The Criscitos has been selling South Florida luxury and commercial real estate for over a decade and has sold over $1 billion dollars of property. They work as a multi-lingual team speaking english, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. They carved out a niche as a leading boutique real estate company with two distinct divisions -residential and commercial- both personally overseeing by Marcela and Anthony Criscito.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Miami developers launch three condo projects in one day
Marc Sarnoff played his part quickly Wednesday morning, shoveling some dirt on the ground of a Brickell Avenue construction site for a ceremonial groundbreaking. He didn’t linger after the photo op; there was another shovel awaiting him at another condo tower groundbreaking in just 25 minutes. And one more after lunch.
“We’ve never had a three-groundbreaking day in the history of Miami,’’ said Sarnoff, a Miami city commissioner. “I’ve done two, but never three.”
The back-to-back-to-back ceremonies within four hours and four miles of each other on Miami’s Brickell Avenue and in Edgewater offered fodder for both camps in Miami’s latest real estate divide.
On the one side, those who see a familiar pattern of over-confident developers rushing to create new condo towers in an over-heated market fueled by Latin American investors. On the other side, those who see more proof of a rebounding market so strong that it can launch three projects at once, thanks in part to a new finance model borne of the rubble from the last boom-and-bust cycle.
“It’s a much more serious buyer from Latin America. We never hear the word flip,’’ said Craig Studnicky, a founder of ISG, a brokerage that specialized in lining up Latin American investors during the housing boom of the last decade. “The conversations are not about, ‘Can I resell the unit, and how much can I sell it for when I resell it? It’s all about the rentability.’”
For sure, the real estate landscape hardly compares to the conditions buyers, sellers and financiers faced during the housing boom that ran from about 2003 to 2006 before a crash that hit bottom in 2011.
While banks then were eager to sell mortgages to buyers of modest means, financing is much harder to come by now. Then, a pre-sale condo contract required a 20 percent deposit; now the standard requirement is 50 percent.
The current crop of about 25,000 announced South Florida condo units east of I-95 are less than half of the roughly 50,000 built during the last boom, according to figures tracked by cranespotters.com and condovultures.com. This boom also lacks a wave of apartments being converted into condos like there was in the run up to the crash.
Still, the broad brushes of the last real estate boom are visible in this one, too. Developers are mostly chasing Latin American investors to sell condo contracts, and those investors don’t plan to live in their units. Prices once again are surging by double digits, and spiking almost as quickly as they did during the last boom. The frenzy has been strong enough to spark warnings about over-building and speculation, even as developers again point to the confidence that comes with strong pre-sales.
“There’s no question a gathering cloud is the number of projects that are planned,’’ said David Dabby, a real estate consultant in Coral Gables. “Whoever gets projects completed first in any cycle tends to win. It’s the ones completed somewhere between the second and fourth rounds that run into trouble.”
Jack McCabe, a Deerfield Beach consultant and one of the first to spot the pricing bubble before the crash, said he’s not nearly as concerned this time. “I don’t think we’re faced with the the same over-supply,’’ he said. But McCabe also cautioned against putting too much faith in the large deposits. “If prices get bolstered up high, and then prices drop... there’s a good chance they’ll walk away from those deposits just as the speculators did in the last decade.”
Wednesday’s streak of ceremonial shoveling (involving 25 shovels in all) began at 10 a.m. at the future of home The Bond, a 328-unit condo tower wedged between two existing buildings on the 1000 block of Brickell Avenue. Developer Alan Ojeda said about 70 percent of the units were already under contract, and that Latin Americans account for 80 percent of the sold units. Prices start at about $400,000 for the smallest units and run close to $2 million for the penthouse.
Those buyers agreed to pay 50 percent of the purchase price in advance, allowing Ojeda’s Rilea Group to start building without a construction loan. The advance payments have let developers circumvent a tight credit market by using their buyers’ cash to get a project going and then approaching banks for the final payments to contractors. “Other projects started looking for a construction loan when they were paving the 14th floor,’’ Ojeda said.
Ojeda’s staff delayed the start of the ceremony by about 30 minutes while waiting for dignitaries to arrive, which caused some watch-glancing from attendees planning to hit the next groundbreaking at 11.
“I’m going to try for three,’’ said Sonja Bogensperger, head of business development for Miami’s Downtown Development Authority. “I think it’s awesome.”
Around 11:30 a.m., Bogensperger was on a vacant waterfront lot on Edgewater’s NE 27th Street to watch Sarnoff and Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado congratulate developers Stephan Gietl and Fernando Levy Hara for launching their 90-unit condo project, The Crimson.
“This shows Miami has already come back,’’ Regalado said of the repeat ground breakings. “It’s not that Miami is coming back.”
Roughly three hours later, Regalado had circled back to downtown, about two blocks away from the day’s intial ceremony. This time, he was the guest of honor at a ground breaking by the Related Group, the Miami development firm at the center of the prior decade’s over-heated market.
Related Group CEO Jorge Pérez said Florida lends itself to boom and bust cycles, but he said the company learned lessons from the crash. He said the 453-unit SLS Brickell is almost completely sold out, with buyers agreeing to pay 50 percent of the purchase price before construction workers finish the top floor of the 52-story building.
“We are trying to reduce the chance,” he said, “that there will be a bust like the last time.” Source:
“We’ve never had a three-groundbreaking day in the history of Miami,’’ said Sarnoff, a Miami city commissioner. “I’ve done two, but never three.”
The back-to-back-to-back ceremonies within four hours and four miles of each other on Miami’s Brickell Avenue and in Edgewater offered fodder for both camps in Miami’s latest real estate divide.
On the one side, those who see a familiar pattern of over-confident developers rushing to create new condo towers in an over-heated market fueled by Latin American investors. On the other side, those who see more proof of a rebounding market so strong that it can launch three projects at once, thanks in part to a new finance model borne of the rubble from the last boom-and-bust cycle.
“It’s a much more serious buyer from Latin America. We never hear the word flip,’’ said Craig Studnicky, a founder of ISG, a brokerage that specialized in lining up Latin American investors during the housing boom of the last decade. “The conversations are not about, ‘Can I resell the unit, and how much can I sell it for when I resell it? It’s all about the rentability.’”
For sure, the real estate landscape hardly compares to the conditions buyers, sellers and financiers faced during the housing boom that ran from about 2003 to 2006 before a crash that hit bottom in 2011.
While banks then were eager to sell mortgages to buyers of modest means, financing is much harder to come by now. Then, a pre-sale condo contract required a 20 percent deposit; now the standard requirement is 50 percent.
The current crop of about 25,000 announced South Florida condo units east of I-95 are less than half of the roughly 50,000 built during the last boom, according to figures tracked by cranespotters.com and condovultures.com. This boom also lacks a wave of apartments being converted into condos like there was in the run up to the crash.
Still, the broad brushes of the last real estate boom are visible in this one, too. Developers are mostly chasing Latin American investors to sell condo contracts, and those investors don’t plan to live in their units. Prices once again are surging by double digits, and spiking almost as quickly as they did during the last boom. The frenzy has been strong enough to spark warnings about over-building and speculation, even as developers again point to the confidence that comes with strong pre-sales.
“There’s no question a gathering cloud is the number of projects that are planned,’’ said David Dabby, a real estate consultant in Coral Gables. “Whoever gets projects completed first in any cycle tends to win. It’s the ones completed somewhere between the second and fourth rounds that run into trouble.”
Jack McCabe, a Deerfield Beach consultant and one of the first to spot the pricing bubble before the crash, said he’s not nearly as concerned this time. “I don’t think we’re faced with the the same over-supply,’’ he said. But McCabe also cautioned against putting too much faith in the large deposits. “If prices get bolstered up high, and then prices drop... there’s a good chance they’ll walk away from those deposits just as the speculators did in the last decade.”
Wednesday’s streak of ceremonial shoveling (involving 25 shovels in all) began at 10 a.m. at the future of home The Bond, a 328-unit condo tower wedged between two existing buildings on the 1000 block of Brickell Avenue. Developer Alan Ojeda said about 70 percent of the units were already under contract, and that Latin Americans account for 80 percent of the sold units. Prices start at about $400,000 for the smallest units and run close to $2 million for the penthouse.
Those buyers agreed to pay 50 percent of the purchase price in advance, allowing Ojeda’s Rilea Group to start building without a construction loan. The advance payments have let developers circumvent a tight credit market by using their buyers’ cash to get a project going and then approaching banks for the final payments to contractors. “Other projects started looking for a construction loan when they were paving the 14th floor,’’ Ojeda said.
Ojeda’s staff delayed the start of the ceremony by about 30 minutes while waiting for dignitaries to arrive, which caused some watch-glancing from attendees planning to hit the next groundbreaking at 11.
“I’m going to try for three,’’ said Sonja Bogensperger, head of business development for Miami’s Downtown Development Authority. “I think it’s awesome.”
Around 11:30 a.m., Bogensperger was on a vacant waterfront lot on Edgewater’s NE 27th Street to watch Sarnoff and Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado congratulate developers Stephan Gietl and Fernando Levy Hara for launching their 90-unit condo project, The Crimson.
“This shows Miami has already come back,’’ Regalado said of the repeat ground breakings. “It’s not that Miami is coming back.”
Roughly three hours later, Regalado had circled back to downtown, about two blocks away from the day’s intial ceremony. This time, he was the guest of honor at a ground breaking by the Related Group, the Miami development firm at the center of the prior decade’s over-heated market.
Related Group CEO Jorge Pérez said Florida lends itself to boom and bust cycles, but he said the company learned lessons from the crash. He said the 453-unit SLS Brickell is almost completely sold out, with buyers agreeing to pay 50 percent of the purchase price before construction workers finish the top floor of the 52-story building.
“We are trying to reduce the chance,” he said, “that there will be a bust like the last time.” Source:
By DOUGLAS HANKS and HANNAH SAMPSON
dhanks@MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/01/22/3886672/miami-developers-launch-three.htmlSunday, January 19, 2014
One in 5 home sales $1 million & up
Million-dollar homes are selling faster than ever.
So fast, in fact, that 156 sell per month, on average, in Miami-Dade and one in every five sales of single-family houses is for a property costing at least $1 million.
As for million-dollar-plus condominiums, they account for one in every eight sales countywide.
At Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors, a million-dollar home sold every 17 hours in the past year, with brokers moving more than 500 such properties between November 2012 and November 2013.
“And we don’t have December’s numbers yet,” said Valaree Byrne, an EWM broker and member of the Commercial Industrial Association of South Florida.
Countywide each month, brokers trade 71 single-family houses and 85 condos in the million-dollar range.
And these units are changing hands faster, spending about 30 days less on the market in the last quarter of 2013 than they did around the same time in 2012, according to data from Avatar Real Estate Services.
“This means there are so many people out there looking for luxury properties that there’s a huge uptick in the luxury market,” said Ms. Byrne.
And with demand outstripping inventory, brokers say it’s a sellers’ market.
“A million dollars doesn’t buy you very much any more, unfortunately,” said Rob Feland, a top producer with Avatar Real Estate Services.
So what can $1 million buy in Miami-Dade’s real estate market? Here’s a snapshot:
-“Old Miami”: “There’s a well-kept secret in this town about some condos that are so reasonably priced that a million dollars buys you a really deluxe unit,” Mr. Feland said.
Take Palm Bay Towers and Palm Bay Condominiums, at 720 and 770 NE 69th St., in the historic Bayside district, in Northeast Miami between Morningside and Belle Meade. The towers are the only ones in Miami-Dade built in Biscayne Bay.
Two of the plush $1.1 million listings offer about 3,000 square feet each with three bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms and double exposures looking east toward Miami Beach and south toward downtown’s high-rises.
The development offers open floor plans, kitchens with high-end appliances, bathrooms with stem showers, new impact glass, Olympic-size pool, full marina, 74 apartments on multiple acres, plus easy access to downtown and the financial district.
“You just don’t find amenities like these. It’s a paradise,” Mr. Feland said. “There are an awful lot of buildings on the market that have very high-end finishes and very high-end prices, but the square footage is much smaller. When a building owner goes through the trouble of putting in the best of the best, then you get the best of both worlds – location and finishes.”
The landmark condo development boasts a list of current and former residents that reads like a who’s-who of Miami and international business circles, including Wolfsonian Museum founder Mitchell “Micky” Wolfson Jr. and industrialist Roy Carver.
“There’s a tremendous amount of old Miami history there,” Mr. Feland said. “A lot of Hollywood types used to come here and stay there. It was party central for yacht owners and the horse racing set.”
-Brickell Key: At the 40-floor Carbonell tower, a 1,500-square-foot condo commands an asking price of $920,000. For just under $1 million, buyers get a two-bedroom, two-bath unit with two parking spaces, storage, marble or wood floors, a state-of-the-art kitchen with Sub-Zero refrigerator and high-end appliances by Miele, a 114-year-old German manufacturer of luxury household and commercial products.
They also get an address on Brickell Key, an island east of Brickell in Biscayne Bay.
“That represents more or less what you can get for $1 million,” said Jose Roman Sosa, a former top producer at Swire Realty and now head of JR Sosa Properties. “With a million, a million two, you can buy two bedrooms in Asia [condos], but it’s a smaller space.”
At Asia, at 900 Brickell Key Drive, units start around $1.1 million and reach the $9 million mark. In the luxury condo market, starting prices around $1,000 per square foot buy 12-foot-high ceilings, space designed to show off art collections, infinity pools, gyms with racquet ball and multiple tennis courts, concierge service, valets and private elevators.
“That’s what you find in today’s buildings,” Mr. Sosa said. “It’s all about the services and amenities.”
It’s also all about height, with about $3,000 to $5,000 separating the price of similar units on higher floors. “If you’re on the 30th floor compared to the 10th floor, that’s a 20-floor difference, so we’re talking about $60,000,” Mr. Sosa said.
And in properties where elevation determines whether buyers get water views, several thousand dollars separate those with that perk from those without.
-Miami Shores: In the kind of neighborhood realtors describe as “park-like” and a “tranquil oasis,” slightly more than $1 million buys a four-bedroom, three-bath house with a pool and 20,000-square-foot triple lot.
“Everybody is always talking about Miami Beach, but Miami Shores is like Miami’s Mayberry – kind of idyllic,” said Nancy Batchelor, a broker at EWM Realty International.
For about $1.1 million, buyers can get a nearly 3,400-square-foot home in the neighborhood where children’s strollers and dog walkers line the ample sidewalks. With a private country club and private schools, the neighborhood attracts buyers looking for security and exclusivity.
Ms. Batchelor’s million-dollar listing is a walled and gated house designed for privacy and entertaining. It features landscaped gardens, mature trees, cypress ceilings, original mosaic clay tiles, a dark-bottom lagoon pool with cascading waterfalls, spacious eat-in kitchen and covered porch.
“In Miami Beach it’s hard to find listings for $1 million,” she said. “If you need four bedrooms it’s definitely hard. As the market went up, a lot of people who had their heart set on Miami Beach are now looking in different areas – Morningside, Miami Shores – because they can buy more for the money. They’re discovering some of the communities that you know about, if you’re a local.”
-High Pines: In the picturesque and tiny community between South Miami and Ponce Davis, $1 million can buy an older but charming home. Renovated houses in that community fetch more than $1 million, but a recent listing – a four-bedroom at 7655 SW 52nd Court built in the 1960s – sold for $875,000.
“It’s really a little gem,” said broker Toni Schrager, a founder of Avatar Real Estate Services. Large oaks in the front yard, abundant natural foliage and a pool invite outdoor living. But the house needed a new kitchen and bathrooms, as well as impact windows and doors.
“You could have moved in and lived there if you wanted to, but most people would have renovated it,” Ms. Schrager said. “The buyers fixed it up, and when they were done they were probably in for about $1.1 million.”
But regardless of listing details, brokers say the best million-dollar buys all have a few things in common, including finer finishings and the right zip codes.
“They say the most important things in real estate are location, location and location,” Ms. Schrager said. “No one’s been able to disprove that.”
Source:
Written by Samantha Joseph on December 31, 2013
http://www.miamitodaynews.com/2013/12/31/one-5-home-sales-1-million/
So fast, in fact, that 156 sell per month, on average, in Miami-Dade and one in every five sales of single-family houses is for a property costing at least $1 million.
As for million-dollar-plus condominiums, they account for one in every eight sales countywide.
At Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors, a million-dollar home sold every 17 hours in the past year, with brokers moving more than 500 such properties between November 2012 and November 2013.
“And we don’t have December’s numbers yet,” said Valaree Byrne, an EWM broker and member of the Commercial Industrial Association of South Florida.
Countywide each month, brokers trade 71 single-family houses and 85 condos in the million-dollar range.
And these units are changing hands faster, spending about 30 days less on the market in the last quarter of 2013 than they did around the same time in 2012, according to data from Avatar Real Estate Services.
“This means there are so many people out there looking for luxury properties that there’s a huge uptick in the luxury market,” said Ms. Byrne.
And with demand outstripping inventory, brokers say it’s a sellers’ market.
“A million dollars doesn’t buy you very much any more, unfortunately,” said Rob Feland, a top producer with Avatar Real Estate Services.
So what can $1 million buy in Miami-Dade’s real estate market? Here’s a snapshot:
-“Old Miami”: “There’s a well-kept secret in this town about some condos that are so reasonably priced that a million dollars buys you a really deluxe unit,” Mr. Feland said.
Take Palm Bay Towers and Palm Bay Condominiums, at 720 and 770 NE 69th St., in the historic Bayside district, in Northeast Miami between Morningside and Belle Meade. The towers are the only ones in Miami-Dade built in Biscayne Bay.
Two of the plush $1.1 million listings offer about 3,000 square feet each with three bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms and double exposures looking east toward Miami Beach and south toward downtown’s high-rises.
The development offers open floor plans, kitchens with high-end appliances, bathrooms with stem showers, new impact glass, Olympic-size pool, full marina, 74 apartments on multiple acres, plus easy access to downtown and the financial district.
“You just don’t find amenities like these. It’s a paradise,” Mr. Feland said. “There are an awful lot of buildings on the market that have very high-end finishes and very high-end prices, but the square footage is much smaller. When a building owner goes through the trouble of putting in the best of the best, then you get the best of both worlds – location and finishes.”
The landmark condo development boasts a list of current and former residents that reads like a who’s-who of Miami and international business circles, including Wolfsonian Museum founder Mitchell “Micky” Wolfson Jr. and industrialist Roy Carver.
“There’s a tremendous amount of old Miami history there,” Mr. Feland said. “A lot of Hollywood types used to come here and stay there. It was party central for yacht owners and the horse racing set.”
-Brickell Key: At the 40-floor Carbonell tower, a 1,500-square-foot condo commands an asking price of $920,000. For just under $1 million, buyers get a two-bedroom, two-bath unit with two parking spaces, storage, marble or wood floors, a state-of-the-art kitchen with Sub-Zero refrigerator and high-end appliances by Miele, a 114-year-old German manufacturer of luxury household and commercial products.
They also get an address on Brickell Key, an island east of Brickell in Biscayne Bay.
“That represents more or less what you can get for $1 million,” said Jose Roman Sosa, a former top producer at Swire Realty and now head of JR Sosa Properties. “With a million, a million two, you can buy two bedrooms in Asia [condos], but it’s a smaller space.”
At Asia, at 900 Brickell Key Drive, units start around $1.1 million and reach the $9 million mark. In the luxury condo market, starting prices around $1,000 per square foot buy 12-foot-high ceilings, space designed to show off art collections, infinity pools, gyms with racquet ball and multiple tennis courts, concierge service, valets and private elevators.
“That’s what you find in today’s buildings,” Mr. Sosa said. “It’s all about the services and amenities.”
It’s also all about height, with about $3,000 to $5,000 separating the price of similar units on higher floors. “If you’re on the 30th floor compared to the 10th floor, that’s a 20-floor difference, so we’re talking about $60,000,” Mr. Sosa said.
And in properties where elevation determines whether buyers get water views, several thousand dollars separate those with that perk from those without.
-Miami Shores: In the kind of neighborhood realtors describe as “park-like” and a “tranquil oasis,” slightly more than $1 million buys a four-bedroom, three-bath house with a pool and 20,000-square-foot triple lot.
“Everybody is always talking about Miami Beach, but Miami Shores is like Miami’s Mayberry – kind of idyllic,” said Nancy Batchelor, a broker at EWM Realty International.
For about $1.1 million, buyers can get a nearly 3,400-square-foot home in the neighborhood where children’s strollers and dog walkers line the ample sidewalks. With a private country club and private schools, the neighborhood attracts buyers looking for security and exclusivity.
Ms. Batchelor’s million-dollar listing is a walled and gated house designed for privacy and entertaining. It features landscaped gardens, mature trees, cypress ceilings, original mosaic clay tiles, a dark-bottom lagoon pool with cascading waterfalls, spacious eat-in kitchen and covered porch.
“In Miami Beach it’s hard to find listings for $1 million,” she said. “If you need four bedrooms it’s definitely hard. As the market went up, a lot of people who had their heart set on Miami Beach are now looking in different areas – Morningside, Miami Shores – because they can buy more for the money. They’re discovering some of the communities that you know about, if you’re a local.”
-High Pines: In the picturesque and tiny community between South Miami and Ponce Davis, $1 million can buy an older but charming home. Renovated houses in that community fetch more than $1 million, but a recent listing – a four-bedroom at 7655 SW 52nd Court built in the 1960s – sold for $875,000.
“It’s really a little gem,” said broker Toni Schrager, a founder of Avatar Real Estate Services. Large oaks in the front yard, abundant natural foliage and a pool invite outdoor living. But the house needed a new kitchen and bathrooms, as well as impact windows and doors.
“You could have moved in and lived there if you wanted to, but most people would have renovated it,” Ms. Schrager said. “The buyers fixed it up, and when they were done they were probably in for about $1.1 million.”
But regardless of listing details, brokers say the best million-dollar buys all have a few things in common, including finer finishings and the right zip codes.
“They say the most important things in real estate are location, location and location,” Ms. Schrager said. “No one’s been able to disprove that.”
Source:
Written by Samantha Joseph on December 31, 2013
http://www.miamitodaynews.com/2013/12/31/one-5-home-sales-1-million/
Sunday, January 5, 2014
There’s economic optimism for 2014 …but not a lot
South Florida home prices will keep going up, but not as dramatically as they have been.
Employers will continue adding jobs, but will still face familiar headwinds.
An airline merger will bring more international visitors and cargo through Miami. But those trade gains may be offset by the falling price of gold.
In nearly every sector, South Florida’s economic outlook for the new year is a mixed bag of cautious optimism.
Analysts point to a relatively strong finish to 2013 as a sign that positive momentum will continue into 2014. But temper expectations, they warn, that this year will restore the region to pre-2007 prosperity.
Real estate
The impressive rebound in South Florida’s housing market during 2013 silenced most skeptics.
The arrival of 2014 will reveal just how much staying power there is in the housing recovery.
Virtually everyone who tracks the region’s housing market doubts that home prices in Miami-Dade and Broward counties will jump as much as they did in the past year. Instead of double-digit, year-over-year price spikes, market watchers expect single-digit price increases in the new year.
“There are some headwinds in the housing sector we’re going to be dealing with in 2014,” said Sean Snaith, director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Competitiveness. “Prices will rise again, but the pace will diminish.”
The reasons are many.
The big price gains for homes and condominiums in South Florida over the past two years have pushed many investors to the sidelines as bargains got scarce. That leaves the housing market more dependent on the actual end-users.
“It’s going to be a test of Florida’s ability to transition from Blackstone,” Snaith said, referring to the giant investment firm that has snapped up thousands of homes for rental, “to Mr. and Mrs. Black.”
Major national policy issues also are conspiring to slow the housing market — including in South Florida.
New banking regulations stemming from the Dodd-Frank law are likely to crimp the availability of mortgages. The Federal Reserve’s tapering of its bond-buying program will spur higher interest rates, making home purchases less affordable. And the implementation of the Affordable Care Act will trigger more uncertainty, Snaith said.
At the same time, South Florida home buyers will likely have a bigger selection of homes and condos to choose from, which could curtail the bidding wars that recently became common amid tight inventory.
Still, those looking for a bubble to burst in Florida’s housing market may have a long wait.
Experts say the lending situation is completely different than it was before the last bubble burst in South Florida. Many properties sold for cash, and even those with mortgages typically involved higher levels of equity from better qualified borrowers.
“The financing situation is what is preventing this from becoming a bubble,” Snaith said. “We don’t have that easy sugar high that was in place” during the last boom.
Employment
Miami could use a new hiring trend in the new year.
While 2013 continued the recovery that began in 2010, the pace lagged for much of the year. As of November, the most recent month with data available, Miami-Dade employers added 10,400 jobs in 2013, compared with 15,000 for Broward’s smaller economy to the north.
The fall labor reports did bring more encouraging numbers — job growth spiked in Miami-Dade to an annualized rate of 5 percent, the highest since April 2012, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. If those gains aren’t given back in the coming months, 2014 could be the year that finally moves the recovery into an expansion, closing South Florida’s 60,000-job gap from its pre-recession peak of 1.9 million payroll slots (hit in August 2007).
“I have a more positive outlook than a month or two ago — mainly because of signs of more rational economic policies coming out of Washington,” said Robert Cruz, Miami-Dade’s official economist. “If we get relatively good local payroll numbers for December, I think we’ll have enough confidence to expect a meaningful acceleration of job growth in 2014.”
Still, the housing crash looms large in South Florida’s recovery in the employment sector. While sales of existing homes have revved up and prices are on the way up, new-home construction still hasn’t bounced back enough to move the hiring needle in Miami-Dade.
The University of Central Florida predicts 2 percent job growth for South Florida in 2014. That’s a respectable figure, given that the university projects that South Florida will end up posting a 2013 job-growth rate of just 1.5 percent.
Moody’s handicaps Miami-Dade as an underperformer for its 2014 hiring list, with job growth forecast at 1.8 percent increase in payroll slots. That’s below the regional forecast of 2.2 percent and the national forecast of 2 percent, not to mention the 2.4 percent job growth that Moody’s predicts for Broward’s payrolls.
“Miami had a more substantial debt overhang, and household de-leveraging will prevent it from growing as fast as the nation,” said Chris Lafakis, a Moody’s economist who follows South Florida. Translation: Underwater mortgages are still holding back spending.
And government employment remains the biggest anchor to employment, with Miami-Dade’s public sector down about 5,000 positions from just a year ago.
Small businesses, too, added jobs in 2013, but not enough to restore 2007-level hiring, according to the nonpartisan National Federation of Independent Business. The federation’s most recent optimism index showed that small-business owners reported increased concern about the cost and availability of insurance for employees.
“There is also a hint that employers are getting an inkling of what Obamacare might mean for labor costs,” federation chief economist Bill Dunkelberg said of the survey. “This will be a major source of angst and uncertainty in 2014.”
Victoria Villalba, president of Doral-based staffing firm Victoria & Associates, said she isn’t expecting anything but modest growth in the new year. She saw her sales grow by about 4 percent in 2013 but had expected a stronger performance when the year began.
“We’re seeing recovery in all sectors,” she said. “But it’s just been slow.”
Tourism
Tourism jobs continued to climb in South Florida in 2013, as they have steadily since 2009.
The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau reported 110,500 jobs in hotels, restaurants and other positions that service the tourism industry, up 3.5 percent from 2012.
And tourism dollars kept rolling in. Hotel rates ticked up in 2013 and should keep doing so in the new year, according to Scott Berman, head of the U.S. Hospitality and Leisure group at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Miami.
The average daily hotel rate in Miami-Dade was $174.05 in October, the most recent month for which data is available, according to Smith Travel Research. That represents a 7.9 percent year-over-year increase. Occupancy rates also grew in the same period, reaching 77.8 percent.
“When you exceed 70 percent occupancy, basic economics tells us that you can increase pricing due to high demand,” Berman said. “The expectation is that occupancy rates will remain strong, and consumers can expect to pay more for hotel accommodations in greater Miami.”
While Miami Beach hotels fetch the highest room rates in the area, Berman said he is keeping an eye on new hotel openings downtown, in Brickell and near Miami International Airport. He credited the airport for making Miami more accessible to international travelers.
“By opening new flight routes, particularly in Latin America, that is very helpful to the lodging industry,” Berman said.
He noted that the American Airlines-US Airways merger could add routes between Miami and Asia that would bring business travelers and tourists with deep pockets.
“That’s really a robust region, and if we want to talk about segments that spend money, the Chinese are near the top,” Berman said.
“All of this considered, our view is that the market will continue to grow.”
Trade
The newly approved AA-US Airways deal, which will create the world’s largest airline, also should expand Miami’s appeal as a cargo hub. The merger is expected to increase shipments between Miami and Amsterdam, Athens, Tel Aviv, Venice and other cities.
But Ken Roberts, whose Coral Gables-based WorldCity compiles and analyzes trade data, warned that potential trade boosts from the airline merger could be offset by falling gold values and other factors.
“The days of easy trade gains appear to be, at least for the short- to medium-term, over,” he said. “Not only have we got enough ‘stuff,’ but now we are buying tablets and smartphones instead of computers. They are less expensive and they are lighter, which have an impact on import-export trade numbers.”
Roberts said South Florida’s economy will need time to recover from the burst of the “gold bubble.” The region benefited when investors “flocked to gold as a security blanket” during the economic downturn, he said.
“Gold’s value skyrocketed, and everyone, from companies selling mining equipment …to mine owners in Mexico and Colombia … to logistics companies shipping gold as quickly as they could, profited,” Roberts said.
Much of that cargo went through Miami International Airport, which became the nation’s leading import destination for gold; the precious metal was South Florida’s top import and export in 2012, Roberts said.
“That will not be the case in 2013,” he continued. “South Florida’s trade is paying the price for [the gold bubble] now, and will continue to pay for it in 2014.”
Consumers
The housing crash and hiring crisis used to be the main culprits behind Florida’s deep dives in consumer confidence. But in recent years, Washington has largely been to blame.
October’s government shutdown sent confidence plunging in the Sunshine State, with the University of Florida’s confidence index dropping faster than at any time since April 2011 (when the United States was approaching that year’s debt-ceiling crisis).
But Chris McCarty, the economist behind the university’s confidence survey, sees a less worrisome year ahead when it comes to the nation’s capital.
“There’s less drama in Washington,”' McCarty said. “It looks like Washington will be less of a confidence driver here in Florida.”
The bipartisan budget agreement reached in December seems to have removed from the political table another government shutdown. And while the latest debt-ceiling limit is again on the fiscal horizon, Washington watchers sound less resigned to the inevitability of another brinkmanship moment that rattles markets and consumers alike.
Still, McCarty sees housing losing its ability to inspire in 2014. Residential prices soared in 2013 — up 15 percent in 12 months in the Case-Shiller’s October report for South Florida that was released on Tuesday. Most analysts predict at best a leveling out of those prices next year, with a normal market unable to sustain that kind of velocity.
If the momentum slows, the pace is bound to serve as a reality check for homeowners who may have been caught up in 2013’s real-estate frenzy.
“Those who are expecting their home values to get back up to where they were in 2006 or 2007 before they sell,” McCarty said, “they’re going to be waiting a while.” Source:
Employers will continue adding jobs, but will still face familiar headwinds.
An airline merger will bring more international visitors and cargo through Miami. But those trade gains may be offset by the falling price of gold.
In nearly every sector, South Florida’s economic outlook for the new year is a mixed bag of cautious optimism.
Analysts point to a relatively strong finish to 2013 as a sign that positive momentum will continue into 2014. But temper expectations, they warn, that this year will restore the region to pre-2007 prosperity.
Real estate
The impressive rebound in South Florida’s housing market during 2013 silenced most skeptics.
The arrival of 2014 will reveal just how much staying power there is in the housing recovery.
Virtually everyone who tracks the region’s housing market doubts that home prices in Miami-Dade and Broward counties will jump as much as they did in the past year. Instead of double-digit, year-over-year price spikes, market watchers expect single-digit price increases in the new year.
“There are some headwinds in the housing sector we’re going to be dealing with in 2014,” said Sean Snaith, director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Competitiveness. “Prices will rise again, but the pace will diminish.”
The reasons are many.
The big price gains for homes and condominiums in South Florida over the past two years have pushed many investors to the sidelines as bargains got scarce. That leaves the housing market more dependent on the actual end-users.
“It’s going to be a test of Florida’s ability to transition from Blackstone,” Snaith said, referring to the giant investment firm that has snapped up thousands of homes for rental, “to Mr. and Mrs. Black.”
Major national policy issues also are conspiring to slow the housing market — including in South Florida.
New banking regulations stemming from the Dodd-Frank law are likely to crimp the availability of mortgages. The Federal Reserve’s tapering of its bond-buying program will spur higher interest rates, making home purchases less affordable. And the implementation of the Affordable Care Act will trigger more uncertainty, Snaith said.
At the same time, South Florida home buyers will likely have a bigger selection of homes and condos to choose from, which could curtail the bidding wars that recently became common amid tight inventory.
Still, those looking for a bubble to burst in Florida’s housing market may have a long wait.
Experts say the lending situation is completely different than it was before the last bubble burst in South Florida. Many properties sold for cash, and even those with mortgages typically involved higher levels of equity from better qualified borrowers.
“The financing situation is what is preventing this from becoming a bubble,” Snaith said. “We don’t have that easy sugar high that was in place” during the last boom.
Employment
Miami could use a new hiring trend in the new year.
While 2013 continued the recovery that began in 2010, the pace lagged for much of the year. As of November, the most recent month with data available, Miami-Dade employers added 10,400 jobs in 2013, compared with 15,000 for Broward’s smaller economy to the north.
The fall labor reports did bring more encouraging numbers — job growth spiked in Miami-Dade to an annualized rate of 5 percent, the highest since April 2012, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. If those gains aren’t given back in the coming months, 2014 could be the year that finally moves the recovery into an expansion, closing South Florida’s 60,000-job gap from its pre-recession peak of 1.9 million payroll slots (hit in August 2007).
“I have a more positive outlook than a month or two ago — mainly because of signs of more rational economic policies coming out of Washington,” said Robert Cruz, Miami-Dade’s official economist. “If we get relatively good local payroll numbers for December, I think we’ll have enough confidence to expect a meaningful acceleration of job growth in 2014.”
Still, the housing crash looms large in South Florida’s recovery in the employment sector. While sales of existing homes have revved up and prices are on the way up, new-home construction still hasn’t bounced back enough to move the hiring needle in Miami-Dade.
The University of Central Florida predicts 2 percent job growth for South Florida in 2014. That’s a respectable figure, given that the university projects that South Florida will end up posting a 2013 job-growth rate of just 1.5 percent.
Moody’s handicaps Miami-Dade as an underperformer for its 2014 hiring list, with job growth forecast at 1.8 percent increase in payroll slots. That’s below the regional forecast of 2.2 percent and the national forecast of 2 percent, not to mention the 2.4 percent job growth that Moody’s predicts for Broward’s payrolls.
“Miami had a more substantial debt overhang, and household de-leveraging will prevent it from growing as fast as the nation,” said Chris Lafakis, a Moody’s economist who follows South Florida. Translation: Underwater mortgages are still holding back spending.
And government employment remains the biggest anchor to employment, with Miami-Dade’s public sector down about 5,000 positions from just a year ago.
Small businesses, too, added jobs in 2013, but not enough to restore 2007-level hiring, according to the nonpartisan National Federation of Independent Business. The federation’s most recent optimism index showed that small-business owners reported increased concern about the cost and availability of insurance for employees.
“There is also a hint that employers are getting an inkling of what Obamacare might mean for labor costs,” federation chief economist Bill Dunkelberg said of the survey. “This will be a major source of angst and uncertainty in 2014.”
Victoria Villalba, president of Doral-based staffing firm Victoria & Associates, said she isn’t expecting anything but modest growth in the new year. She saw her sales grow by about 4 percent in 2013 but had expected a stronger performance when the year began.
“We’re seeing recovery in all sectors,” she said. “But it’s just been slow.”
Tourism
Tourism jobs continued to climb in South Florida in 2013, as they have steadily since 2009.
The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau reported 110,500 jobs in hotels, restaurants and other positions that service the tourism industry, up 3.5 percent from 2012.
And tourism dollars kept rolling in. Hotel rates ticked up in 2013 and should keep doing so in the new year, according to Scott Berman, head of the U.S. Hospitality and Leisure group at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Miami.
The average daily hotel rate in Miami-Dade was $174.05 in October, the most recent month for which data is available, according to Smith Travel Research. That represents a 7.9 percent year-over-year increase. Occupancy rates also grew in the same period, reaching 77.8 percent.
“When you exceed 70 percent occupancy, basic economics tells us that you can increase pricing due to high demand,” Berman said. “The expectation is that occupancy rates will remain strong, and consumers can expect to pay more for hotel accommodations in greater Miami.”
While Miami Beach hotels fetch the highest room rates in the area, Berman said he is keeping an eye on new hotel openings downtown, in Brickell and near Miami International Airport. He credited the airport for making Miami more accessible to international travelers.
“By opening new flight routes, particularly in Latin America, that is very helpful to the lodging industry,” Berman said.
He noted that the American Airlines-US Airways merger could add routes between Miami and Asia that would bring business travelers and tourists with deep pockets.
“That’s really a robust region, and if we want to talk about segments that spend money, the Chinese are near the top,” Berman said.
“All of this considered, our view is that the market will continue to grow.”
Trade
The newly approved AA-US Airways deal, which will create the world’s largest airline, also should expand Miami’s appeal as a cargo hub. The merger is expected to increase shipments between Miami and Amsterdam, Athens, Tel Aviv, Venice and other cities.
But Ken Roberts, whose Coral Gables-based WorldCity compiles and analyzes trade data, warned that potential trade boosts from the airline merger could be offset by falling gold values and other factors.
“The days of easy trade gains appear to be, at least for the short- to medium-term, over,” he said. “Not only have we got enough ‘stuff,’ but now we are buying tablets and smartphones instead of computers. They are less expensive and they are lighter, which have an impact on import-export trade numbers.”
Roberts said South Florida’s economy will need time to recover from the burst of the “gold bubble.” The region benefited when investors “flocked to gold as a security blanket” during the economic downturn, he said.
“Gold’s value skyrocketed, and everyone, from companies selling mining equipment …to mine owners in Mexico and Colombia … to logistics companies shipping gold as quickly as they could, profited,” Roberts said.
Much of that cargo went through Miami International Airport, which became the nation’s leading import destination for gold; the precious metal was South Florida’s top import and export in 2012, Roberts said.
“That will not be the case in 2013,” he continued. “South Florida’s trade is paying the price for [the gold bubble] now, and will continue to pay for it in 2014.”
Consumers
The housing crash and hiring crisis used to be the main culprits behind Florida’s deep dives in consumer confidence. But in recent years, Washington has largely been to blame.
October’s government shutdown sent confidence plunging in the Sunshine State, with the University of Florida’s confidence index dropping faster than at any time since April 2011 (when the United States was approaching that year’s debt-ceiling crisis).
But Chris McCarty, the economist behind the university’s confidence survey, sees a less worrisome year ahead when it comes to the nation’s capital.
“There’s less drama in Washington,”' McCarty said. “It looks like Washington will be less of a confidence driver here in Florida.”
The bipartisan budget agreement reached in December seems to have removed from the political table another government shutdown. And while the latest debt-ceiling limit is again on the fiscal horizon, Washington watchers sound less resigned to the inevitability of another brinkmanship moment that rattles markets and consumers alike.
Still, McCarty sees housing losing its ability to inspire in 2014. Residential prices soared in 2013 — up 15 percent in 12 months in the Case-Shiller’s October report for South Florida that was released on Tuesday. Most analysts predict at best a leveling out of those prices next year, with a normal market unable to sustain that kind of velocity.
If the momentum slows, the pace is bound to serve as a reality check for homeowners who may have been caught up in 2013’s real-estate frenzy.
“Those who are expecting their home values to get back up to where they were in 2006 or 2007 before they sell,” McCarty said, “they’re going to be waiting a while.” Source:
By Douglas Hanks, Martha Brannigan and Evan S. Benn
ebenn@MiamiHerald.com
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Largest home for sale in Broward will be auctioned Dec. 8
If you need a house that stretches across east and west wings, a massive McMansion — said to be the largest home for sale in Broward — will be auctioned off on Dec. 8.
The 23,576-square-foot, custom-built home on 10 acres features seven bedrooms, eight full baths and two half baths. It boasts inlaid Italian marble and cathedral-style ceilings, and comes with a guest house, four-car garage, and statues and objects of art from all over the world.
“The finish work on the inside is the most amazing, with 30-foot high ceilings, chandeliers. It’s just magnificent,” said Jim Gall, president of Auction Company of America, hired to auction off the home, which was listed a year ago for $10 million.
“You can literally get lost in it,” said Gall, who says it is largest home he has ever auctioned.
A two-day auction at the home, at 13811 Luray Road in Southwest Ranches, begins at 11 a.m. on Dec. 7 and includes art, jewelry and other items. It will continue at 1 p.m. on Dec. 8, culminating with the sale of the home at 3 p.m. Previews will be conducted on several days, beginning on Nov. 17.
Gall said he plans to start the bidding on the house at $5 million.
Homeowner Ray Moses said he and his wife, Pam, spent five years building the mansion after buying the property, which was formerly used as a horse boarding facility. Broward County property records show they paid $2,225,000 for the acreage in 2003.
Moses said the home was his wife’s dream.
“She wanted to do this, and who am I to say no?” said Moses, 69, who is in the childcare business and owns five daycare centers in Broward.
Moses said his wife decorated the home, and sat with Delray Beach architect Rick Brautigan to design it. The couple spent $1 million on Italian-made drapery and window treatments, and more than another $1 million on crystal chandeliers. Now, the couple, whose children are grown, plan to downsize. They’ll probably buy a home nearby, Moses said.
“I like the country, and I like to have a lot of tropical fruit trees,” he said. “I still want somewhere where I can swear without the neighbors hearing me.”
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/06/3736235/largest-home-for-sale-in-broward.html
The 23,576-square-foot, custom-built home on 10 acres features seven bedrooms, eight full baths and two half baths. It boasts inlaid Italian marble and cathedral-style ceilings, and comes with a guest house, four-car garage, and statues and objects of art from all over the world.
“The finish work on the inside is the most amazing, with 30-foot high ceilings, chandeliers. It’s just magnificent,” said Jim Gall, president of Auction Company of America, hired to auction off the home, which was listed a year ago for $10 million.
“You can literally get lost in it,” said Gall, who says it is largest home he has ever auctioned.
A two-day auction at the home, at 13811 Luray Road in Southwest Ranches, begins at 11 a.m. on Dec. 7 and includes art, jewelry and other items. It will continue at 1 p.m. on Dec. 8, culminating with the sale of the home at 3 p.m. Previews will be conducted on several days, beginning on Nov. 17.
Gall said he plans to start the bidding on the house at $5 million.
Homeowner Ray Moses said he and his wife, Pam, spent five years building the mansion after buying the property, which was formerly used as a horse boarding facility. Broward County property records show they paid $2,225,000 for the acreage in 2003.
Moses said the home was his wife’s dream.
“She wanted to do this, and who am I to say no?” said Moses, 69, who is in the childcare business and owns five daycare centers in Broward.
Moses said his wife decorated the home, and sat with Delray Beach architect Rick Brautigan to design it. The couple spent $1 million on Italian-made drapery and window treatments, and more than another $1 million on crystal chandeliers. Now, the couple, whose children are grown, plan to downsize. They’ll probably buy a home nearby, Moses said.
“I like the country, and I like to have a lot of tropical fruit trees,” he said. “I still want somewhere where I can swear without the neighbors hearing me.”
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/06/3736235/largest-home-for-sale-in-broward.html
By Ina Paiva Cordle
icordle@MiamiHerald.com
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Miami cracks Top 10 luxury residential markets
Miami’s in with the in-crowd, tastemakers say, debuting on Christie’s International Real Estate’s list of top 10 luxury residential markets.
The real estate arm of the iconic auction house publishes a global research report of trends across the world’s prime real estate markets, tracking spending patterns among wealthy buyers.
And this year for the first time it named Miami as one of the cities where the rich not only play but also stay.
“Miami is on everybody’s radar across the world,” said Ron Shuffield, president and CEO of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors, an affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate. “We have a lot of people coming here to spend their money and enjoy what we have.”
In naming the choicest markets, Christie’s selection criteria included cities’ gross domestic product; number of billionaire residents; their tally of Fortune 500 company headquarters; performance on S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price indices; position on the AT Kearny Global Cities Index; ranking on Swiss bank UBS’ list of most expensive cities; Globalization and World Cities Research Network rankings; and the presence of a Christie’s affiliate.
Emerging as the most attractive cities for the rich: Dallas, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Paris, San Francisco and Toronto. Côte d’Azur, also called the French Riviera, even though not a city, also made the list, “added to this elite survey group for being one of Europe’s most highly prized second-home destinations for more than a century.”
“As the only real estate network owned by a fine-art auction house, Christie’s International Real Estate has unparalleled access to the [high-net-worth individuals] around the globe who procure assets such as art, wine, jewelry and, of course, luxury real estate,” said Bonnie Stone Sellers, Christie’s International Real Estate CEO. “Together with the collective knowledge of its 125 affiliated real estate brokerages in 41 countries… Christie’s International Real Estate is uniquely qualified to understand the characteristics and trends associated with the prestige real estate market.”
And observers say Miami has cultivated the cachet to draw these buyers.
Helping its appealing: An emerging cultural offering that now includes the internationally renowned Miami City Ballet, the Miami Symphony Orchestra, major art museums and world-class food, art and cultural festivals.
Add to that plans to draw boaters, coupled with the area’s luxury retail outlets, daily flights to major world centers and a growing financial services sector, and it’s clear Miami allows wealthy homebuyers access to choice recreation and international business centers, Mr. Shuffield said.
“And as trite as it sounds,” he said, “the weather is still a big draw.”
Source: http://www.miamitodaynews.com/2013/11/13/miami-cracks-top-10-luxury-residential-markets/
Written by Samantha Joseph on November 13, 2013
The real estate arm of the iconic auction house publishes a global research report of trends across the world’s prime real estate markets, tracking spending patterns among wealthy buyers.
And this year for the first time it named Miami as one of the cities where the rich not only play but also stay.
“Miami is on everybody’s radar across the world,” said Ron Shuffield, president and CEO of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors, an affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate. “We have a lot of people coming here to spend their money and enjoy what we have.”
In naming the choicest markets, Christie’s selection criteria included cities’ gross domestic product; number of billionaire residents; their tally of Fortune 500 company headquarters; performance on S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price indices; position on the AT Kearny Global Cities Index; ranking on Swiss bank UBS’ list of most expensive cities; Globalization and World Cities Research Network rankings; and the presence of a Christie’s affiliate.
Emerging as the most attractive cities for the rich: Dallas, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Paris, San Francisco and Toronto. Côte d’Azur, also called the French Riviera, even though not a city, also made the list, “added to this elite survey group for being one of Europe’s most highly prized second-home destinations for more than a century.”
“As the only real estate network owned by a fine-art auction house, Christie’s International Real Estate has unparalleled access to the [high-net-worth individuals] around the globe who procure assets such as art, wine, jewelry and, of course, luxury real estate,” said Bonnie Stone Sellers, Christie’s International Real Estate CEO. “Together with the collective knowledge of its 125 affiliated real estate brokerages in 41 countries… Christie’s International Real Estate is uniquely qualified to understand the characteristics and trends associated with the prestige real estate market.”
And observers say Miami has cultivated the cachet to draw these buyers.
Helping its appealing: An emerging cultural offering that now includes the internationally renowned Miami City Ballet, the Miami Symphony Orchestra, major art museums and world-class food, art and cultural festivals.
Add to that plans to draw boaters, coupled with the area’s luxury retail outlets, daily flights to major world centers and a growing financial services sector, and it’s clear Miami allows wealthy homebuyers access to choice recreation and international business centers, Mr. Shuffield said.
“And as trite as it sounds,” he said, “the weather is still a big draw.”
Source: http://www.miamitodaynews.com/2013/11/13/miami-cracks-top-10-luxury-residential-markets/
Written by Samantha Joseph on November 13, 2013
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Genting tears down ex-Herald facade, adjacent garage
The Malaysia-based Genting Group has torn down the entrance to the former Miami Herald building and a two-story parking garage next door as they prep to build their mixed-use mega-development set for the site.
Genting plans a five-star hotel, luxury condos, restaurants, retail and an 800-foot promenade along 14 bayfront acres. The initial proposal called for an $3.8 billion casino, but that has been significantly scaled back. State legislators have yet to grant Genting a gambling license for Downtown Miami, according to the South Florida Business Journal.
Last month, Genting moved into the Omni Offices building at 1501 Biscayne Boulevard next door to the construction site, as previously reported.
Genting paid $236 million for the former Herald site. The newspaper moved from its former downtown location to Doral in May. [South Florida Business Journal] — Mark Maurer
Genting plans a five-star hotel, luxury condos, restaurants, retail and an 800-foot promenade along 14 bayfront acres. The initial proposal called for an $3.8 billion casino, but that has been significantly scaled back. State legislators have yet to grant Genting a gambling license for Downtown Miami, according to the South Florida Business Journal.
Last month, Genting moved into the Omni Offices building at 1501 Biscayne Boulevard next door to the construction site, as previously reported.
Genting paid $236 million for the former Herald site. The newspaper moved from its former downtown location to Doral in May. [South Florida Business Journal] — Mark Maurer
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)