Florida Trend | Florida's Business Authority

The business of art fairs

Art Basel Miami Beach may be south Florida’s most internationally known art fair, but the area’s oldest is Art Miami, which will hold its 25th edition in December. Some 72,500 people attended Art Miami and its sister fair, CONTEXT, during Art Basel week last year, and galleries at Art Miami reported $100 million worth of sales.

The fair is the flagship of Art Miami LLC, which formed to acquire it in 2009. Since then, partners Nick Korniloff, Mike Tansey and Brian Tyler have acquired three other fairs, launched two and will debut two more later this year. The for-profit business makes its money several ways: Art galleries pay to lease space at its shows, as well as for booths, décor and special exhibits for individual artists; companies such as Maserati and Christie’s International Real Estate pay to sponsor the art fairs; and ticket sales to the fairs generate a small revenue source. The ticket sales, says Korniloff, who is director of all the company’s fairs except Aqua Art Miami, function more as gate control.

Until now, Art Miami’s empire has included modern and contemporary art fairs such as CONTEXT, which features only new works being sold for the first time, and Art Southampton, which takes place in July in the New York artists’ retreat. During Presidents Day weekend, it launched Art Wynwood to take advantage of the crowds of tourists in south Florida that weekend for the Miami International Boat Show. Some 30,000 people attended.

The 10-employee company will take its biggest expansion risks yet during the second half of this year, when it launches two fairs outside its comfort zone. Miami Masters will showcase works from the classical period through the 20th century. Before that, it will launch Art Silicon Valley/Art San Francisco in October. The Silicon Valley fair is riskier, Korniloff says, because it’s outside the main art markets of Miami and New York.

 

PLAYERS

Alexandra Villoch became president of Miami Herald Media and publisher of the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. The longtime senior vice president of advertising and marketing is the paper’s frst female publisher. She replaced David Landsberg, who became president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of South Florida when Dennis Pastrana retired.

Thomas M. Cornish, who had been president and CEO of Marsh & McLennan Agency’s Florida region (formerly Seitlin), joined BankUnited in the newly created position of Florida president.

Baptist Health South Florida hired physician Bernie Fernandez as CEO of Baptist Health Medical Group, its physician group. Fernandez was president of Cleveland Clinic Florida.

 

BUSINESS BRIEFS

CORAL GABLES — Miamibased Banyan Street Capital and Los Angelesbased Oaktree Capital Management paid $101 million to purchase the 467,325-sq.-ft. Douglas Entrance office and retail property from Pearlmark Real Estate Partners in Chicago. > Hemisphere Media Group completed its $102-million purchase of three Spanish-language cable television networks — Pasiones, Centroamerica TV and TV Dominicana — from Media World.

MIAMI — Sterling, Va.-based Neustar paid $109 million to acquire technology company .Co Internet, which is based in both Miami and Bogota, Colombia.

California-based Palace Entertainment agreed to purchase the 38-acre Miami Seaquarium theme park from Wometco Enterprises, for an undisclosed price. The Miami-Dade County Commission, which owns the land the park leases, must approve the deal. > The county has almost finished funding for a $12-million plan to redesign and reconstruct downtown’s Flagler Street, including replacing on-street parking with valet stations, leveling and expanding sidewalks, making more room for sidewalk dining and planting oak trees for shade. The Miami Downtown Development Authority and property owners created the plan, and property owners agreed to help fund it with a $1-million special assessment. The city will spend between $5 million and $6 million to rebuild the street, and the county will fund up to $6 million from unused bond proceeds.

Equity fund ABC Funding, which financed Casino Miami Jai-Alai’s recent expansion into gaming, won the facility’s recent bankruptcy auction with a $155-million bid. > Florida regulators scuttled a plan to relocate a slot machine permit from Hallandale’s Gulfstream Park horse racing and casino to Genting Group’s Resorts World Omni development. Medina Capital paid $15 million to buy Sweden-based encryption, identity and access management company Cryptzone. > Developers Terra Group and the Related Group received city approval for Park Grove, which will include three residential towers, a bank and a clubhouse on the waterfront in the city’s Coconut Grove neighborhood. Main Highway, managed by Miami architect Bernardo Fort-Brescia, paid $20 million to buy a mixed-use property in Coconut Grove. > A group that includes Miami Beachbased Mast Capital, Miami-based 13th Floor Investments and Connecticut- based Wexford Capital paid $29.5 million for a nine-story office building in the city’s Coconut Grove neighborhood. The property is zoned for a condo or mixed-use tower.

An affiliate of Orlando-based developer ZOM paid $16.8 million to buy a 28,000-sq.-ft. parcel in the city’s Brickell neighborhood from Miami developer Rodolfo Prio Touzet. It plans to build a 46-story, 420-unit apartment tower.

MIAMI BEACH — A company that is part of Baltimore- based Jones Lang LaSalle Income Property Trust paid $22 million to buy the lease for the seven- story Pelican Parking Garage in South Beach.

The city launched a line of sunscreen and skin bronzers, called Miami Beach Suncare, with Destination Brands International. The city will receive a percentage of revenue.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY — Technology retailer Tiger- Direct.com added home décor, furniture, pool supplies and luggage to its product lines.

MIAMI GARDENS — The Miami Dolphins offered a new plan for renovating the team’s Sun Life Stadium in which the team would privately fund $350 million in renovations and the county would take ownership of the stadium — freeing the team from property taxes.

MONROE COUNTY — Netfix has commissioned a 13-episode TV series that is being filmed throughout the Florida Keys.