Florida Trend | Florida's Business Authority

Miami-Dade Business Briefs - Jan. 2008

CORAL GABLES —
» Fresh Del Monte Produce (NYSE-FDP) sold 10 million shares of common stock at $28.97 a share.

MIAMI —
» Pacer Health (OTCBB-PHLH), a Miami-based owner of acute-care hospitals, medical treatment centers and psychiatric facilities in the Southeast, plans to sell an acute-care hospital in Georgia to Saint Joseph’s Health System of Atlanta for an undisclosed amount.

MIAMI-DADE —
» County Mayor Carlos Alvarez dealt a blow last month to developers looking to expand the county’s Urban Development Boundary closer to the Everglades. Alvarez’s veto of three projects seeking to develop outside the UDB included a Lowe’s home-improvement store, which had sought to build outside the boundary before.

» The county stands to lose $11.8 billion off its tax base due to recent foreclosures in the subprime lending market, according to a new report from the Center for Responsible Lending. Based on subprime loans made in 2005 and 2006, the report estimates that nearly 20,000 homes in the county will be lost through foreclosure and nearly 901,000 homes will lose value, with an average decline of $13,122.

» Since launching last March, an interagency anti-fraud government strike force team has indicted 120 defendants in Miami-Dade County for Medicare fraud.