New York City officials have sued the Margaritaville hotel in Times Square to collect more than $54,000 in unpaid noise citations — despite a recent crackdown on a controversial “noise vigilante” who brought the complaints.
The 234-room property at 560 Seventh Ave. which has four restaurants and bars, including a rooftop Tiki bar, was targeted by one of the most prolific noise code enforcers for playing music too loudly.
Queens resident Dietmar Deterring, who had made a living strolling around the city submitting reports about noise wafting outside of bars and restaurants, filed 12 complaints against the hotel in 2022 and 2023.
He has filed hundreds of such complaints over the last few years, getting a cut of the fines businesses pay the city.
But his paydays have ended with a new law this year that dramatically diminishes his cut — even as the city litigates one of the cases he brought to its attention, The Post has learned.
The Jimmy Buffet inspired hotel now owes the city $54,741 in unpaid violations which grew because it never appeared in court to defend itself, according to a June 11 lawsuit.
The hotel, which has a rooftop pool, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“I cannot work for free,” Detering told The Post in an email. “I filed my last complaint on Nov. 28.”
The city passed a law last year to crack down on profiteering complainers.
Previously, Detering and others could earn 25%-50% of fines collected and more than $1,000 for a third offense.
But the new law drastically reduces their haul to just $5 or $10 per summons, no matter how many complaints a single business receives, according to the law, which was implemented in January after an outcry by the business community.
The businesses claim that they were never given a chance to correct the problem before being slapped with a summons.
Mario Arcari, owner of Mercury Bar in Hell’s Kitchen, told The Post last year that he faced more than $33,000 in fines stemming from seven summonses from civilian enforcer Eric Eisenberg, according to the complaints reviewed by The Post.
“I was shocked,” Arcari told The Post. “We were never notified about the first complaint and this guy kept coming back day after day and made these complaints without speaking to us about it.”
The new law has had a chilling effect, according to Detering.
“Citizens other than myself have pursued four cases since September 2023,” he told The Post in an email. “At this rate, there is no rational deterrence of … commercial noise.”
“While a few individuals claimed they were worried about noise, the decline in this kind of ticket shows they were really just looking for a fast buck,” said DEP Commissioner Rohit T. Aggarwala, adding that complaints have ceased since the law was enacted.
Without him and a handful of others who filed complaints, Detering believes businesses will run amok and “terrorize new neighborhoods.”
Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, a trade group that represents restaurants and hotels citywide, disagreed.
“Small businesses should have to comply with the sound code but not be subject to costly and unfair bounty hunter fines,” Rigie said.
One of the dozen complaints against Margaritaville hotel includes Detering’s account of one evening in February 2023.
“I personally observed this bar deploy a single speaker, mounted outside, on the North side of the awning to this business, near the wall/the end of the name display, playing music at the general public on the sidewalk, in order to attract attention to this business,” the summons stated, according to a Crain’s New York Business report.
