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Miami-Dade Business Briefs - Feb. 2006
MIAMI -- City officials say they will follow through on a $100-million plan to renovate the Orange Bowl, home to the University of Miami's football team. The stadium, built in 1937, sustained extensive damage during Hurricane Wilma, prompting some city leaders to question the renovation, due to be completed in time for the 2007 football season...
>> Spain-based Zed, the world's second-largest mobile content distributor, has launched a U.S. base of operations in Miami...
>> The Florida International University Faculty Senate has called on the school's board of trustees to reassess the leadership and administration of President Modesto "Mitch" Maidique. The request comes in response to an internal report that expresses "grave concerns" over a list of troubles leaders attribute to Maidique during a time of runaway growth at the 33-year-old public university. Among the problems cited: Poor recruiting and an accounting scandal at a top research facility. Maidique has led the school since 1986...
>> Miami-based Lennar Corp. (NYSE-LEN), one of the nation's largest homebuilders, reported record earnings of $1.34 billion in 2005 on revenue of $13.87 billion. It is the first time the 51-year-old company has broken the $1-billion mark in earnings...
>> Condo construction remains at a frenzy, city officials say in a 2005 year-end report, with 15,000 condo units under construction and 67,000 more approved or in the permitting phase...
>> The city commission and Mayor Manny Diaz are weathering public outrage over a controversial $7-million settlement to a class-action lawsuit filed by homeowners who challenged a city-imposed fire-rescue fee. The city quietly agreed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to just seven plaintiffs, leaving tens of thousands of city residents with nothing. City leaders blame faulty advice from their legal staff...
>> In what executives call a cost-cutting move, the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald will no longer publish a state edition and will end single-copy sales outside Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties...
>> Florida Marlins and city and county leaders have struck out in their latest bid to build a baseball-only stadium adjacent to the Orange Bowl, prompting team executives to announce the possibility of moving out of south Florida.
The Marlins had offered to foot much of the bill for a proposed $385-million retractable roof stadium. A public financing package fell short when state lawmakers failed to approve a sales tax subsidy...
>> The University of Miami and the Technische Universit?t M?nchen recently signed a strategic alliance in engineering and information technology intended to foster joint research projects, including research faculty and student exchanges.
MIAMI-DADE -- The Miami-Dade County Commission has overridden a veto from Mayor Carlos Alvarez, clearing the way for state regulators to review a host of proposed developments on the county's western fringes by extending the Urban Development Boundary. Alvarez has locked horns with the 12-member commission over extending the UDB, which environmental groups say will threaten the Everglades and add to the region's traffic woes.You can reach David Villano at villanotrend@yahoo.com
