Florida Trend | Florida's Business Authority

MIA Facelift

SPOTLIGHT

FDR Miami Hotel, a partnership between Fontainebleau Development and Related Cos., is building a 451-room Westin Hotel near the Dolphin parking garage. Guests will be able to cross a pedestrian bridge to enter the airport’s Concourse D. FDR will pay the county at least $2.58 million per year in a 50-year lease.

Commissioners also signed off on a multi-million-dollar plan to replace or upgrade hundreds of elevators, moving sidewalks and more. It’s part of a broader effort to “future-proof the conveyance units at Miami International Airport for decades to come,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

Miami’s airport is the fastest-growing in the nation, expected to serve 52 million passengers this year.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

  • Groundbreaking is about a year away for the Coral Rock Development Group’s mixed-use, mixed-income apartment building in Alapattah, west of Wynwood. Dulce Vida will include 200 units, with 85 set for people earning up to 60% of the area’s median income and 85 reserved for those earning the median income. The building’s first floor will house a new Miami-Dade Public Library System Allapattah Branch Library, replacing the existing library which stands on the development site.
  • Miami-based Terra opened its latest multifamily housing development, Natura Gardens, in West Hialeah. Rents in the 460-unit complex start at $2,000.

DEVELOPMENT

  • Rick Beckwitt retired last month after five years as Lennar Corp.’s co-president and co-CEO. He joined the company in 2006 and is credited with helping guide it through the 2008 housing market collapse. Lennar Executive Chairman Stuart Miller will add co-CEO to his title, leading the company in partnership with Jon Jaffe.
  • Pacific & Orient Properties has started construction on 7918 West Drive in North Bay Village, a 21-story condominium on the Intracoastal Waterway. Set to open in 2025, the 52-unit building promises an elevated Zen garden and facial recognition security, with prices starting at $2.2 million and penthouses listed for $17 million.

REAL ESTATE

  • Amazon founder Jeff Bezos paid a reported $68 million for a 9,300-sq.-ft. house on Indian Creek Village, a man-made island on Biscayne Bay dubbed “billionaire bunker.”