseph Magazine said, and later advised Kasdin to spend the next two months lobbying residents instead of commissioners. Alex Fernandez gave similar advice.

Kasdin said negotiations with the Fifth Street residents have so far got nowhere.

Griffin moved Citadel's headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022 and has been buying South Florida property ever since, including the site of a planned $2.5 billion headquarters in Brickell with a 54-storey office tower alongside residential and commercial space. Forbes estimates his fortune at $60.5 billion.