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Miami-Dade Business Briefs - Jan. 2009
Aventura — Miami-based Ocean Bank will have a receiver take over the 438-unit Terzetto at Aventura after Merco Group indicated it could not finish the development.
» Real estate developer Turnberry is partnering with Miami-based Group 24 to develop a $300-million, 40-story condominium in San Francisco called Turnberry Tower.
Coral Gables — Chiman Patel plans to build a 250-room Embassy Suites across the
street from downtown Miami’s Brickell Metrorail Station.
» MBF Healthcare Acquisition terminated its agreement to purchase Pennsylvania-based Critical Homecare Solutions Holdings.
» Adrienne Arsht pledged $5 million to the University of Miami, including
$2 million for the university’s ethics program and $1 million to create a retinal degeneration research laboratory at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the UM Miller School of Medicine.
Hialeah — Hialeah Hospital opened its new operating facility after a $12-million renovation.
Miami — A New York subsidiary of Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. paid $260 million for downtown’s 34-story Miami Center office building, which adjoins the InterContinental Hotel.
» Brickell Key developer Swire Properties, based in Hong Kong, paid $41.3 million for 5.65 acres near Brickell Avenue. The seller, New York-based iStar Financial, had taken the land back from developer J. Kevin Reilly.
» An investment fund led by Jorge Hernandez paid $22 million for a parcel of land on Brickell Avenue next to the Four Seasons Tower.
» A Miami investment group purchased the commercial component of the Marina Blue condominium tower, paying $14.7 million for 23 condos. The commercial portion is unfinished, although the residential part of the tower is complete.
» Herrera Petroleum Chairman Rafael Herrera and his family donated $10 million to the Miami Children’s Hospital Foundation. Herrera’s son is the hospital’s chief research officer.
» The publicly owned Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts doubled attendance and balanced its budget, ending fiscal 2008 $1.5 million under budget — versus a deficit of $2.5 million in 2007.
» Yacht services firm Merrill-Stevens will discontinue its yacht sales and charter divisions and focus on yacht repair, refit and maintenance.
» Commercial real estate firm Adler Group formed a $100-million fund to buy commercial properties with seed money from a European investor. The fund, Helios AR Real Estate Fund I, acquired Breckenridge Park in Tampa for $28.4 million.
» Developer Sergio Pino has started Century Opportunity Fund to buy land in the county. Current investors include Sedano’s Supermarkets Vice President Armando Guerra, Hispanic USA principal Jose Cancela and prominent attorney Ramon Rasco. The fund, which has $100 million, aims to raise $500 million.
» Developer Jorge Perez of the Related Group and Philadelphia private equity firm Lubert-Adler launched a $1-billion fund to make bulk condo purchases and have already begun buying units in south Florida.
» Developers of the Met 2 Financial Center office tower, which will include 750,000 square feet of office space in downtown Miami, secured a $250-million construction loan.
» Alonzo Mourning Charities has asked the county to lease it five acres in Overtown to develop a 190-unit affordable rental housing project.
» Mercy Hospital and a partnership led by Miami-based Related Group called off a controversial deal to build condos on a 6.7-acre parcel of hospital-owned land next to Vizcaya Museum & Gardens.
» Cruise line Royal Caribbean will begin sailing from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in 2010, when it deploys Brilliance of the Seas.
» Burger King signed a deal with Broad Street Licensing Group that will bring out a line of apparel, including T-shirts and men’s loungewear featuring the Burger King brand and its King character.
» Private equity firm H.I.G. Capital acquired two specialty chemicals companies: Petroferm and Uniqema Americas1, whose combined sales exceed $300 million. H.I.G. also acquired Tampa-based workers’ compensation services firm PMSI. H.I.G. affiliate Bayside Capital acquired Orlando-based air courier Flight Express.
Miami Beach — The Fontainebleau hotel reopened with a party and Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show after being closed nearly three years for a $500-million renovation. The hotel is now the county’s largest, with 1,504 rooms.
Miami-Dade County — A group of developers including home builder Lennar, Century Homebuilders President Sergio Pino, commercial builder Edward Easton, lobbyist and Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission Chairman Rodney Barreto, Sedano’s Supermarket President Agustin Herran and U.S. Century Bank Chairman Ramon Rasco has proposed a 961-acre residential development in western Miami-Dade County. It would require moving the urban development boundary. The West Kendall Community Council issued a non-binding recommendation that the development, called Parkland, be sent to state regulators for review, in the first step of a process that will end with a county commission vote. The county’s Department of Planning and Zoning has already recommended commissioners reject the development.
» Brightstar Chairman and CEO Marcelo Claure and Spanish soccer team Futbol Club Barcelona are bidding for a Major League Soccer expansion team, which would play at Florida International University’s new football/soccer stadium.
» Five subcontractors who worked on Miami International Airport’s south terminal (finished a year ago) are suing either the project’s contractor, Parsons-Odebrecht Joint Venture, or various bond insurers for some $90 million that they claim they are owed. Parsons-Odebrecht and Miami-Dade County are in talks to settle a separate claim for between $61 million and $65.2 million.
