March 29, 2024
ATS Miami Aug 2020
Reef Technology and DHL are teaming up to deliver packages via electric cargo bikes.
ATS Miami Aug 2020
New York-based SHVO plans to renovate three Art Deco hotels and add a residential building in South Beach. The company bought the three Collins Avenue properties last year for nearly $243 million.

Photo: Rendering

ATS Miami Aug 2020
Brickell City Centre, a high-end shopping mall in downtown Miami, has seen several retailers close permanently because of the coronavirus.

Miami-Dade Roundup

Reef Technology and DHL Express to deliver packages via electric cargo bikes

Amy Martinez | 7/27/2020

INNOVATION

Cargo Delivery Alternative

Reef Technology, a Miami-based company that repurposes parking lots and garages for different business uses, has partnered with DHL Express to deliver packages via electric cargo bikes.

In May, Miami’s City Commission approved a one-year pilot program allowing the companies to deploy four e-cargo bikes downtown. The three-wheeled bikes, which can pull up to 400 pounds each, are expected to help the city reduce traffic congestion and air pollution by providing alternative delivery vehicles in the urban core.

“We want to have a direct impact on traffic congestion, carbon emissions and the quality of life by using more sustainable delivery methods, and that can only be done through proximity to the consumer,” says George Fallica, chief revenue officer at Reef. “Using cargo bikes is great, but you can’t use bikes if you have your warehouse over by the airport.”

Every morning, DHL hauls containers filled with packages bound for their final destinations from Miami International Airport to Reef’s Miami hub at the Courvoisier Centre, an office complex on Brickell Key. The containers are then attached to the e-cargo bikes and deployed for “last-mile” delivery to customers throughout downtown. The bikes may not go above 20 mph and must park in loading zones or in designated bike parking areas.

“When you look at a city like Miami, you see buildings still going up. You need more trucks and vans to deliver items, but the infrastructure is not increasing,” Fallica says. In addition to package delivery, Reef has turned its parking network into mobile kitchens for food delivery, scooter rental stations, rideshare waiting areas and coronavirus antibody testing sites. The SoftBank-backed company operates in more than two-dozen markets across the U.S. and Canada.

TECHNOLOGY

  • Miami-based DermaSensor, which is developing a point-and-click device to help doctors detect skin cancer, raised $11.5 million from venture capitalists.

REAL ESTATE

  • Miami Beach-based Blue Road plans to convert Sanctuary South Beach from a condo-hotel to a boutique hotel with 90 rooms. Blue Road paid nearly $15 million for the property last year. The Related Group plans to develop an office building called One Island Park on 3.7 acres it owns on Terminal Island in Miami Beach.
  • Miami-based Related, which initially proposed condos for the site, says the project will have about 160,000 square feet of offices, nearly 260 parking spaces, seven marina slips and a waterfront restaurant. A company owned by coal mining heir Wayne Boich bought a 1930sera office building on Alton Road in Miami Beach from Talmudic College for $4.5 million and plans to replace it with a five-story, 16,000-sq.-ft. mixed-use project featuring offices, an art gallery and a residence on the top floor.
  • Arden Karson, previously South Florida market leader for CBRE, launched Miami-based Karson & Co., a real estate consulting firm focused on multi-family residential and hospitality projects. Josh Bank, previously managing director for advisory and transactions services at CBRE in Washington, D.C., is the company’s new Miami market leader. Professional racecar driver Pablo Perez Companc plans to develop a three-story, 30,858-sq.-ft. building in North Miami to house his offices and display his car collection. The building also will have a race simulator, event space and a rooftop pool.

TRANSPORTATION

  • Miami-based Virgin Trains proposed five new stations between Miami and Aventura as part of a public-private partnership with the county. The new stops would be in Wynwood or Midtown, the Design District, the Upper East Side or Village of El Portal, North Miami and Florida International University’s Biscayne Bay campus. The county commission gave Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez until the end of August to negotiate financial terms with Virgin for the stations.

HEALTH CARE

  • Miami-based Baptist Health South Florida plans to expand Bethesda West Hospital near Boynton Beach. The project, which is to be completed in several phases by 2023, includes the addition of nearly 160 hospital beds and two medical office buildings totaling more than 160,000 square feet. The nonprofit health system also plans to build two parking garages with more than 1,000 spaces.

COVID-19 UPDATE

  • Miami Beach launched a decal program to help residents and visitors identify businesses that have implemented additional coronavirus safety measures beyond those required by the city and county. To receive an MB Standard decal, businesses must provide coronavirus testing for employees monthly, check employees daily for fevers, have a system for contact tracing and report monthly on employee testing to the city.
  • Miami-Dade County used $25 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to create Rise Miami-Dade, a new low-interest loan program for small businesses with less than $2 million in annual sales and fewer than 25 employees. The loans, processed by Dade County Federal Credit Union, are capped at $30,000 each and must be repaid within 36 months. Miami-Dade commissioners hope to make the Rise program a permanent part of the county’s small-business support infrastructure, with repaid funds lent out again after the pandemic.
  • Miami-based Opko Health received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to test the effectiveness of one of its drugs, Rayaldee, in treating patients with mild to moderate cases of COVID-19. The FDA previously approved Rayaldee to treat patients with chronic kidney disease or vitamin D deficiency. In addition, Opko subsidiary BioReference Laboratories partnered with Reef Technology to create coronavirus antibody testing sites across the U.S.

 

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