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Miami-Dade Business Briefs - Dec. 2007
 The American Planning Association has named Ocean Drive (above) in Miami Beach as one of the “10 Great Streets for 2007.” |
Coral Gables —
» Developer Allen Morris Co. plans to build a 15-story office building in Coral Gables. Groundbreaking for Ponce de Leon Towers is scheduled for next summer. The tower will include 215,000 square feet of retail space and be modeled after a 15th-century Barcelona cathedral.
Florida City —
» Interra Development Partners, a joint venture between Chicago-based Interra-Vision Development and Prudential Real Estate Investors of New Jersey, is purchasing 19 acres to develop Florida City Centre. Best Buy will anchor the $45-million shopping center. Work is expected to begin early next year.
Miami —
» One Laptop Per Child, a non-profit started by MIT media lab founder Nicholas Negroponte, has selected Miami-based Brightstar, a technology distribution and supply company, to distribute laptops in the U.S. and Canada as part of the non-profit’s Give 1 Get 1 initiative. Under the program, consumers pay $399 for two laptops, with one going to a child in a developing country.
» Federal bank regulators charge that as the legal representative for the failed Hamilton Bank of Miami, Carlos Loumiet concealed crimes committed by the bank’s chairman, CEO and CFO. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency seeks a $250,000 civil penalty against Loumiet. In 2002, the OCC shut down Hamilton Bank amid charges of fraud and mismanagement. The bank cost the FDIC Bank Insurance Fund about $127 million after recoveries were made.
» City commissioners approved payment of the city’s portion of the $561,000 settlement to 21 protesters who claimed that police used excess force during the Free Trade Area of Americas summit in 2003.
» Texas-based Hudson & Marshall, one of the nation’s largest real estate auction firms, auctioned more than 150 homes in the Fort Lauderdale/Miami area on Oct. 20. Statewide, more than 400 foreclosed homes were auctioned during mid-October.
» McClatchy, Sacramento-based parent company of the Miami Herald and Nuevo Herald, announced that a $190-million sale of 10 acres near the two Miami newspapers to an investment group led by Miami developer Pedro Martin should be completed next year.
» Boeing has selected Ryder System (NYSE-R), to provide global transportation management services under a multiyear contract. As part of the deal, Ryder will create and manage a customized transportation management system for Boeing. Separately, in early October, Ryder’s share price hit a 52-week low when the company indicated it expected to post a disappointing profit and that job cuts were possible.
» Miami City Ballet received a $1-million grant, the largest for a single ballet project in the dance company’s history, from the Annenberg Foundation. The funds will underwrite a new ballet choreographed by Twyla Tharp to music of Elvis Costello. The new dance will debut in early 2008.
Miami-Dade County —
» With the goal of building two nuclear reactors in the southern corner of Miami-Dade County, Florida Power & Light filed formal documents with the Florida Public Service Commission. FPL seeks to build the reactors at its Turkey Point generating complex by 2020. The new reactors would add between 2,200 and 3,000 megawatts of capacity and would produce enough emission-free energy each year to provide energy to more than 1 million consumers, according to FPL.
North Miami —
» The Hospitality College at Johnson & Wales University’s North Miami campus is offering In Touch, a new program designed to improve the level of service in south Florida’s hospitality industry.
