Some companies look for headquarters based on factors like infrastructure, skilled labor and transportation. For hear.com cofounder Paul Crusius, Miami had a lot of appeal, starting with its time zone.
Crusius and his partner Marco Vietor started their hearing aid business in 2012 in their native Germany. The time change ruled out the West Coast when they decided to open a U.S. office in 2015, Crusius says, and Miami just “has a special energy to it … a very entrepreneurial exploring, innovative energy.”
“At that time,” he adds, “it also was cheap relative to New York.” Hear.com has 150 employees in Miami and earlier this year passed 1 million hearing aids sold. It offers its own line of hearing aids and sends customers a “clinic in a box” for home audiology testing. Customers willing to buy from an online supplier are relatively young — 60- to 70-year-olds who may be getting their first hearing aids. Prices run from $99 for a base-level device to high-end models costing more than $4,000.
Crusius credits the move to Miami for that growth. It’s not the time zone, he now says, it’s the talent. “People here are not afraid,” he says, noting that 70% of the company’s Miami team are first-generation Americans.
FRAUD
- Gilda Rosenberg will serve 30 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to filing false tax returns and hiding tens of millions of dollars in undeclared foreign accounts. Rosenberg, of Golden Beach, conspired with two relatives to hide more than $90 million from the IRS, the Department of Justice says. The family owns Gilly Vending, which has an estimated 30,000 vending machines nationally.
CONDOMINIUMS
- Miami-Dade County’s Condominium Special Assessment Program has been suspended for the rest of the year. The county says it will refine the application process for the program that provides unit owners up to $50,000 in low interest loans to pay condo associations to cover repairs needed to pass safety inspections. The county says it approved nearly $40 million in loans through June.
PERSONNEL
- George Barriere is Miamibased Vicky Bakery’s new CEO. He is tasked with scaling the brand, which opened in 1972 by opening 100 new stores nationally by 2030. It has more than two dozen South Florida locations today, offering Cuban cakes and pastries, coffee and sandwiches.
- Publicly traded BankUnited has hired James G. Mackey to be its CFO, replacing Leslie Lunak, who retires Jan. 1 after 13 years in the job. Mackey has been CFO for Wells Fargo consumer lending along with Freddie Mac and Ally Financial. BankUnited had $35.5 billion in assets as of June 30
ACQUISITIONS
- Miami’s rbb Communications firm bought San Francisco-based UPRAISE Marketing + Public Relations with UPRAISE President Tim Johnson joining rbb’s leadership team. UPRAISE serves financial services and tech companies. Terms were not disclosed.
TRANSPORTATION
- Two weeks after Brightline announced its intention to raise $400 million in tax-exempt bonds to start planning an expansion from Orlando to Tampa, the Fitch ratings service downgraded its existing $2.2 billion in senior secured private activity bonds (PABs) to “B” from “BB+” and placed them on Rating Watch Negative. The high-speed rail network’s “weakened financial profile, with ridership and revenue ramp-up continuing to lag” led to the move.
DEVELOPMENT
- South Florida construction company ANF will be the general contractor for Sevilla at Downtown Doral, which will include 412 apartments in two towers. Developer Codina Partners hopes to have the 4.2- acre project move-in ready by mid-2027.
- A 420-unit apartment workforce housing complex in Northeast Miami-Dade’s Golden Glades suburb is the first development by Georgia-based Resia to use fully assembled, prefabricated kitchen and bathroom components with plumbing and electric built in. Resia says the prefabrication makes construction faster and less expensive.
- MG Developer secured a $41-million construction loan from Pine Bay Capital to build 13 high-end townhomes in Coral Gables. The George, named in honor of Coral Gables founder George Merrick, will feature 5,000-sq.-ft. homes starting at $5.9 million with a completion date in the second quarter of 2027.
Griffin’s Gift
- Billionaire Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin’s charitable foundation Griffin Catalyst is giving $15 million to Mount Sinai Medical Center’s five-story, 200,000-sq.-ft. Braman Comprehensive Cancer Center due to open in 2026 on Miami Beach. The gift also will go to Mount Sinai’s Hialeah cancer center, which will bear Griffin’s name.
Workforce Housing
- Construction could start by year’s end on a 4,000-unit, $880-million workforce housing project in Miami’s West Little River neighborhood. Developer Pablo Castro’s 12- acre project, The HueHub, will include seven 35-story apartment buildings and a park on a site now home to a 241-unit apartment building. Designed by Arquitectonica, The HueHub will be walking distance to a Tri-Rail stop and will offer studio units at $1,300 per month while two-bedroom units will cost $1,900.