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Miami-Dade County Business Briefs - July 2007
HOMESTEAD —
» Homestead Hospital, an acute-care facility, opened in Miami-Dade County. It replaces the original Homestead Hospital, which was built in 1940 and closed in May.
KEYS —
» Key West International Airport and the Florida Keys Marathon Airport will receive baggage and passenger screening services from Raytheon Technical Services Co. as part of a $16.3-million, four-year contract that runs through September 2011 under the Transportation Security Administration’s screening partnership program.
MIAMI —
» Trivest Partners, a Miami investment firm, acquired a majority stake in Twin-Star International, a rapidly growing consumer products company based in Delray Beach with revenue of about $100 million.
» Miami lawyer Roland Raymond St. Louis, whose law firm had accepted $6.4 million from DuPont while representing clients who were suing the chemical giant for damages linked to a DuPont fungicide product, has been disbarred by the Florida Supreme Court and ordered to pay $2.3 million to a Florida Bar victims’ fund.
» The Federal Transit Administration has approved Miami-Dade Transit’s plan to acquire property along Northwest 27th Avenue in Miami needed to build a 9.5-mile northern expansion of Metrorail, the first new corridor of the commuter train line since 1984.
» Miami commissioners unanimously approved revised plans for the development of a 288,000-sq.-ft. homeless facility — roughly four times larger than an original proposal — for Camillus House, which is just north of downtown Miami.
» Max Mayfield, former National Hurricane Center director, and Bryan Norcross, Miami hurricane analyst for CBS News and WFOR-TV, have joined forces with Global Security Systems, based in Mississippi, to create the nation’s first comprehensive emergency alerting and multimedia communications system. The system will provide bulletins, news conferences and other information from emergency management offices and government agencies.
» Effective in December, American Airlines will add 14 weekly round trips between its Miami hub and Colombia.
» For the first time in over two decades, Tishman Speyer, an international real estate developer and investment firm, has purchased property in Miami with the acquisition of the Courvoisier Centre, a 335,000-sq.-ft., two-building, mixed-use property on Brickell Key.
» Miami International Airport has unveiled an eight-lane security system designed to save time and money by speeding the progress of travelers through the screening process.
» Miami-based Homekeys has expanded its commission-saving service for home sellers and now operates in 50 Florida counties.
» Dozens of affordable housing units in the Loft One, a downtown project built by the Related Group — were funded with $1.3 million in public money but sold to investors who flipped them for a profit, according to a draft of a city audit that was first reported by the Miami Herald.
» Terremark Worldwide, an information technology infrastructure company previously listed on the American Stock Exchange, has begun trading on Nasdaq under the symbol TMRK.
» Dolphin Mall is partnering with Alabama-based Cobb Theatres to offer the first premium movie theater in Miami-Dade County, featuring a 20,000-sq.-ft. cinema, a restaurant, an outdoor patio, bar and five digital screens. The venture represents Cobb Theatres’ first step into the “boutique” niche.
MIAMI BEACH —
» Mount Sinai Medical Center recently broke ground on a medical office building in Miami Beach, and in Aventura, the Mount Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center has recently opened a medical facility. The expansion coincides with published reports that Mount Sinai will sell its Miami Heart operations.
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY —
» At 3.2% in April, the county’s unemployment rate is holding steady at record-low levels.
» Former state Rep. Ralph Arza — accused of using a racial slur to discuss Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Rudy Crew — was sentenced to 18 months of probation after pleading guilty to witness tampering.
MIAMI LAKES —
» The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida charged Abner Diaz, president of All-Med Billing Corp. in Miami Lakes, and his wife, Mabel, manager and operator of the company, of using nearly 40 medical equipment companies to cheat Medicare out of $56 million over six years. The indictment represents one
of the largest healthcare fraud cases
in the state.
