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Miami-Dade Business Briefs - July 2009
 Tri-Rail, the commuter railway that runs through Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, was unable to secure funding in the state budget and will cut all weekend and holiday trains and weekday trains to 30 from 50 starting this fall. It will then have 18 months of operating funds if the three counties continue funding it. |
Coral Gables —
» The University of Miami signed a development deal with Hanover, Md.-based Wexford Science and Technology to build the first phase of its life science park. The 211,000-sq.-ft. first phase should break ground this month.
» Miami businessman Carlos M. de la Cruz donated an undisclosed amount to establish the University of Miami School of Law’s de la Cruz-Mentschikoff Endowed Chair in Law and Economics. UM’s School of Education also received its first endowed chair — the Erwin and Barbara Mautner Endowed Chair in Community Well-Being — through a $2.36-million gift.
» Banking regulators closed BankUnited in May and handed over ownership to New York banker John Kanas and a group of private equity firms, including Blackstone Group and Carlyle Group, and distressed-asset firm WL Ross & Co. BankUnited, the largest Florida-based financial institution with $13 billion in assets, will retain its name. The takeover will cost the FDIC $4.9 billion.
Doral —
» In connection with its acquisition of Washington Mutual, JPMorgan Chase plans to lay off 55 at a check-processing unit.
Homestead —
» Southern Automotive Dealership purchased the Blake Cadillac & Chevrolet dealership for an undisclosed amount.
Miami —
» The city was ranked the No. 5 “Major City of the Future” by fDi Magazine, a Financial Times publication about foreign direct investment. The magazine also named the city in the top five for business friendliness, foreign direct investment strategy, growth of knowledge-industry companies and quality of life.
» Royal Caribbean Cruises secured $1.05 billion in financing for its under-construction Oasis of the Seas, which will be the world’s largest cruise ship when it sets sail this December. The loan is 95% guaranteed by the Finnish government’s export credit agency, which is funding 40% of the project.
» The city granted developer Flagstone Property Group’s request to develop a $640-million mixed-use project on Watson Island in phases, beginning with a 50-slip megayacht marina. This is the fourth extension granted to the developer, which cited poor financial market conditions. The company says it will need until June 2011 to secure construction loans for the rest of the project.
» Southeast Banking Corp. failed to come out of its 18-year bankruptcy when a Merrill Lynch subsidiary decided not to close on a deal to invest in the financial institution. Merrill Lynch is looking for a third-party investor for a new purchase deal.
» Miami-based real estate developer Related Group purchased half of Lighthouse Point, a 900-acre peninsula on Eleuthera Island, Bahamas.
» A year-old Staples at 2121 Biscayne Blvd. became the city’s first retail store with U.S. Green Building Council LEED gold certification. The store includes a rainwater-collection cistern that fills its toilets and provides water for landscaping, a reflective roof and carbon dioxide sensors that adjust the air conditioning based on the number of people in the store.
» Miami law firm Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod and real estate entrepreneur Mitchell A. Feldman formed Bilzin subsidiary FBS Property Tax Abatement to assist clients with property values, overassessments and other property tax issues.
» The 14,000-sq.-ft. MIA at Biscayne restaurant and nightclub is slated to open this summer in downtown Miami, at the corner of Flagler Street and Biscayne Boulevard.
MIAMI BEACH —
» In order to cover a $1.9-million shortfall in the budget for a parking garage on its new Frank Gehry-designed campus, the New World Symphony and the city commission agreed to take money from the budget for a park on the site. A less expensive landscape architect will replace Gehry as designer of the 2-acre park.
MIAMI-DADE —
» Tomas Cabrerizo of Cabrerizo Family Holdings and investor Sheldon Lowe paid $22.9 million for the 300-unit Harbour Key apartment building — south Florida’s first substantial multifamily sale of the year. The seller was Kendall Courtyards, whose principals are Neil Sazant and Marty Taplin.
» Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and executives from Florida Power & Light, General Electric, Cisco Systems and Silver Spring Networks proposed an “Energy Smart Miami” project that the partners hope will get federal funding. The project will put more than 1 million wireless “smart meters” in homes and businesses in Miami-Dade County and update the electric grid so both FPL and consumers can take advantage of the devices’ monitoring capabilities. FPL hopes the project will be the beginning of a $700-million investment. Other parts of the initiative include solar power installations at local universities, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles for FPL’s fleet and trials of systems to help consumers monitor and schedule their power usage.
» Allstate announced it would close a claims office and lay off 66.
