INNOVATION

Telemedical Amenities

Coral Gables-based CC Homes has partnered with Baptist Health South Florida to offer telemedicine services to home buyers in two of its newest developments, Canaris at Downtown Doral and Maple Ridge in Ave Maria.

Each buyer gets a hand-held medical exam kit with a camera, microphone, thermometer and several adaptors so that doctors can remotely check a patient’s ears, throat, heart and lungs. CC Homes also will pay for a year’s worth of unlimited, virtual urgent care visits with a Baptist Health provider.

After years of slow growth, telemedicine has gained popularity as a way to maintain social distancing, reduce the risk of coronavirus exposure and avoid burdening emergency rooms and urgent care clinics. Likewise, policymakers, health systems and commercial insurers have moved to facilitate telemedicine by easing regulations, expanding coverage and improving technology infrastructure.

“We think it’s something home buyers want,” says Jim Carr, founder and principal of CC Homes and board chair at Baptist Health. “In fact, we think enough of it that we’re expanding it company-wide. As new projects come online, we’ll be offering it there, too.”

EDUCATION

• Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert III is head of the new Center for Pandemic, Disaster and Quarantine Research at St. Thomas University. Gilbert, who’ll be term-limited out of the mayor’s office this year, also is running for a seat on the Miami- Dade County Commission. The university launched the research center in April to help organizations and governments prepare for and respond to pandemics and disasters.

REAL ESTATE

• Miami-based Terra, in partnership with Mr. C, a hospitality brand created by Italy’s Cipriani family, is developing a condo project called Mr. C Residences in Coconut Grove. The 20-story, 118-unit tower is to be completed in the third quarter of 2022.
• Developer J. Milton & Associates completed a building with 102,000 square feet of office space in Sunny Isles Beach. The main tenant is Icahn Enterprises, a private equity firm led by Carl Icahn, who has a home in Indian Creek Village.
• World Property Channel TV will launch a video-streaming platform focused on global real estate from a Miami broadcast studio next year. Chad Carroll, a top-selling real estate agent for Douglas Elliman, joined rival brokerage Compass. Carroll, who starred in the Bravo reality TV show Million Dollar Listing Miami, brought along his brokerage team, the Carroll Group.
• Chicago-based developer Akara Partners bought nearly an acre at Miami Worldcenter for $18.85 million. Akara plans to build Kenect Miami, a 39-story mixed-use tower with apartments, retail and co-working space.
• New Jersey-based PSD Automotive Group paid $21 million for Honda of Aventura and Aventura Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram.
• Developer Heinrich von Hanau plans to build a 57-unit condominium and 12 singlefamily homes on Fisher Island.
• Minneapolis-based Ryan Cos. is seeking to develop an e-commerce distribution warehouse on 9.6 acres near Kendall Tamiami Executive Airport.
• Lennar Executive Chairman Stuart Miller sold his 22,302-sq.-ft. house on Star Island for $49.46 million to a trust led by Donna Forlizzi. Miller also sold a double lot on Star Island for $37 million to billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin.

TECHNOLOGY

• Miami-based SmartHop, which has developed a platform to help small trucking companies run their businesses, raised $4.5 million in seed capital. SmartHop’s co-founder and CEO is Guillermo Garcia, who previously created a distribution and logistics tool for Venezuelan businesses.
• Miami-based Expetitle, a statewide title company that has developed a digital platform for real estate closings, raised $850,000 in seed funding.

MEDIA

• New Jersey hedge fund Chatham Asset Management won a bankruptcy auction for Sacramento-based McClatchy, publisher of the Miami Herald and Nuevo Herald. Chatham, McClatchy’s largest debtor, bid $312 million for the company. The Herald and Nuevo Herald closed their Doral offices in August and will work remotely for the rest of the year.
• Andy Ansin succeeded his late father, Edmund Ansin, as CEO of Sunbeam Television, which owns WSVN in Miami and WHDH in Boston. Edmund Ansin, who helped his father buy the Miami station in 1962, died at age 84 in July. Andy Ansin previously led Sunbeam Properties, which developed the 580-acre Miramar Park of Commerce.

COVID-19 UPDATE

• Dr. Susanne Doblecki-Lewis leads a University of Miami research team that’s conducting a clinical trial of a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by the National Institutes of Health and Boston-based Moderna.
• Miami-based biopharmaceutical company Veru began a phase two clinical trial of its drug VERU-111 for treating COVID-19 patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome.
• Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line teamed up to create an advisory council focused on developing a health and safety plan for when they resume cruises.
• The Miami-Dade County Commission approved a 1% hazard pay bonus for hospital employees treating coronavirus patients at Jackson Health System. The Service Employees International Union, one of the largest unions at Jackson Health, criticized the bonus as inadequate to compensate employees for their work and the risks they’re taking during the pandemic.
• The Miami City Commission voted unanimously to use $1.3 million in federal stimulus money to create a mortgage assistance program for low- and moderate-income homeowners who’ve lost jobs or taken pay cuts because of the coronavirus.

 

Read more in Florida Trend's October issue.
Select from the following options: