Billboard Blight And Mural Ads Are Infecting Downtown Miami

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Somewhere behind all the advertisements, there are actual buildings in Miami’s downtown core.

Apple’s Watch billboard on ME Miami building on NE 11th Terrace photographed on Saturday, June 17, 2017.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Sebastián Ballestas)

If you live or work in one of the towers wrapped like packages, you could pinpoint your location by saying you’re in the Heineken building or the Verizon building or the Apple Watch building or the “47 Meters Down” building that warns shark-phobes to “just stay out of the water.”

If you’re trying to find the bold new Zaha Hadid-designed exoskeleton high-rise on Biscayne Boulevard, it’s next to Ten Museum Park — more easily identifiable as the Sparkling Smart Water building.

In addition to residing in a multistory billboard, there are the blots on your bay view — the 1-800-411-PAIN sign erected by an accident-chasing law firm or the 3,375-square-foot video screen that adorns AmericanAirlines Arena.

“Visual pollution ruins what makes Miami beautiful — palm trees, blue skies, interesting architecture,” said Peter Ehrlich, co-founder of Scenic Miami, which has advocated for tighter regulation of signs. “Tourists don’t come here to see giant ads. Residents are not asking for them. Yet they are in-your-face inescapable.”

The city limits the number of mural ads on the sides of buildings to 45. They can be as big as 10,000 square feet. They have not proliferated, but a few have moved to larger or more visible buildings.

“The outdoor advertisers are constantly jockeying to get on a bigger wall closer to a highway in order to reach more eyeballs,” said Ehrlich, who calls them “monster murals.”

Developer Craig Robins wants to prevent the infiltration of mural signs into the Design District. The last thing he wants to see are tacky ads clashing with glamorous boutiques, modern art and new urban plazas.

“He’s got a vision, a sophisticated vision,” Ehrlich said. “He doesn’t want any chance of hemorrhoid cream or Estrella Insurance ads next to Tiffany and Cartier shops or a sculpture installation.”

SmartWater billboard on Ten Museum Park on Biscayne Boulevard photographed on Saturday, June 17, 2017. (PHOTO CREDIT: Sebastián Ballestas)

Robins is seeking to protect the Design District from billboard blight. He has proposed shrinking the zone in which mural ads are permitted by moving the north border six blocks south to Northeast 36th Street.

On July 8, Miami’s city commissioners are scheduled to hear from Robins, who is the major property owner in the district. Robins was also instrumental in the redevelopment of South Beach in the 1990s.

“I’m not saying they’re inappropriate for all neighborhoods but we’re aspiring to a high level of art, design and architecture in the Design District,” Robins said. “Rather than commercialize it, we want to make it a special place that is a source of pride for Miami.”

One existing ad space would be allowed to remain but new ads would be banned under the proposal. Like other property owners, Robins could rent out his prime wall space, much of which is visible from Interstate 95, to outdoor advertisers for tens of thousands of dollars a month. But Robins has commissioned artists to turn the sides of his buildings and a parking garage into “beautiful installations.”

“If we took all our frontage and rented it out, it would be worth millions of dollars per year, but we’re not interested in marketing opportunities,” Robins said. “The commission is usually sensitive when an idea is definitely for the betterment of the community.”

The city makes almost $4 million a year from fees charged to outdoor advertising companies such as Clear Channel, Outfront Media and Wagner that earn billions from businesses seeking to get their messages and products in front of consumers.

“It’s another in a line of serial acts of municipal prostitution,” said Dusty Melton, a Miami-Dade lobbyist and political consultant who co-authored the county’s sign code in 1985. “The city regularly flouts the code with its interpretation of it and allows programmable LED billboards that are prohibited, No one has the political will to unplug these illegal billboards that are basically giant TVs on top of poles. There are probably 30 out there. The three on the Miami Children’s Museum are illegal.”

The city is discussing whether to raise its sign fees. One prime space that it rents out is on its own Miami River Center administrative building on Southwest Second Avenue and Fourth Street — a building that happens to house the code enforcement department.

“For a while that building had an ad promoting tourism to the Dominican Republic,” Ehrlich said.

Volkswagen Atlas billboard on Marquis Condos in Miami on Saturday, June 17, 2017. (PHOTO CREDIT: Sebastián Ballestas)

The new Melody residential tower at 245 NE 14th St. adjacent to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts has a huge Verizon ad facing Biscayne Boulevard.

The drive to or from downtown along State Road 836 is a gauntlet of signs, including a Volkswagen Atlas ad on the side of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine 15th Street Parking Garage; Peroni beer and JetBlue Airways ads on the back of the Civica Center on Northwest 11th Avenue; a Haagen-Dazs ad on the side of the Springhill Suites hotel; and Guess and Shell ads on the sides of the Atlantis University building.

“Nothing is too massive,” Ehrlich said. “Property owners are now asking architects to design buildings with large wall spaces available for advertising.”

 

Source: Miami Herald

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City Of Miami Inches Closer To Multimillion-Dollar Riverfront Development Deal

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The city of Miami inched one step closer Thursday to a multimillion-dollar quid pro quo that would land it a new administrative building and parking garage, while facilitating the construction of a $465 million mixed-use project on the site of its current headquarters on the north bank of the Miami River.

With a swift vote Thursday morning, the City Commission authorized the appointment of a special estate counsel in the city’s proposed deal to lease its riverside administrative center to property developer Adler Group in exchange for the construction of a new building and parking garage elsewhere in the city.

Under the agreement, the developer would pay the city a projected $335 million over the length of a 90-year ground lease on the city’s two-acre property through rent and a cut of sales. That adds up to a present-day value of about $70 million. The deal was proposed last year by an Adler Group affiliate, Lancelot Miami River.

City employees would remain in the building at 444 SW Second Ave., which formerly belonged to Florida Power and Light, until the construction of its new headquarters in 2020.

Rendering of Adler Group’s Riverside Nexus Central. Studio X Architects

For Adler Group, the land swap is part of a larger plan to erect a sprawling mixed-use project on the river dubbed Nexus Riverside Central. The project would be built on the city site and a neighboring 1.5 acre parcel. It would include three 36-story residential towers with 1,350 units, a 150-room hotel and 30,000 square feet of shops and restaurants.

Despite Thursday’s vote, the proposal is far from set in stone. Even if a deal is reached by commissioners, who authorized hiring the law firm without much discussion, the question would then be put on the November ballot and at the mercy of voters.

The deal appeared to be headed for the shelf before Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman, a Coral Gables law firm, was chosen from a pool of 16 candidates. Commissioners first rejected the city attorney’s choice of Shutts & Bowen, raising questions about whether there would be enough time to get a deal together and on the November ballot.

Commissioners said they were uncomfortable that Shutts & Bowen, a Miami firm, represents a plaintiff suing the city, and also that former commissioner Marc Sarnoff currently works as an attorney at the firm.

“It’s the responsibility of the special counsel to ensure that the city gets a favorable deal,” said Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado.

A review of the proposal last year noted that the city would pay up to $123 million for its new 375,000-square-foot office and 1,200-car garage, a roughly $50 million gap from what Adler will pay to lease the riverside property. Administrators say early negotiations quickly cut into the difference, although the most recent development agreement, crafted back in November, doesn’t specify where those numbers stand.

Weiss Serota will help to negotiate further. The commission in a prior resolution voted that when the city undergoes a major real estate deal, a special counsel is needed to ensure the city receives a fair deal, and Florida law states that any long-term waterfront lease requires a voter referendum.

Regalado said he was hopeful that a deal would be reached and that a motion would be put to voters in November.

“The city’s riverside administrative center, located on highly sought-after riverfront land, lacks adequate parking and poses a challenge for residents to access,” Regalado said. “It’s not client-friendly.”

If approved and favorably voted on, the new administrative headquarters would likely be built in one of three spots: near Marlins Park in Little Havana, behind Lyric Theater in Overtown or inside the seven-acre Link at Douglas complex that Adler is building at the Douglas Road Metrorail Station.

 

Source: Miami Herald

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RealConnex Platform Partners With Miami Association Of Realtors To Power Property Investment

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RealConnex, a platform that connects real estate professionals to both access to capital as well as investments, has announced a strategic partnership with the Miami Association of Realtors.

According to RealConnex, the agreement will see the Miami Association of Realtors, and their 46,000 plus members, leverage the RealConnex platform to manage their properties and transactions. The platform wants to provide a wide variety of services for property investing – not just access to capital.

The Association is said to be working with RealConnex to add new features and improve design. RealConnex plans to roll out the program to other real estate associations accross the US.

RealConnex was founded to solve a problem faced by many real estate developers: funding mid-market projects and connecting to the right capital sources and service providers. RealConnex says it currently has a community of 72,000 developers, sponsors, capital sources, service providers and owners. It expects to reach the 100,000 member mark by the end of 2017. RealConnex claims it is on track to facilitate up to $1 billion dollars in transacted deals on its platform within the same time frame.

“RealConnex will provide our members with a powerful competitive advantage,” said Teresa Kinney, CEO of Miami Association of Realtors. “The platform will make it significantly easier for our members to collaborate, share, network and distribute listings locally, nationally and internationally.”

RealConnex founder and CEO Roy Abrams said he looked forward to extending their collaboration as they build out the network.

“As a New York- and Miami-based real estate technology startup, we are excited about working with MIAMI to offer better service to its member realtors and promote South Florida’s booming economy,” said Abrams.

 

Source: Crowdfund Insider

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“There Are Great Opportunities For Miami, But Traffic And Zoning Issues Must Be Resolved,” Says Developer Peebles

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Miami is a “city of the future” that needs to challenge “cities of the day” like New York and Boston to reach a new level, said developer Don Peebles, founder, chairman and CEO of the Peebles Corp.

Already a culturally developed, international tourist destination, Miami can achieve this by attracting new companies, allowing more construction and developing affordable housing for its workforce, Peebles told attendees at a Bisnow conference on transit oriented development Thursday at the Miami InterContinental.

“The region must get people out of their cars, improve mass transit and allow for denser development,” Peebles said. A strong draw for corporate investors is Florida’s low taxes who divides his time between homes in New York and Coral Gables. Why not go after the highly-taxed financial services industry in New York City, for example and bring them to this low-tax center?”

But there are impediments: traffic congestion and excessive complications for new vertical development and density. Miami employees typically spend as much as three hours a day going to and from work, which deals a major loss to productivity, he said. Miami’s workforce for the most part can’t afford to live where they work and lack access to the public transportation system.

The county has a rail system but it is not broadly developed. To access public transportation here today, people need to use cars. One answer is transit oriented development, which allows people to stay close to employment centers.

“People will need to access every part of their lives without getting into a car,” said Peebles, whose company is working on a variety of projects in Miami and the Northeast.

A major roadblock to developing new projects in the Miami area is a lack of unified zoning oversight, which limits density and structural height. Miami and Miami Beach are made up of many municipalities that each has its own city hall, police force and regulations for real estate.

“I never had to hire a lobbyist until I came here,” Peebles said. “Politicians here tend to reach out to small groups of people regarding real estate permitting. They can get elected with 4,000 votes. In New York City, the mayor has 10 million people, so what if 10,000 people get annoyed with him? In New York, people can express their views, but zoning is decided by people who are qualified. A central issue impeding development is there is no comprehensive oversight for real estate permitting, zoning, density and structural height. Miami has to realize that it is an urban center, and allow more supply.”

Peebles was one of several panelists that included Miami-Dade transport officials, real estate developers and attorneys. Others included Meg Daly, founder and president of Friends of the Underline (a park, path and trail built under the Metrorail), who said that bicyclists and pedestrians using the Underline have so far helped remove about 5 percent of cars from US-1 while attracting new customers to businesses along the route.

“Among other projects, Miami-Dade County is concentrating efforts to make first- and last-mile connections for all its rapid transit corridors,” said Aileen Bouclé, executive director of the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization. “Uber and Lyft are helping, but they both are operating at a loss.”

“Meanwhile, as infill increases in the downtown area, the bare bones Metrorail stations should incorporate amenities, and new stations should be added between existing ones,” said Humberto Alonso, vice president of Atkins North America.

 

Source: The Real Deal

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A Developer Talks Miami River, Market Challenges, And His Project, One River Point

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Despite the condo market slowdown, developer Shahab Karmely is confident his project and the Miami River are poised for big growth.

Click photo to view video of Shahab Karmely discussing the Miami River and One River Point at the TRD Broward Showcase and Forum panel by TRD’s Alistair Gardiner

In a post-panel interview, Karmely and The Real Deal South Florida’s Managing Editor Ina Cordle discussed One River Point and the river at TRD‘s Third Annual Broward Real Estate Showcase & Forum in April.

Presales at One River Point are about to pass the 18 percent to 20 percent mark. Buyers there are mostly from South America, but also from Georgia, New York and Canada.

“We have headwinds – not us, just everybody else,” Karmely said. “On the other hand, we are financially very secure. We have no financing.”

The Real Deal previously reported that Karmely’s silent partner is Daniel Loeb, the billionaire investor who runs one of the most prominent activist hedge funds, Third Point LLC. Karmely’s KAR Properties has spent more than $112 million on acquisitions along the River, in Wynwood and in Hallandale Beach since 2013, and more on pre-develoment costs.

Karmely was part of a panel discussion on the economics of new development amid a new administration and continuing global market fluctuation.

To watch the panel in full, click here.

 

Source: The Real Deal

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Check It Out: The View From The Top Of Florida’s Tallest Building

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Future tenants of Brickell’s mammoth Panorama Tower are a little closer to being able to look down on the rest of Miami.

Developer Tibor Hollo’s Florida East Coast Realty is celebrating the topping-off of its 830-foot luxury rental tower at 1101 Brickell Ave.. The ceremony is a customary way for builders to commemorate the completion of the top floor of a new structure.

At 85 stories, Panorama Tower will be the tallest building in Florida and the tallest residential building south of Manhattan, according to the developer. The tower will house 821 apartments, ranging in size from one to three bedrooms and starting at 1,135 square feet., along with a sick array of amenities, including a lap pool, sun deck, weight room, pet groomer and a serenity pool for when you’re stressing about your high rent — an average of $3 per square foot.

Another 208 rooms will serve as a boutique hotel. The structure will house 100,000 square feet of office space and 50,000 square feet of high-end retail shops and restaurants.

Construction on the Panorama, which is estimated to cost a total of $800 million, is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The leasing program has not officially started, but more than 100 units are already reserved.

Including the building’s antenna, the Panorama Tower will reach 868 feet into the sky, which is higher than two football fields stacked end-to-end and taller than the Four Seasons Hotel Miami, which measures 800 feet to tip.

Panorama will only hold the crown of Miami’s tallest for a couple of years. The building will be dwarfed by at least two other giant skyscrapers in development, both expected to reach 1,049 feet: One Brickell City Centre and One Bayfront Plaza.

 

Source: Miami Herald

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There’s A New Trend Among Office Tenants

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Mayfair in the Grove is set to be a transformative office project. With three separate buildings in the center of Coconut Grove and the pent up demand for innovative office projects in the city, developers expect strong leasing momentum.

GlobeSt.com caught up with Chris Dekker, vice president of Mayfair Real Estate Advisors, the project’s developer, and Tere Blanca, president and CEO of Blanca Commercial Real Estate, to get their take the types of tenants that flock to Coconut Grove. (You can read part one: Coconut Grove sees a 30-year first in commercial real estate development.)

GlobeSt.com: What kind of tenants are most interested in taking Coconut Grove office space?

Dekker: Coconut Grove has emerged as a hotbed for entrepreneurial companies and global brands, including professional services firms, media companies, design firms, international finance, investment shops, and more. The offices at Mayfair in the Grove are a good example, which is home to major organizations like Publicis/Sapient, Crispin Porter, Regus, and GE as well as an assortment of local firms that make for a vibrant tenant mix.

The common denominator across companies at Mayfair in the Grove—and those that will relocate to Terra’s new class A development at Mary Street—is that they see value in locating in an urban, walkable neighborhood that still preserves the spirit of Coconut Grove. Mary Street will also appeal to business decision-makers coming from points south who are seeking a shorter commute by comparison with traveling to Brickell and Downtown as well as those seeking office space benefiting from a modern architectural design.

GlobeSt.com: Are there specific amenities that are appealing to tenants touring new buildings in today’s market?

Blanca: The same way consumers are gravitating toward authentic, urban neighborhoods, we’re seeing office users trend toward walkable neighborhoods that offer a strong sense of community and rich amenity base. In many ways, Coconut Grove is an amenity itself and has already successfully attracted major brands including Sony Music, Sapient Nitro and Virgin Hotels.

Beyond that, tenants today value office space that enhances the lifestyle experience. At One CocoWalk, the office building is being designed with these needs in mind. We’ll have favorable parking ratios, a rooftop terrace, a private entrance and lobby for office guests, office spaces with abundant natural light and waterfront views, and an on-site fitness center inside CocoWalk. The ownership is also planning to design and build One CocoWalk to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.

 

Source: GlobeSt.

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Coconut Grove Sees A New 30-Year First In Commercial Development

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GlobeSt.com caught up with Chris Dekker, vice president of Mayfair Real Estate Advisors and Tere Blanca, president and CEO of Blanca Commercial Real Estate, to get their take on the office aspects of this project in part one of this exclusive interview.

GlobeSt.com: It’s been 30 years since a new office building was built in Coconut Grove. Why are two new buildings launching at the same time?

Dekker: Coconut Grove is experiencing three decades of pent-up office demand from in and around the area that has led to a submarket vacancy rate of less than 2%—the lowest in all of South Florida. The Grove is coming alive with new condos, restaurants and shops, so we view the development of new Class A office space as the final ingredient that will complete the neighborhood’s comeback. Mary Street, like Terra’s nearby towers at Grove at Grand Bay and Park Grove, represent a new wave of design-driven infill development that is taking advantage of Coconut Grove’s walkability and central location.

GlobeSt.com: Coconut Grove has primarily been known as a retail and residential destination. How does office space factor into the neighborhood’s commercial mix?

Blanca: The addition of new class A office space at One CocoWalk will make the CocoWalk shopping complex more relevant for locals again, after more than a decade of being a destination for tourists. By welcoming new companies and hundreds of additional employees into the neighborhood, we’ll be boosting the area’s daily population and driving more activity on the streets throughout the day, which will benefit the Grove’s retailers and restaurants on a daily basis.

 

Source: GlobeSt.

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Miami’s Class A Office Space Likely To Get Pricier

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Rents for Class A office space in Miami are high, at $50 or more per square foot, and will continue rising as the market tightens, real estate experts told attendees at a recent conference.

Panelists also said that, despite the city’s increasing traffic problems, they expected sustainable demand growth for Miami commercial properties in the future, since the city is an appealing location and a gateway to Latin America.

“The market is tightening up,” said Angelo Bianco, managing partner at Crocker Partners during the Bisnow panel event. “Developers are getting better rates and lower concessions.” At the same time, he added, “Capital markets seem to be taking a break and people are more cautious. Deals are taking longer to close.”

Asked if office rents in Miami were becoming too expensive, W. Allen Morris, chairman and CEO of The Allen Morris Co., said that rents here were high compared to a city like Atlanta, “but they’re low compared to other global cities like New York, London, San Francisco or Chicago.” If developers can find any additional land – without condos – they would build more commercial space, Morris said.

Panelists at the conference at the Wells Fargo Center in Miami also discussed attracting new commercial clients. Many cities like Miami constantly compete to attract new companies and their tech-savvy millennial employees. Smart CEOs want to ensure that they locate or relocate in a place where millennials will be pleased with attractive, often non-traditional office space; nearby amenities (restaurants, retail); transit options (millennials rely less on their own cars); cultural opportunities and good schools. The city needs to develop more “live, work and play” communities, they said.

“It’s attractive to live in Miami,” said Rudy Touzet, CEO of Banyan Street Capital. “Over the next 5 to 10 years, millennials will be moving to Miami, Tampa, Atlanta. Things like education and transportation have to be improved,” he said. The attractiveness of Miami “will fluctuate, but demand will be sustainable if development is controlled.”

“It’s a cool, international city,” Bianco said.

Parking remains an issue, however. While parking availability is currently a necessary part of an office complex, some developers are looking at making changes, such as building parking garages that can easily be converted into other types of commercial space as car use diminishes in crowded urban centers.

And even though Uber and other companies have located their headquarters in Wynwood, the trendy area has problems.

“It’s not easily accessible by bus or trolley routes,” said Barbara Savage, senior associate principal and Stantec Architecture & Design. “Wynwood doesn’t have the views of high-rise buildings but the area has ample amenities and works well for certain types of clients in the range of 5,000 to 15,000 square feet. Art Basel, a major international event and a big draw for wealthy individuals from the U.S. and overseas, “made it challenging for people to get in an out of the area.”

Moderator Brian Gale, vice chair at Cushman Wakefield, noted that four projects have been proposed for Wynwood, totaling about 700,000 square feet, but “We’ll have to see if they are developed,” he said.

Speakers gave mixed reviews on the impact the new Trump administration would have on future growth and business confidence. The government’s moves to reduce regulations in the Dodd-Frank Act “will be good and will allow new credit” for real estate and the rest of the economy, Morris said. The economy is growing and jobs are increasing, he added. But restrictions on immigration could affect Miami. Overall,  Morris expects “positive growth” under the new government.

“I’m disturbed by what we see in Washington,” Bianco said. “We are the place that people go for stability and investment. Even after the financial crisis – which we caused – people still bring their money here. Trump’s aggressive, un-presidential behavior and constant tweets are creating confusion. No one knows what he will do. They should, at least take away his cell phone.”

Members of a second Bisnow panel saw employees of the future working remotely from home (or anywhere else); open, informal, shared workspaces, and an emphasis on mixed-use “live, work, play” developments. Echoing some of the millennial preferences discussed in the earlier forum, the panelists said these preferences will drive major changes in how and where people work. Innovation and technology will play much greater roles for future employees.

“Why own a car if you can Uber everywhere?” asked Juliana Fernandez, founder of AEI.  “Why own an apartment if you can Airbnb? Where do I want to work today?”

Co-working in shared spaces will likely appeal to people who don’t want to always work from home. Moreover, shared workspaces offer employees and the self-employed opportunities to meet, exchange ideas, talk and collaborate with people from different businesses.

Other members of workplace panel were: Laura Kozelouzek, CEO of Quest Workspaces and the moderator; Grant Killingworth, first vice president, CBRE; John Guitar, senior vice president, Brightline; Natalia Martinez-Kalinina, director, Cambridge Innovation Center, Miami; and Edward Owen, Swire Properties.

 

Source: The Real Deal

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Another New Office Building Just Announced For Coconut Grove

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Another new office building was just announced for Coconut Grove, marking the second in recent weeks after nearly 30 years.

CocoWalk owners Federal Realty Investment Trust, Grass River Property and Comras Company plan to raze the eastern building on Grand Avenue and Virginia Street and build a five-story, 73,000-square-foot Class A building on the site, Grass River principal Tom Roth told The Real Deal.

Just two weeks ago, Terra Group and Mayfair Real Estate Advisors announced plans to convert a parking garage at 2860 Oak Avenue into a mixed-use office building, citing the demand for office product and lack of available space in the neighborhood. Together, the two projects will add 140,000 square feet of office space to Coconut Grove.

“We believe there’s plenty of pent-up demand to serve both projects,” Roth said, adding that he believes CocoWalk is a better location.

One CocoWalk, designed by Beame Architectural Partnership, is the first phase of redevelopment for CocoWalk, which was purchased by the partnership in May 2015 in a deal valued at $87.5 million. The once-popular Mediterranean-style outdoor shopping mall has fallen out of style in past years. Roth said plans for phase two, which will focus on retail, will be announced in the coming months.

The office building, geared toward global brands, media and technology companies, creative and financial firms, will be delivered in mid-2019. It will have four floors of office space above a level of ground-floor retail space, plus a rooftop terrace and event space with full views of the neighborhood. CocoWalk will set aside about 250 parking spaces for its office users, which breaks down to 3.4 spaces per 1,000 square feet, Roth said.

“We didn’t buy CocoWalk to keep it as it is today. We really feel it needs to blend better with the rest of Coconut Grove,” Roth told TRD.

 

Source:  The Real Deal

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