Miami: Sports Capital of the World?
PLUS
FLOWERS: AN INDUSTRY IN FULL BLOOM
ARQUITECTONICA'S GLOBAL STYLE A SEA ROUTE TO MEXICO
By David Oxfeld, Chief Commercial Officer of The Miami Marlins
Miami is hot - and I’m not talking about the weather. The Miami Marlins are on fire, celebrating one of the franchise’s best starts to a season during the organization's 30th Anniversary. The team is performing great - collecting big hits, scoring runs, and striking out opponents. Most importantly, our world class organization is in the hunt for a playoff spot.
We’ve got a lot more baseball to play and the team is ready to compete down the home stretch.
We’re a young team with players making major strides right before our eyes. Records are being set and players have their eyes on a return to the postseason. First-year Manager Skip Schumaker has our squad focused on one job - relentlessly pursuing our win each and every day. Our All-Star players Jorge Soler and Luis Arraez often set the pace, Soler as a powerful designated hitter and Arraez chasing an astonishing .400 batting average not seen since Ted Williams in 1941.
Off the field, the South Florida community continues to rally around their home team. In particular, local businesses are recognizing the value loanDepot park and the Miami Marlins can bring to their culture and their bottom line. It was a pleasure for the Marlins to recently create a special day for FPL’s full staff outing, including a private function where they introduced their new President/ CEO, followed by thousands of their team members attending a game that evening. Our partners at Norwegian Cruise Lines also utilized loanDepot park to make a major corporate announcement: that international recording artist and “Despacito” singer Luis Fonsi was their official new godfather. He even threw out the first pitch in front of a packed house.
Overall, attendance continues to climb significantly for Marlins home games for the second straight season. Especially in our premium PNC Club, which is sold out! These are some of the best seats in
the house, behind home plate, and actually the CLOSEST you can get to home and the catcher from any park in the majors.
Fish fans are also having fun watching the Marlins play from home - wherever they might live. So far this year, ratings for Marlins games broadcast by Bally Sports
are up 14% compared to last season. Plus, streaming of Marlins games in the Bally Sports app is up 77% compared to this same time last year.
loanDepot park’s state of the art retractable roof is a rare luxury for baseball fans. It allows us to avoid rain delays, keeping fans dry - and very cool - in our fully air-conditioned stadium. It’s a perfect location to catch a game or plan a corporate outing at any time throughout the year.
It’s a great time to be a Miami Marlin. I personally invite you to loanDepot park to watch the Marlins in action and let us know how we can help elevate your business. The environment is electric, and the fans are part of the equation that helps the players perform their best. And don’t forget, for our fans up north, you can jump on the Brightline for an easy and fast commute to loanDepot park and have fun with the whole family. Let’s play ball! Visit Marlins.com/tix.
The Avenue Coral Gables
Roger Development Group brings first to market concept to Coral Gables. A stunning boutique hotel and residential project in the Merrick Park District of Coral Gables.
Oscar Roger Sr. - President & CEO Oscar Roger Jr. - CFO info@rogerdevelopment.com
In June, veteran developer Oscar Roger, CEO of Roger Development Group received unanimous approval for the highly anticipated The Avenue Hotel & Residences Coral Gables, a Parisianinspired neo-classically designed boutique tower and hotel in Coral Gables across from Neiman Marcus at the Shops at Merrick Park, located at 351 San Lorenzo Avenue.
A Miami-based family-owned, fully integrated real estate development and management company, the Roger Companies have been operating in South Florida since 1955 and is led by President & CEO Oscar Roger, Sr. along with CFO, Oscar Jr. who joined the company in 2013 and is furthering the family tradition of development and real estate services within Florida and abroad.
Roger tapped Cervera Real Estate a South Florida-based family owned and operated real estate company for sales of The Avenue. With nearly a half-century transforming the South Florida landscape, Cervera focuses on personalized customer service to ensure the satisfaction of their clients.
“Our unrivaled international network, and our local experience spanning over five decades have cultivated unique and long-lasting relationships who have seen the opportunity that Avenue Hotel and Residences represents,” said Jesse Ottley, President of Development Sales Division at Cervera Real Estate.
Please tell us about the project and why is it first of its kind for the City Beautiful and making headlines for its benefits to owners?
The Avenue Hotel & Residences
Coral Gables is an 8-story boutique building and condo hotel, comprising 48 residences with thoughtful and luxurious one- and two-bedroom layouts outfitted with contemporary Italian inspired kitchens and baths and high-end appliances like Mielle, Subzero or Wolf appliances. Our unique model affords the owners all of the benefits of condo hotel ownership allowing unit owners to use their property as little or as much as they’d like while having the ability to earn revenue on their property when they are not in residence.
Tell us about the unit interiors and what made Adriana Hoyos your choice as interior designer?
Every residence comes complete with tasteful finishes and expertly selected furnishings and décor from the award-winning distinguished Adriana Hoyos Design Studio. After redefining tropical luxury for nearly three decades, the team will now make their mark on the best address in Coral Gables. We’re pleased to offer beautifully designed contemporary spaces throughout.
Who is the architect?
The project was designed by Coral Gables-based Bermello, Ajamil & Partners, a leading architecture and engineering firm with an impressive portfolio of globally recognized projects including Miami’s Four Seasons Hotel & Tower.
How big are the units?
The residences range from 598 to 1,200 square feet. In addition, the property is completed by all groundfloor luxury retail space, and Lobby.
What is the pricing?
Prices start from $730,000 to over $1.3 million with sales being exclusively managed by Cervera Real Estate.
Tell us about the amenities.
On property amenities include a front desk reception, and a slate of hotel services to make daily life easier and more enjoyable. Valet parking, and newspaper and package delivery are a few of the dozens of services available to homeowners. Amenities include an outdoor hammock garden, and resort-style pool deck on Level 9 “Rooftop”, with a summer kitchen and family dining area, but most appealing is across the street from the entrance to the upscale The Shops at Merrick Park.
The Avenue is a boutique property coming soon to Coral Gables. Inside, discover turnkey residences, rich amenities, and expertly selected finishes and furnishings. Outside, enjoy easy access to The Shops at Merrick Park and everything that makes this historic city so desirable.
Florida Limited Liability Company (“developer”), which was formed solely for such purpose. Roger Development Group, Inc. “Roger” is affiliated with this entity, but is not the developer of this project. Purchasers shall look solely to the developer (and not to Roger and/ or any of its affiliates other than developer) with respect to any and all matters relating to the marketing and/or development of the condominium and with respect to the sales of units in the condominium. All images and designs depicted herein are artist’s conceptual renderings, which are based upon preliminary development plans, and are subject to change without notice in the manner provided in the offering documents. All such materials are not to scale and are shown solely for illustrative purposes.
As we get older, the brain experiences normal age-related changes. It can take a bit longer to find the right word or remember an exact detail. We’re not hearing as well as we used to and might be taking medication that impacts our thinking. When these changes become frequent and more than a minor nuisance, we need to consider that they could reflect more concerning conditions.
Some of these brain changes can be modified or reversed. But they may also represent a progressive brain condition such as Alzheimer’s disease, which warrants more comprehensive attention.
Alzheimer’s disease is one of several neurocognitive disorders and is the most common in later life. It impacts tens of millions of people worldwide, up to 70% of whom are over age 65. At least 50% of people aged 85 are estimated to have Alzheimer’s disease. In addition to older age, there are genetic, medical and lifestyle factors that can increase its risk.
Other types of neurocognitive disorders might result from a stroke, brain injury, infection, heavy alcohol use or chronic medical conditions such as diabetes.
The most important thing to remember is that Alzheimer’s disease and other neurocognitive disorders manifest uniquely in each person. Diagnosis should be made by a geriatric psychiatrist or neurologist who specializes in this area.
Dr. Marc Agronin, Chief Medical Officer of the Frank C. and Lynn Scaduto MIND Institute at Miami Jewish Health, is renowned for his expertise in geriatric psychiatry. His work is dedicated to improving the lives of older adults through innovative research and empathic care.
“There are normal age-related cognitive changes that everyone experiences. On the other hand, our knowledge base, skills, and vocabulary increase with age.”DR. MARC AGRONIN, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER FRANK C. AND LYNN SCADUTO MIND INSTITUTE
“The MIND Institute is a state-designated memory disorder clinic (MDC) that specializes in neurocognitive disorders,” explains Dr. Agronin. “There is a misconception that all neurocognitive disorders are Alzheimer’s disease. That is not true.”
“It requires specialized knowledge and experience to do a comprehensive evaluation and diagnose the presence or absence of Alzheimer’s disease. First, we take a thorough look at the patient’s medical history and their current symptoms. Then, we conduct a screening of memory and other cognitive skills to identify actual changes.”
“We will also perform blood tests, a basic neurological exam, and a brain scan. We look for evidence of certain biomarkers, such as amyloid and tau protein deposits in the brain, reduced brain metabolism, and damage or degeneration of brain tissue. This physical evidence helps us make an accurate Alzheimer’s diagnosis.”
Several risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease have been identified through decades of research, and it is estimated that about 40% of these factors can be modified through brainhealthy behaviors.
“It makes sense to determine your risk of Alzheimer’s disease and modify that risk if you can,” he says. “That’s what our Alzheimer’s Prevention Program is all about. We screen for risks, advise patients of their risk factors, and coach them to adopt a more brain-healthy lifestyle.”
It is also essential to manage chronic health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity. All of these can increase your risk of Alzheimer’s disease. “What is good for your heart is good for your brain,” concludes Dr. Agronin. “Brain-healthy behaviors contribute to overall well-being.”
Behaviors that support brain fitness include:
• Physical Fitness
Staying physically active supports blood flow to the brain
• Healthy Nutrition
Eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, and lean proteins
• Sound Sleep
Getting enough quality sleep each day/night
• Good Oral Health
Taking care of your teeth and reducing gum disease
• Mental Stimulation
Doing puzzles, reading, enjoying music, crafting, or learning new skills
• Social Connections
Maintaining strong relationships and participating in social activities
Learn more about the Alzheimer’s Prevention Program and other breakthrough programs at the Frank C. and Lynn Scaduto MIND Institute at Miami Jewish Health.
See us online at: MiamiJewishHealth.org/MINDInstitute or call 305.704.7894.
MIAMI: SPORTS CAPITAL OF THE WORLD?
He’s five-foot-seven, 36-years-old, and currently one of the biggest driving forces of the South Florida economy. He’s Lionel Messi, soccer’s brightest star, considered by pundits to be the best player of all time – and now, the captain of Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami CF. But Messi’s impact extends much further than just Major League Soccer, or even soccer in general. Because this isn’t just Messi’s moment. It’s Miami’s moment.
The floral industry in Miami is blooming, with Miami International Airport (MIA) responsible for 90 percent of the fresh-cut flowers coming into the U.S. market – itself, the world’s number one importer of fresh flowers. According to MIA Marketing Division Chief Jimmy Nares, the U.S. imported 409,770 tons of flowers by air in 2022 (worth some $3.3 billion), with Colombia and Ecuador alone accounting for three-quarters of this tonnage, all arriving through Miami’s airport.
With the largest multi-modal logistics network in the industry, PayCargo allows for faster release of cargo and improved daily cash flow for all types of freight payments and invoices.
The advent of Lionel Messi as captain and savior of the Inter Miami soccer team is fascinating on so many levels that it will undoubtedly be a subject of study for years to come.
On the most basic level, it is a testimony to the power of one. Here you have the worst team in Major League Soccer, a team that had lost 11 consecutive matches before Messi joined the squad. Then, on his first night on the pitch, the man considered the greatest soccer player of all time literally “bent it like Beckham” with a penalty kick that won the game with minutes to spare. The crowd went mad as team co-owner David Beckham smiled with the pride of an adoring father. Inter Miami went on to win nine consecutive games and the Leagues Cup final.
What also exploded was the popularity of the team. Overnight, its jerseys (or at least Messi’s No. 10) sold out and social media followers jumped from one to 14 million. Tickets that you could hardly give away before Messi’s arrival were fetching more than $1,000 a seat. From there, the economic ripple spread like the roar of the crowd in Fort Lauderdale’s DRV PNK stadium, impacting everything from hotel accommodations and local retail sales to the value of real estate.
The pride which locals now take in our soccer team is rampant, and not entirely unjustified. Everyone knows by now that Messi was offered enormous sums of money to move to Saudi Arabia to play there. He turned this down to come to Miami instead. That speaks volumes about the lure of Miami as a magnet for talent, and as a
multi-cultural city that has for decades been the de-facto capital of Latin America. For Messi, living in Miami was more attractive than the oceans of cash meant to lure him to the Middle East.
As you will read in Kylie Wang’s cover story on the growing importance of international sporting events to the economy of Greater Miami, Messi and Inter Miami are far from the only game in town. All at once, it seems, Miami is becoming a global sports capital, in everything from tennis to racecar driving to mixed martial arts. Even competitive drone racing has come to Miami.
As the season progressed for Inter Miami, something else became apparent as well. It wasn’t just Messi who was scoring goals. Suddenly, players whose performance had been mediocre at best before his arrival became better. As in, much better. In the last game before Messi headed back to Argentina to fulfill his obligations to the national team there, Inter Miami beat MSL’s reigning champion team LAFC in Los Angeles 3 to 1 without a goal by Messi.
Like the city of Miami itself, talent begets talent, and the arrival of even one shining star begins to lift everyone else. Miami is enjoying that virtuous cycle right now, as world-class companies like Citadel, Blackstone, and Kaseya plant their flags here. Suddenly, everyone else wants to become part of the new, best team in the league, and play to a higher level.
PUBLISHER
Richard Roffman
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
J.P. Faber
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Gail Feldman
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Manny Mencia
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WRITERS
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ART DIRECTOR
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PHOTOGRAPHERS
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CIRCULATION & DISTRIBUTION
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Pete De La Torre
BOARD OF ADVISORS
Ivan Barrios, World Trade Center Miami
Ralph Cutié, Miami International Airport
Gary Goldfarb, Interport Logistics
Bill Johnson, Strategic Economic Forum
Roberto Muñoz, Global Financial Group
David Schwartz, FIBA
EDITORIAL BOARD
Alice Ancona, World Trade Center Miami
Greg Chin, Miami International Airport
Paul Griebel, Venture For America
Jerry Haar, Florida International University
James Kohnstamm, Beacon Council
John Price, Americas Market Intelligence
TJ Villamil, Select Florida
Global Miami Magazine is published monthly by Global Cities Media, LLC. 1200 Anastasia Ave., Suite 217, Coral Gables, FL 33134. Telephone: (305) 452-0501. Copyright 2023 by Global Cities Media. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part of any text, photograph, or illustration without o\prior written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Send address changes to subscriptions@ globalmiamimagazine.com. General mailbox email and letters to editor@globalmiamimagazine.com
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The Economist, the British weekly magazine focusing on international affairs, recently ranked Miami at first place amid the top 10 prominent global cities, ahead of Singapore at No. 2, Dubai at No. 3, and New York at No. 4. This index, published in June, considered four different metrics during the past three years: GDP growth, population growth, real estate prices, and office vacancies.
As an international business advisor, it’s been a natural choice for me to be based in Miami and Singapore for my business advisory, which focuses on market-entry strategy in the U.S. and ASEAN markets. And as a resident of both, it’s easy for me to compare these two cities that at first seem so different (and indeed are) but also share many common features from both business and lifestyle perspectives.
GFCI 33 index published in March 2023.
Miami and Singapore are both culturally diverse and display sophisticated authenticity, a breed of cities that became what they are because of unique combinations of factors – such as a geographic challenge turned into a strategic advantage.
Miami lies on the southeast corner of Florida, the southernmost tip of the continental United States. With a population of 6.25 million, the Greater Miami Metropolitan Area (i.e., South Florida’s three counties of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach) stretches along a 100 mile-long, fiveto-19 mile-wide strip of land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Everglades. It has been a natural strategic hub connecting the U.S. with Caribbean and Latin American markets.
Singapore lies at the southernmost tip of the Malay peninsula, with a population of six million. It is an island-state that stretches 31 miles-wide east-to-west, and 16 miles northto-south. It is a strategic location at the core of the rich ASEAN marketplace comprising 10 countries in Southeast Asia, and a gateway to China and the Asia-Pacific region.
Antonio Acunzo is co-founder & CEO of MTW GROUP-Foreign Market Entry Advisors, an international business advisory company based in Miami. MTW GROUP works with SMEs looking to expand in the U.S., Europe, and Asia through joint ventures, M&A, FDI, and export.
Singapore is typically compared to other Asia-Pacific business hubs for a wide variety of criterion, ranging from business and trade performance to quality of life, cost of living, and lifestyle, with Singapore and Hong Kong as the most familiar city-pair juxtaposition. But Miami and Singapore have long been doppelgangers as global business hubs, raising the bar for city quality and setting new standards for business environment, urban landscape, and attractiveness for investors, start-ups, and new business ventures.
Miami is a world icon, not only a gateway for business but a reference for lifestyle. For years, it has been driving and adding new trends in art, design, luxury residences, hospitality, fashion, and style. Singapore has been business-driven, resulting in being today a uniquely business-friendly, corruption-free, bureaucracy-free business environment that has elevated the island state to No. 3 in the list of Global Financial Centers, only 37 points from New York (No. 1) and eight points from London (No. 2) as per the
Both Miami and Singapore also developed from the vision of their founding fathers. Miami blossomed to global leadership in just a century, from a small city incorporated in 1896 (population: 300) with the driving engine (literally) of a new railroad. That transportation link arrived thanks to the vision of railroad magnate Henry Flagler, known as the father of Miami. He was instrumental in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida, from Jacksonville in the north to Key West in the south.
Singapore was born thanks to the enlightened vision of its founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, who engineered the independence of the city-state from Malaysia in 1965. His contribution to the design and development of the city-state took it from the Third World to the First World in just four decades, to become what is known today as the Singapore Model of Economic Development.
Both Miami and Singapore are also global trading hubs on the edge of huge markets.
Singapore has forged an extensive net-
work of 27 effective Free Trade Agreements, including the FTA with the U.S. (signed in 2003). It caters to the emerging and developing ASEAN marketplace, which comprises a population of 688 million, with a GDP of $3.6 trillion dollars. The Port of Singapore ranks as the world’s top transshipment port, the busiest port in terms of shipping tonnage, and the second-largest in the world after the Chinese Port of Shanghai. In 2022, it recorded the movement of 37.3 million containers, aka TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units, based on the standard length of intermodal containers).
Half a world away, PortMiami is the closest U.S. port to the Panama Canal, strategically situated as the nexus between Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe, making it an ideal transshipment hub. With a recorded movement of 1,197,663 TEUs in 2022, Miami is the Cargo Gateway of the Americas, a crossroad between the world’s largest and most diversified economy – the U.S.A. – and the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. It links markets comprising a population of 508 million between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, three countries united by the USMCA Free Trade Agreement that went into effect in 2020, replacing the previous NAFTA.
Both cities also have vibrant airports. Singapore Changi airport was voted World’s Best Airport this year by Skytrax for the 12th time, and in 2022, over 31.9 million passengers transited through this outstanding facility. While that is far from the 68.3 million passengers recorded in 2019 before COVID decimated worldwide air traffic, Changi is on a recovery trajectory to regain its domination in the top 10 global airports by international passengers after Dubai International and London Heathrow.
Unfortunately for the U.S., there’s no U.S. airport in the top 20 world’s best. The first U.S. airport on the list is Seattle-Tacoma at No. 18; Miami International does not even make the top 100. Notwithstanding, Miami International airport (MIA) ranks as the No. 1 U.S. airport for international passengers (ahead of New York’s JFK airport), with a record 50.6 million passengers in 2022.
On the cargo side, the situation is reversed, with Miami International Airport ranking No. 8 as the world’s busiest airport by cargo volume in 2022, handling 2.5 million tons. Singapore’s Changi airport was No. 17 with a total of 1.85 million tons.
Another common trait between Miami and Singapore is continuous development in luxury residential real estate. In Miami right
now, there are 77 new luxury residential condos under construction and expected to be ready by 2025, bringing an additional 11,500 luxury condo units to a residential market that stretches east from the I-95 highway to the Atlantic Ocean. Among these condos, many are residences by iconic luxury brands, such as St.Regis, Ritz-Carlton, Mandarin Oriental, and Aston Martin.
In Singapore right now, 58 new luxury residential condos are under construction, of which 10 are particularly high-end, adding 4,747 luxury units to the Singapore inventory. Many of the new properties are designed by internationally acclaimed architects, collecting international awards, including landmarks like Reflections at Keppel Bay, designed by the deconstructivism archi-star
On the leisure side, Miami is the “Cruise Capital of the World”, with over four million cruise passengers transiting PortMiami in 2022, and over 1.7 million via Port Everglades in nearby Fort Lauderdale. Singapore, at the same time, aims at becoming Asia’s passenger cruise hub after the opening of the Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore in 2012, a $500 million state-ofthe-art facility which welcomed 1.2 million cruise passengers in 2022.
Miami and Singapore are undoubtedly top of class, true Alpha Cities setting the benchmark for global trade hubs, unique cities with a rare vibe and strong identities that redefine their business and lifestyle environments, taking them to the next level. l
To be at the forefront takes vision and sometimes guts. However, the reward is worth the risk. At Pacific National Bank, we believe in those always striving to break the mold. It’s part of your DNA to be a leader. We admire you for doing things differently. We’ve been doing it for years in our own industry, creating unique solutions to fit our clients’ distinct needs. Drop by and experience banking like you never have before.
Western Union’s incident response team (aka cybersecurity specialists) took home first place at the International Cyber League’s Americas Cyber Cup, a realistic cybersecurity tournament. Hosted by Miami-Dade College and Cyberbit, the League put international teams of cybersecurity pros to the test by placing them in a “cyber range” where they had to defend against simulated cyberattacks. More than 100 teams joined the competition held at MDC, where the Cybersecurity Center of the Americas is located.
Downtown Miami and the Brickell financial district are seeing a flurry of new activity.
KEY INTERNATIONAL has filed a pre-application with Miami-Dade County planners for a 51-story office tower on Brickell Avenue, designed by leading architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The building will have 704,000-square-feet of offices, 7,500-squarefeet of retail, and a 1,065-space garage.
Jeeves, a Miami-based provider of financial operating systems for global companies, is expanding its services by now offering prepaid cards and cross-border payment capabilities for clients. According to Jeeves CEO Dileep Thazhmon, this will allow customers to transfer money in and out of Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico within 24 hours, which usually takes up to seven days. Customers can make payments to vendors and suppliers in over 150 countries using their local currencies.
Miami-based Global Crossings Airlines Group Inc. (Global X) announced the closing of $35M in financing with Axar Capital Management LLC, due for repayment in 2029. Most of the funds will be used to pay off the company’s existing loans and expand its aircraft fleet. Global X has also announced plans to further expand its operations in the cargo market. The company aims to acquire up to eight A321 aircraft by 2024, which will be deployed in the U.S. and Latin America. Additionally, Global X plans to introduce Airbus A330s for both passenger and freight operations in 2024, for long-haul routes.
THE DEVELOPERS OF the prestigious 830 Brickell office tower, Oko Group and Cain International, have increased their construction loan by $57M, bringing the total to $357M.
NEW YORK-BASED developer RFR has filed a pre-application with Miami-Dade County officials to build a 104-story tower in Downtown Miami on Biscayne Boulevard. At 1,047-feet, it will be two feet shorter than the nearby Waldorf Astoria Hotel & Residences Miami, which will become the tallest building in Florida upon completion.
Schindler, a provider of vertical transportation solutions based in Switzerland, has renewed its five-year maintenance contract with Miami-Dade County. Schindler will continue maintaining elevators, escalators, and moving walkways that transport over 60 million passengers a year at Miami International Airport and across Miami-Dade Transit’s Metromover system.
“American Idol,” “X-Factor,” and “America’s Got Talent” judge Simon Cowell has invested in Miami-based Harry Blu’s Distillery. As a new co-owner, Cowell plans to help the gin brand move outside of Florida and into international markets. We’re impressed that he actually approved of something.
BNP PARIBAS OPENS NEW MIAMI OFFICE
BNP Paribas Securities Corp., a subsidiary of Europe’s leading bank BNP Paribas, will open a new office at 801 Brickell Avenue in Miami’s financial hub to focus on credit, equities, and macro products. It is expected to open in November with about 10 to 20 employees, with plans to expand staff to about 25 to 50 over the next year. Matt O’Connor has been named head of BNP Paribas Securities Corp.’s new Miami office, while Annabella Espina will be the office’s chief operating officer.
MIA
Miami International Airport (MIA) is expanding its use of facial recognition software for traveler identification, designed to replace government-issued documents. Coming after its busiest year, and
a preliminary test at several gates, MIA is planning to install facial scanners at 20 departure gates by the end of September and at all of the airport’s 120-plus gates by next summer.
Biotech firm ArisGlobal plans to move its headquarters from Coral Gables to Boston to be closer to customers. The main office is set to move to the Boston suburb of Waltham, a hub for the biotech industry where other companies like Boston Scientific and Pfizer are headquartered.
now choose between two vehicle types: inDrive (four-seater vehicles) and inDrive XL (six-seater vehicles). The company was founded in 2012 in Russia and then expanded to South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia before launching its first U.S. market in Miami. The service offers customers to “pay what they wish” – allowing the driver to decide if the trip is worth what the customer offers. inDrive will not charge drivers a commission, thus allowing them to take home 100 percent of each fare (minus airport fees and highway tolls). Globally, inDrive charges around 10 percent of each ride, the lowest among ridesharing companies. In Miami, inDrive will maintain a minimum ride price to ensure drivers are compensated fairly.
To prepare for the 2026 World Cup, FIFA has opened a 60,000square-foot office in the Miami suburb of Coral Gables. The news comes a month after Lionel Messi joined the Inter Miami team. Miami will be one of 11 host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament.
In related news, South Florida’s Royal Caribbean International is now a major Inter Miami sponsor and its official vacation partner through a multiyear partnership. The cruise line’s logo will be featured on Inter Miami’s home pitch DRV PNK Stadium, as well as on the soccer club’s social media platforms.
American Airlines plans to expand seat capacity to and from Miami International Airport this winter by 10 percent over last year. This comes after American announced its plans for a record 380 daily flights departing from Miami International Airport this winter.
Amerijet has carried out its first flight to Mexico’s newly designated cargo hub Felipe Ángeles International Airport from Miami International Airport. The Miami-based airline is now providing weekly freighter service to and from Felipe Ángeles Airport – about 30 miles north of Mexico City – after the decision to shift operations from the capital’s Benito Juarez International Airport.
inDrive, an international ridesharing app with over 150 million downloads in 48 countries, will expand its services in South Florida after launching in Miami in July. When requesting a ride, passengers can
Tecnoglass, a manufacturer of architectural windows, glass, and related aluminum products for residential and commercial buildings, has just moved its global headquarters from Barranquilla, Colombia to Miami. The move aims to further strengthen the company’s presence in the U.S., where most of its clients are from. The new global headquarters is located within one of the company’s existing facilities in Miami, with plans to purchase additional land to build a showroom and new executive office over the next 12 to 18 months. The company’s current corporate offices in Barranquilla will continue to serve as an operational and administrative center.
Miami-based international architecture and design company
Varabyeu is partnering with One Homes, a Pakistani real estate development group, for a new $180M mixed-use development project in the capital city of Islamabad. The partnership aims to build a landmark destination for the high-end real estate market. l
Trade numbers are an interesting thing. Though trade statistics are lagging indicators, they still reveal important trends. And while the numbers from the first half of 2023 for Miami tell a unique story, the headwinds and tailwinds of global trade for the entire U.S. are also important factors affecting our trade. So, let’s begin with a quick notation of the larger trends that also impact Miami:
• Mexico overtook China this year as the U.S.’ top trading partner
• China exports fell at the steepest pace since 2020
• Inflation unevenly impacted consumer demand
• The U.S. trade deficit contracted 4.1% to $65.5 billion in June With this as context, let’s look at Miami Customs Trade District data. U.S. Customs district 52 (Miami) is comprised of the following ports: Miami International Airport (MIA), Port of Key West, PortMiami, Port Everglades, Ft. Lauderdale International Airport, West Palm Beach International Airport, and Port of Palm Beach. The most significant movers of trade/cargo are MIA, PortMiami and Port Everglades. Customs trade data collection is not perfect and undercounts our trade with important trading partners such as Mexico and Canada, as our trade with these countries generally moves by truck and by train. This data also measures merchandise trade, which includes goods made elsewhere, but does not reveal Miami’s large surplus in the trade of services.
During the first half of the year, Miami’s trading scene for the most part showcased steady trade levels, with a few stand-out changes. Trade with China dipped by 6.7 percent, while Mexico enjoyed a boost of 4.24 percent, mirroring U.S. trends. A notable highlight was Miami’s maritime trade growth: containerized (ocean) trade grew over 9 percent, powered by a 24 percent rise in such imports from Mexico. This growth underscores the success of The Florida-Mexico Work Group on Maritime Commerce, co-established by the Florida Ports Council and Mexico’s Coordinación General de Puertos y Marina Mercante-DGCPMM (see story pg 36). I proudly stand as a co-founder, and the World Trade Center Miami fervently backs our mission, even spearheading a 2022 trade mission to Mexico.
A quick snapshot of 2022-23 year-to-date numbers reveal the overall trade ebbs and flows. Total imports marginally grew, whereas exports shrank by 1.19 percent. Multiple factors influence these dynamics, including inflation’s drag on consumer goods demand. An example? Vietnam, previously riding high in the China trade tussle, saw a nearly 20 percent reduction in exports to Miami as consumer goods demand slumped. On the flip side, we witnessed impressive import spikes from:
• Costa Rica, up by 28%, fueled by a 98% increase in Electrical Equipment imports.
• Brazil, climbing 24.5%, owing to a 260% spike in Aviation imports.
• Germany, escalating almost 24%, thanks to a 57% increase in Machinery imports.
• The UK, surging around 22%, propelled by a remarkable Petroleum influx of over 1000%.
When it comes to exports, Paraguay led with a 37% annual growth. As the top U.S. state exporting to Paraguay, Florida’s growth was driven by surges in Pharmaceuticals, Watches, Office Machines, and Chemical Fertilizers. The latter’s rise could be linked to Paraguay outpacing Argentina in soybean production. Other growing export markets include:
• The Bahamas, rising nearly 26% on the back of a 155% increase of Yacht and boat growth.
• Mexico, up over 19% due to an over 160% Aviation Parts boom. However, not all was rosy. Exports to the UK plunged, mainly from a 57 percent drop in Pharmaceuticals – a sector Miami had relied on for consistent growth. Exports also dropped to Honduras, Argentina, and Colombia, countries experiencing economic downturns and/or political unrest. All in all, Miami’s trading partners experienced quite a whirlwind. The upcoming months promise more twists and turns. Stay tuned! l
Alice E. Ancona is COO and a senior vice president of the World Trade Center Miami. Data source (U.S. Census & International Trade Administration)
The United Kingdom’s Consul General in Miami, Rufus Drabble, started his role in Miami just over a year ago. Since then, he has collaborated on multiple trade missions, promoted investment in UK-targeted sectors, and worked on a Memorandum of Understanding with Florida. The Consul General’s
It is different, that’s for sure. Probably the closest posting I’ve done to Miami was Singapore. It was very similar in terms of the very compressed high rises. There was not a lot of space in Singapore. It was also quite hot and humid, so I’m rather delighted when I am in an air-conditioned office or an air-conditioned car, which seems to be the way people survive at this time of year here. There are similarities to Singapore in terms of the hustle and bustle that Miami has, but [it’s] very different from some of the other postings I’ve done in Kenya and Afghanistan.
Trade is a big part of what we do. The political outreach and engagement are really important, and I’m delighted to say we’re number two in terms of international tourists to Florida, including Miami. Sadly, the Canadians consistently beat us — not that we have a competition. But the Brits bring a lot of money. We tend to spend more…
Before COVID we had almost 1.2 million British tourists coming over [annually] to spend money here, which is fantastic… In 2021, British tourists spent $323 million in Miami-Dade County. British FDI [foreign direct investment] is still number one in Florida.
Aviation and aerospace are our main sectors and [aircraft parts are] one of the top Florida exports to the UK…. We’ve got some interesting companies that are now based in Florida, up in Melbourne and Cape Canaveral, but also in the UK. We’re working on … niche expertise, be it on the solar arrays that often go up into space or microsatellites. We’ve got some other sectors in slightly more niche areas like micro-processing AI. We’re also looking at the next phase of space exploration, which will be manufacturing in space.
previous role was in The Netherlands as regional director for consular and crisis work across Europe and Central Asia. He has also served in Tunisia, Singapore, Afghanistan, Norway, and Kenya. We sat with Consul General Drabble to discuss the strong Miami/UK economic relationship.
What are some sectors of cross-collaboration between the UK and Miami?
Engagement with the American enforcement agencies, be it the police, CIA, etc. A huge amount of the drugs that come from Latin America and the Caribbean come into America and Canada and from there move to Europe. In fact, the route from Miami to Rotterdam is known as a significant worry in terms of illegal people, drugs, weapons, etc., making it into Europe and from Europe to the UK…. And then the other one worth mentioning is what we call resilience – making everything more floodproof… There are quite a large number of UK companies that are well involved in flood protection, storm surge protection, and making buildings hurricane-proof.
We don’t have a free trade agreement with America. But what we are doing in the UK – and this is particularly as a result of Brexit – is trying to expand some of the markets other than Europe. We have been looking to build what we call trade memorandums of understanding, which is a sort of long-winded way of saying a bilateral trade agreement. But we’re doing it at a state level rather than a federal one. We’ve already done five in Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Oklahoma, but we’re currently doing one with Florida.
At the moment, it’s getting folks in the UK to look up from what’s been a really tough financial period and start to be brave and look to expand elsewhere. Lots of companies have made a success of it, but they tend to be some of the larger companies that have a bit more resources… The economic situation was not helped by oil and gas prices, by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and by competition across Europe. But I’m confident that we’re already starting to see an improvement in business confidence in the UK. l
BY KATELIN STECZ
Every 24 hours, JanSteel USA’s production facilities in Medley and Opa-Locka crank out roughly 20 chassis. Operating the entire day in northwest Miami-Dade County, workers come in and out on shifts, all with the same mission: produce as many high-quality chassis as possible.
You might not know what a chassis is, but you’ve definitely seen them. Similar to a semi-trailer, a chassis is attached to a truck cab to transport shipping containers. They are an integral part of logistics and shipping industries all over the world, providing the final link from sea to land. JanSteel hopes to capitalize on Miami’s location as a major port to become the leading chassis manufacturer in the United States.
JanSteel started out in Israel in 2004, manufacturing trailers, sheet metal, and other trucking equipment. In 2020, the company opened up its U.S. division in Mami, specializing in the production of chassis. They began with one facility in Medley and then recently added another in Opa-Locka. They also have a warehouse near the port of Jacksonville.
Rotem Dayan, vice president of sales and marketing in the United States, says that Miami was the perfect location to open up JanSteel’s U.S. division, for a number of reasons. PortMiami ensures a local demand for the product, and there are no other major chassis manufacturers in the southeastern corner of the United States that can produce at JanSteel’s level. According to Dayan, since JanSteel started operating in South Florida, it has produced 5,000 to 6,000 chassis each year.
Dayan also says JanSteel opened in the U.S. at the perfect time. He cites the chassis shortage created by the pandemic, which gave the company an opportunity to thrive and kickstart its production.
Currently, JanSteel’s U.S. division only operates out of Florida, but Dayan says the company intends to expand. “We plan on going nationwide. We already have a lot of big companies looking to place orders.” One of these companies is Walmart, which recently placed an order for 800 chassis.
For smaller businesses or customers who aren’t ready to purchase a chassis, they can lease them through JanSteel’s exclusive partner, K.R. Chassis Leasing & Rental. A few months ago, JanSteel partnered with K.R. to expand its brand. John Matheus, the director of sales and operations at K.R., says that his company’s partnership with JanSteel is symbiotic.
“Now, JanSteel still has an option for someone when they don’t want to buy but still want a lease option. They just send them over to us. Our entire fleet is JanSteel. We don’t deal with any other brand,” says Matheus. “It’s a win-win for everybody. JanSteel gets their chassis out to us, and then we get their chassis out to more customers.” Despite JanSteel’s U.S. division being relatively new in Miami, it
shows big promise for the Israeli company. In 2022, the company’s combined revenue for both its Israeli and U.S. divisions was $38 million. In 2023, the company is projected to bring in $70 million, nearly doubling its income, says Dayan – with the majority of growth coming from its U.S. production facilities. “We have a lot of potential for growth, and we’re now starting to see where we can go,” he says. l
We plan on going nationwide. We already have a lot of big companies looking to place orders...
ROTEM DAYAN, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES AND MARKETINGTHE JANSTEEL CHASSIS MANUFACTURING PLANT IN MIAMI CAPITALIZES ON BEING CLOSE TO A MAJOR PORT
In the world of credit-rating agencies, three U.S.-based firms dominate: Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch. But a Mexican company that has become a major player in its homeland is now making its mark in the United States too, with an office opened in the Miami area.
HR Ratings recently moved its U.S. headquarters to MiamiDade County’s leafy city of Coral Gables, where founder and chairman Alberto Ramos now splits his time with his Mexico City hub. Plans call for hiring a team of research analysts at the Gables office over the next few years, he says.
Gaining ground in the credit-rating market has been no easy feat for HR Ratings. The industry is heavily regulated, with authorizations needed from government agencies in each country, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Organizations that require credit-rating reports are accustomed to dealing with the three longtime leaders. Only a few rivals have built significant market share in their countries, mainly in Japan – and now, Mexico. “In India, when local credit-rating agencies gained a strong presence, the big firms bought them out,” says Ramos.
HR Ratings got its start in 2007 when Ramos and business partner Anibal Habeica opted to leave their jobs as research analysts with top global banks in Mexico and embark on their own. “It was one of those crazy ideas that you think of when you’re young,” he jokes. The unfolding global financial crisis raised questions about the world’s financial architecture, and the duo saw an opportunity – at
least in their nation of 120 million-plus people.
By 2012, with a solid base in Mexico, the duo decided to expand into the United States, securing SEC approval and setting up in Texas, often the first stop for Mexican ventures in the U.S. Ramos then shifted the U.S. office to New York City to grow further. But with many New York finance companies moving to Miami since the start of the pandemic, he too saw opportunity to the south – especially with the multi-cultural talent available in Miami that’s familiar with both U.S. and Latin American financial markets.
“We also were looking for a hub with easy transport links to Mexico and across the U.S.,” says Ramos, noting that multiple airlines offer daily flights between Miami and HR Ratings’ home base in Mexico City, the metro area now home to more than 22 million people.
To expand in the U.S. market, HR Ratings has been working mainly with private firms, many required by insurance companies or banks to obtain credit-ratings for their debt issues. So far, it’s completed more than 300 ratings for U.S. clients, competing with market veterans by offering more detailed credit analyses with greater transparency, and by emphasizing the independence of their research. Over time, the company aims to broaden its U.S. client base, like it has in Mexico, where it works with such giants as state-owned oil company Pemex and finance-retail group Elektra, rating assets from infrastructure to public finance and stock issues.
HR Ratings’ expansion comes amid strong growth in Mexican investments in the Miami area. More than two dozen Mexican companies now operate in South Florida, according to Jonathan Chait Auerbach, Mexico’s consul general in Miami. Among the largest ones: Grupo Mexico, the mining-railroad giant that bought Florida East Coast Railways in 2017 in a $2.1 billion deal, and Agave Holdings, linked to the Jose Cuervo tequila family, which is developing the $700 million-plus The Plaza Coral Gables with offices, residences, a Loews hotel, and retail. That Gables complex is right near HR Ratings’ new office on Ponce de Leon Boulevard. l
We also were looking for a hub with easy transport links to Mexico and across the U.S....ALBERTO RAMOS, FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN OF MEXICO-BASED HR RATINGS
Our personal injury law firm has obtained in excess of a billion dollars in verdicts and recoveries for clients and is recognized as a leader in plaintiffs’ personal injury and wrongful death, class actions, mass torts, and other areas of litigation
Colson Hicks Eidson, one of Miami’s oldest and most accomplished law firms, is considered among the top trial firms in the United States, having won hundreds of multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements for its clients.
Our personal injury lawyers have a long history of serving individuals, groups of individuals and businesses in a wide range of lawsuits. Our trial attorneys are highly regarded for their depth of legal experience, responsiveness to client concerns and ethical tactics, both inside and outside of the courtroom. Our law firm receives respect throughout the legal community, which recognizes Colson Hicks Eidson for its various distinguished achievements.
We are or have been actively engaged in the following and many other cases:
• Takata Airbags MDL
• Champlain Plaza
• Allergan Biocell MDL
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• Parkland Shootings
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• 3M Combat Earplugs MDL
• BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
• Ford Firestone MDL
• Toyota Sudden Acceleration MDL
• Zantac MDL
• Camp LeJeune Contamination Claims
The Italian Ministry of Culture declared Harry’s Bar a national landmark in 2001, but its story began 70 years earlier, in 1931, when Giuseppe Cipriani (pronounced “chee-pree-ah-nee”) opened the now legendary establishment at the mouth of the Grand Canal in Venice. According to company lore, the bar was named after a young American patron, Harry Pickering, who frequented the Hotel Europa where Cipriani worked as bartender. Noticing that Harry was dropping by less frequently, he asked why, and the young American admitted his family had cut him off financially. Cipriani generously loaned the young man 10,000 lire (approximately $500 at the time). Two years later, Pickering returned the loan, adding another 40,000 lire out of gratitude, enough for Cipriani to open his own bar.
In the decades that followed, Harry’s Bar became a watering hole for the world’s glitterati, a favorite haunt of Ernest Hemingway, as well as celebrities such as Humphrey Bogart, Maria Callas, Peggy Guggenheim, and George Clooney, to name a handful.
Giuseppe Cipriani is also credited with two inventions that are integral to today’s international culinary lexicon: Carpaccio, which it is said he created for a Venetian countess because she had been instructed by her doctor only to eat raw meat, and the Bellini cocktail, a combination of Prosecco and peach purée, which employs the delicious white peaches abundant in the Veneto region.
Fast forward to members of the fourth generation of the Cipriani family, the brothers Ignazio and Maggio, who launched Mr. C Hotels and Residences in Beverly Hills in 2001. Eight years later, the Mr. C hotel arrived in Miami’s Coconut Grove. New residential properties will debut soon in Dubai, as well as on Miami’s Bayshore Drive, while restaurants are scheduled to open in Dubai this November and in Coconut Grove next February. Plans are also underway for new South Florida Mr. C hotels in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. An aggressive expansion program includes projects in Canada and Saudi Arabia. The brothers’ other current ventures include Casa Cipriani private membership clubs in Milan and New York.
Here in Miami, the Mr. C in Coconut Grove is exemplary of the brand. Jaime Stuyck, an elegant Madrileño and the hotel’s general manager, explained how the idea for Mr. C Hotels and Residences was hatched. The two Cipriani brothers, who had grown up traveling around the world, found gaps in the American hotel market. First, there seemed to be an unfulfilled desire for relaxed environments that reflected informal, contemporary, affluent lifestyles, and second, they perceived a chronic lack of the flair and personal service to which American travelers in Europe had become accustomed. And, of course, it was exactly this combination of oldstyle glamour and studied informality that was key to the appeal
and success of the original Harry’s Bar.
Stuyck was happy to say that occupancy had returned to pre-pandemic levels and that the hotel’s restaurants were invariably full. He attributed this to the exponential growth of Miami’s financial community; once a hotel primarily aimed at leisure travelers, Mr. C Miami has seen a big spike in business clientele, including new corporate accounts opening.
Mr. C is clearly a brand in the ascendant. Judging by the comfort of the accommodations, the excellence of the cuisine and the quality of the personal service, the success of Mr. C Miami is entirely well-deserved. Ninety-two years after Giuseppe Cipriani opened his iconic bar, his legacy appears to be thriving in the hands of his energetic descendants. l
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We’ll take it from here. PortEverglades.net
The web of challenges that international expansion presents often leaves even the most seasoned entrepreneurs grappling for effective strategies. Programs and agencies for start-ups emerge as beacons of guidance and support for expansion. By understanding the intricacies of different markets, support agencies can offer insights, provide guidance, and arrange crucial connections. In essence, governmental and private non-profit programs pave the way for international growth by local start-ups.
Enter Eyal Shats, co-founder and chief strategy officer at SimpliRoute. A Chilean native, Shats started his smart logistics company in Chile in 2014, hoping to eventually expand beyond domestic borders. The use of such facilitators has been crucial for his company’s entry into the U.S. market.
SimpliRoute is a route optimization firm for both small businesses and big-name customers like Walmart, helping manage delivery routes using an algorithm engine that offers a range of features such as route planning, real-time tracking, vehicle and resource management, analytics, and reporting. Their value proposition is to make the delivery chain more efficient and cost effective.
SimpliRoute took advantage of several start-up programs, such as Chile’s economic development agency CORFO and Startup Chile. Shats says this helped prepare him for the realities of global expansion, because, as he says, “The vision was always going global.” The programs also provided a platform to raise some initial capital, after which SimpliRoute was selected to participate in the 500 Startups Program in Silicon Valley for a year. When exposed to the multi-faceted world of international markets through the 500 program, the company began its plan to expand. By 2017, SimpliRoute had 120 employees and had opened offices in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, and Paraguay (Brazil would come later). The goal was to target LatAm first, before expanding to other regions.
Three years later (2020), SimpliRoute raised a Series A investment round of $3 million, which was backed by Miami-based TheVentureCity, a global early-stage venture fund. To further the company’s international presence, Shats met with different investors in the U.S. but found it difficult to interest them in the LatAm region. “But TheVentureCity is different because they are looking for talent everywhere, not just in the U.S.,” explains Shats. “We wanted to expand our networking and also enter the U.S., so it was a perfect fit.”
Last year, SimpliRoute raised another $8 million to support its growth in North America and is now focusing on expanding their services across the U.S. in states like Florida, Texas, and Colorado.
Shats, who moved to Miami earlier this year, is leading the charge for further U.S. expansion. “As I’m building our network here [in Miami], we are also leveraging our big clients, like the corporate and enterprise clients we have in LatAm. For example,
we have Walmart in Chile, Central America, and Mexico. So, we are leveraging these kinds of clients to work with them in the U.S.” They used a similar strategy in LatAm. “We acquired many [small] customers to be able to develop our algorithm, and then we went to an enterprise solution. After acquiring clients like Walmart and Falabella, a huge retailer in Chile, we then went to Mexico and Peru using the same customers to enter the new country,” says Shats. The startup’s software has now been used to complete more than 50 million deliveries for over 1,000 customers in 26 countries.
“One of the main reasons we moved here [Miami] was because of TheVentureCity and all the help and support we had gotten,” says Shats. “As they always say, ‘There’s no zip code for talent.’” l
As I’m building our network here [in Miami], we are also leveraging our big clients, like the corporate and enterprise clients we have in LatAm...
EYAL SHATS, CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER AT SIMPLIROUTE
World Trade Center Miami, the largest and oldest trade association in Miami, is part of the World Trade Center Association global business network of 315 World Trade Centers in 92 countries with over two million members.
Whether your business is looking to find your next customer, expand to international markets or make global connections we have the resources, services and decades of expertise to successfully grow your bottom line.
• The annual Americas Food and Beverage Show now in its 27th year – the ideal meeting place for decision makers and buyers from all sectors of the global food and beverage industry.
• The Air Cargo Americas Show, now in its 17th year, held bi-annually, brings together top executives from all sectors of the aviation and logistics industry.
• The Supply Chain Americas Conference is held annually and in conjunction with the Air Cargo Americas Show is one of the leading events focused on innovation and resiliency in the global supply chain.
• Air Cargo Americas/Supply Chain Americas Show & Conference: October 31-November 2, 2023
• State of the Ports: November 2023
Armenian serial entrepreneur Hovhannes Avoyan thought he was done founding startups – until he wasn’t. While in the process of selling his fifth company, he noticed his then 10-year-old daughter in tears from cyberbullying. She was attacked for putting her quirky artwork online. In a girl-dad moment, he instantly began thinking of ways for his daughter to be able to express her creativity in a positive environment. The result was Picsart.
Picsart is an AI-powered platform where people can create, customize, and share images and videos. “I’m thinking this may be my last startup, so I wanted to make something for her [Avoyan’s daughter] and people like her to be creative, where she can get more encouragement to develop talent through the community – and tools,” says Avoyan.
Founded in 2011, the Picsart application was first developed as a stand-alone tool to help people alter photo images on their phones. Now, Picsart has amassed one of the largest AI-powered open-source content collections, which allows creators of all levels to design, edit, draw, and share photo and video content anywhere.
Picsart was first made available only on Androids. Avoyan felt that helped boost the brand because, at the time, Androids were more popular around the globe. It was also one of the first Android apps on Google’s App Store. Now available in 30-plus languages (and on other platforms, including Apple), Picsart has more than 150 million active monthly users making one billion monthly edits, and is used personally and professionally by consumers, marketers, content creators, and businesses.
Backed by well-known investors such as SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, and DCM Ventures (along with others), Picsart has raised $195 million in venture capital to date with a company valuation nearing $1.5 billion, making it the first tech unicorn born in Armenia.
The design platform moved its headquarters to Miami from San Francisco a little over two years ago. Prior to that, Picsart ran most of its operations in Avoyan’s native Armenia. Now the company has over 1,000 employees in offices in Berlin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, New York, Romania, San Francisco, Toronto, and Yerevan. “I moved because it was much easier to create a hub in Miami – with the time zones, the connections, and my personal lifestyle. I also enjoy the vibrant scene of Miami. It’s very diverse, entertaining, and artistic too,” says Avoyan. “So, it’s like we got closer to our users in a sense, especially with Miami hosting Art Basel.”
With more than 25 years of experience in computer programming and software development, Avoyan is a huge advocate for implementing technology as a tool – specifically AI. When Picsart was first founded, AI was still a topic of theoretical interest in academia. Now, according to a recent report by Forbes, some 37 percent of businesses in the U.S. are adopting AI in some form. “We are seeing a radical shift in terms of how AI can be used,” says the CEO. “I see AI not as a replacement for creativity, but more like a co-pilot for creative people.”
In 2017, Picsart launched one of the first AI filters, which altered – and often improved – images. Last year, the app released AI fonts, which uses generative AI to analyse existing fonts – including your own handwriting – to create new variations. Picsart also added an AI Image Generator and an AI Writer, which makes images and copy using generative AI, and this year launched a new standalone app called SketchAI, which turns sketches into digital art. “My approach is to make AI the most powerful co-pilot for creative people and encourage them to use these opportunities to create even better content more efficiently,” says Avoyan. l
BY JOSEPH A. MANN JR.
Last year, the State of Florida imported $9.6 billion worth of goods from Mexico, mostly cars, trucks, auto parts, and tequila. Almost all of it came by land, most of it trucked from Mexico via congested border crossings in Texas. In the opposite direction, Florida exported $4 billion in products, also by truck and train, mostly dairy and aerospace products. Now, PortMiami and private companies are working to redirect billions of dollars of that containerized cargo trade to ships linking Miami with eastern Mexican seaports.
The argument for redirecting trade to sea routes is primarily financial. PortMiami officials say that the water route between Miami and Mexico can save around $2,000 per container on shipping costs, as much as three days in transportation time, and eliminate other complications such as duplicate documentation checks at the border, changing drivers, switching equipment, and other hassles.
Another major advantage is PortMiami’s intermodal capacity, since it has a direct link with Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) and its cargo network. Mexican exports to Florida and the U.S. Southeast through PortMiami can benefit from efficient cargo management, storage capacity for perishables, fast access to the U.S. Interstate highway system, as well as direct rail links to major U.S. markets. And some private sector analysts believe cost savings could be even greater than PortMiami’s estimates.
“We completed a cost comparison from ocean freight to truck on various origins in Mexico and the ocean cost is easily one-quarter of the cost of trucking, and faster,” says Gary Goldfarb, chief strategy officer at Miami-based Interport Logistics. “We do have great expectations,” he says. “But the volume is just now growing” and still in its initial stage.
Indeed, while sea cargo offers “less congestion, less paperwork, less cost, no pilferage,” according to PortMiami, trade between PortMiami and Mexico currently represents less than one percent of total trade for the port. It is, however, expanding as more shippers provide service to Mexican seaports on the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, and as shippers realize the advantages of sending freight to Mexico by sea. PortMiami, Grupo Mexico Transportes (which owns FEC), and Interport are all actively involved in promoting expanded ocean trade with Mexico. And so far this year, sea trade between PortMiami and Mexico has grown by more than 30 percent from the same period in 2022. “And it will continue to grow because of congestion at the land border between the United States and Mexico,” according to a spokesperson for PortMiami’s Cargo Development Division.
The potential to dramatically increase trade between Mexico and PortMiami is considerable. While Florida will never supplant Texas as the leading trade partner with Mexico (last year Texas imported $141.3 billion and exported $144.1 billion worth of goods), the total amount of trade between the U.S. and Mexico totaled $779.3 billion in 2022. This offers PortMiami a great opportunity to expand seaborne shipments to and from Mexico.
Carriers at Port Miami currently offer service to the eastern Mexican ports of Veracruz, Altamira, and Puerto Morales, and there are now three shipping lines that provide service between PortMiami and Mexico, with a new service expected by the end of 2023. Late last year, CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest container shipping company, launched its new service connecting the western Mediterranean to PortMiami and the Mexican ports of Veracruz and Altamira.
PortMiami’s main exports to Mexico currently are waste, scrap paper, and paperboard, while the top imports from Mexico through the port are rubber tires, spirits, and miscellaneous cargo. With new routes by sea, that could all change – and expand to include everything from agricultural products to jet turbines. l
Less congestion, less paperwork, less cost, no pilferage...PORTMIAMI COMMENT ON SEA CARGO TO MEXICO
Mexico’s Grupo Eco was not the first real estate developer to discover the untapped potential of Hallandale, the first municipality north of Miami-Dade County. That accolade goes to Miami’s Related Group, which built the oceanfront Beach Club Hallandale Towers I and II more than a decade ago.
Since then, however, real estate prices have skyrocketed in Greater Miami, making Hallandale even more attractive, luring investments from the likes of the Soffers (of Miami Beach’s Fontainebleau Hotel) and 13th Floor Investments (of Miami’s Link at Douglas). The growing interest even caught the attention of The New York Post, which recently said Hallandale Beach was racing to become “South Florida’s buzziest city.”
That same realization has now prompted Grupo Eco to expand their Atlantic Village culinary and lifestyle center in Hallandale to include Class A offices, padel courts, and additional 5-star restaurants. The potential even caused the developer to move its headquarters from Mexico to Atlantic Village. It hopes doctors, lawyers, accountants, and other professionals will follow suit, buying suites in a new Class A office condo tower that is due to be completed by year’s end.
Opened over the last two years, Atlantic Village’s two lifestyle centers include a long list of successful retail tenants such as Doggi’s Arepa Bar, Crema Gourmet, Jaffa Israeli Kitchen, The Blues Burgers, and a dozen other establishments. The complex on Federal Highway has more than 200,000-square-feet of retail, restaurants, and offices that cater to a growing population of affluent residents flocking to area condominiums, including several new ones on the drawing board.
It is also a favorite of residents from nearby Golden Beach, Aventura, and Sunny Isles, who want short commutes to quality dining experiences, professional services, indoor playgrounds for kids, and more, as well as Latin Americans who are looking for more affordable real estate in South Florida (homes in Broward County cost, on average, 20 percent less than neighboring Miami-Dade).
A recently completed 130,000-square-foot commercial building on the south side of the property has 65,000-square-feet of Class A office and 65,000-square-feet of retail and restaurant space that will be home to multiple enterprises expanding from Miami, including the Wagyu Bar, 54D, and Juvia Group, the latter hoping to reproduce its rooftop restaurant success on Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road.
Also arriving from Miami Beach is the popular Pan-Asian restaurant, the Drunken Dragon. “It was the right time to expand,” says Conrad Gomez, who operates the Drunken Dragon with partners through Miami-based Homecookin’ Hospitality Group. “Hallandale Beach is at a fast-growing pace with development and an influx of people who are moving to the city.”
Grupo Eco arrived in the U.S. with plenty of experience in development and property management. In Mexico, its portfolio includes the Sofitel Mexico City Reforma, one of the top hotels in Mexico City; the Park Interlomas, a mixed-use office residential
and retail project with an indoor park; and Mexico City’s corporate center Diamante Santa Fe.
“In Mexico, we have developed a good foundation to do business,” says Grupo Eco CEO Salomon Sutton. “We were starting to do some business in the U.S., so we decided to be closer because we have a big team managing everything. We are very hands-on. We needed to see it up close and we knew we could manage Mexico from here.”
Both Sutton and Grupo Eco partner Pedro Bodegas Jr. are registered architects in Mexico and participated in the design of Atlantic Village. The buildings feature an abundance of natural light, made available by 18-foot ground-floor ceilings throughout the property. “We are always thinking of the use and the user, how they live and experience things” says Bodegas, Jr. l
Hallandale Beach is at a fast-growing pace with development and an influx of people who are moving to the city…CONRAD GOMEZ (LEFT) AND NAVIN CHATANI (RIGHT) OF DRUNKEN DRAGON SHOWN WITH GIOVANNI ESTEVES (MIDDLE) OF DOGGI’S AREPA BAR
It was an odd coupling, “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” but anyone who follows the movie industry knows that “Barbenheimer” – the cultural phenomenon of people watching both blockbusters – signaled a kind of post-pandemic sea change. “Barbie” topped more than $1.38 billion worldwide by the end of August, making it the Warner Bros. top grossing film of all time, while “Oppenheimer” crossed $850 million globally.
More than the money, however, these twin titans signaled the return to movies by the public, after several dismal years during which the COVID virus decimated cinemas.
“We got completely blindsided by COVID, as did any industry with fixed seating,” says Alex Younger, the CEO of Miami-based CES, which has been installing and servicing cinemas in Latin America for more than 30 years, primarily in Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador. “Now, movies are being released again on the big screen, and cinemas are ramping up.”
That is good news for Younger, whose firm has built more than 100 cinema complexes in Latin America, with about 1,000 screens. “We build and service movie theaters, that’s our business,” says Younger. “We just did one in Ecuador. But I don’t know of many other industries that have gotten affected as much by COVID as did the cinema.” Whereas CES was installing five to 10 new cinemas a year before the pandemic, they downsized to just four or five projects a year.
“Next year, we will get back to those pre-COVID numbers,” says Younger. “For now, we are still servicing those 1,000 screens [that CES built].” The company also focused more on the U.S. market during the pandemic – having already installed the CMX Cinemas in Brickell City Centre – and got into the AV business.
CES was founded by Younger’s father Guillermo, a Hungarian Jew who immigrated to Honduras. He settled in a small town where he started to buy properties. “He needed a cinema for the town, so he started his own,” says Younger of his dad, who learned enough in the process to begin selling movie equipment. As the business expanded, Guillermo moved first to Panama and then to Miami in 1982, where Alex was born a year later.
From Miami, the company began installing complete cinemas across the Americas, starting in Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, then expanding to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Venezuela. Younger grew up working for CES as a technician, installing equipment – including the digital projectors that began replacing film projectors a dozen years ago. “I installed about 500 projectors and then said that I wanted to get out,” he says. “I wanted to be in sales.” Having been raised in the U.S., Younger then expanded the company’s focus to the domestic market. “I asked my dad, ‘Why don’t we do this in the U.S.?’ He said, ‘Ok, try it.’ So we did, and within a year we had the fifth-largest circuit [of theater clients] in the U.S.”
Currently, CES has eight employees in Miami, with another 18 in Latin America. Younger says that while LatAm cinemas are
coming back, some markets are doing better than others. Colombia is still below pre-COVID numbers for cinema attendance, while Peru is up 120 percent from then. In the meantime, the company is leveraging its expertise to expand in the U.S. Having built capacity with its own maintenance call center and the software needed to maintain the digital projectors in LatAm, it’s now negotiating with the big movie chains, like Regal, Cinemark, and Cineplex, to service and update their equipment.
But with a writer’s strike threatening to slow down the stream of new film releases, Younger is hedging his bets by further expanding into the audio-visual market. With the cinema side of the company dubbed CES Plus, there is now CES AV, “getting into the audio-visual space here in Miami, with TV, sound, outdoor lighting – basically making smart homes,” says Younger. “This is a business we will focus on here in the future…. I want to leverage the same technical expertise.” l
Now movies are being released again on the big screen, and cinemas are ramping up...
ALEX YOUNGER, CEO OF MIAMI-BASED CES
BY KATELIN STECZ
There’s a thrill associated with theme parks that fades as adulthood looms. The fond childhood memories of overpriced hotdogs and rollercoasters with questionable maintenance fade and are replaced with the excitements of adulthood – new kitchen appliances, perhaps, or that home improvement project you’ve finally started. For entrepreneurs, it might be the titillation of a funding round or the exhilaration that comes with opening a new office. At the Alan B. Levan | NSU Broward Center of Innovation, the “World’s First Theme Park for Entrepreneurs,” those are the type of thrills the Center hopes to give you.
“We call ourselves ‘the world’s first theme park for entrepreneurs’ because there’s a ride everywhere within the 54,000-squarefeet that has a return on investment for all of the stakeholders,” says Executive Director John Wensveen.
The product of a public-private partnership between Nova Southeastern University (NSU) and Broward County, the Levan Center’s goal is to promote economic development and encourage innovation in South Florida by helping international entrepreneurs in every stage of their start-ups. Opened in April 2022, the Center has since served more than 120 founders representing 85 start-ups, companies such as Euler AI from the Cayman Islands and CyCommSec from Poland.
From the initial idea phase to global expansion, the Center offers a variety of programs for start-ups in South Florida. One of its more interesting programs is the Country Desk Model, which aims to facilitate international commerce in the region.
Wensveen, also the chief innovation officer at NSU, founded the Country Desk Model when he was recruited during the Center’s development. The Model helps international entrepreneurs relocate their companies to South Florida and advises them on how to succeed in the American market, offering up services like market
research, regulatory compliance, legal support, and networking opportunities. So far, the Country Desk Model has partnered with the Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic, and the Netherlands, with half a dozen more countries from Europe and Latin America in the works. Entrepreneurs from these countries have access to all the resources the Levan Center provides.
However, an international entrepreneur doesn’t necessarily have to be affiliated with the aforementioned countries to have access to the Levan Center. Hoping to appeal to all potential international clients, the Center offers both unpaid and paid services that start at $150 per month for virtual access and range up to $3,000 per month for physical space.
It also puts on a Global Showcase – a “Shark Tank”-like experience – where entrepreneurs have access to extensive networking and investment opportunities. The Levan Center invites companies affiliated with its partner countries to a workshop where they can learn new skills, refine their pitches, and then pitch their start-up to a live audience of potential investors and clients. Businesses like Metrica Sports, a Dutch sports technology company that works with coaches to analyze game film, have signed on as new clients after attending one of the showcases, cementing their presence in sports-heavy South Florida. The next showcase will be in October.
Wensveen says the Country Desk Model and the Global Showcase are vital to the Center’s mission as it imports new entrepreneurs and, more importantly, new ideas to the South Florida economic innovation sphere. “There’s a growing innovation ecosystem, and I think that’s where South Florida can truly make its mark,” says Wensveen. “This is the Wild West – even though we’re in the southeast – where it’s truly a land of opportunity, and we’re only at the beginning stages.” l
BY YOUSRA BENKIRANE
Their designs have been associated with Miami ever since they first grabbed the world’s attention with the 1982 Atlantis Condominium, a 20-story rectilinear building with a glass façade and a five-story “palm court” cut out of the building like a square donut hole. It was featured in the opening montage of the popular “Miami Vice” television series, which defined Miami style at the time. Since then, Arquitectonica has become a global design powerhouse, producing prodigious quantities of modern structures. In Miami, their iconic landmarks include the Kaseya Center (formerly the American Airlines Arena), the dramatic Brickell City Centre, the newly updated
Miami Beach Convention Center, and the Moss Cultural Center south of the city. As Arquitectonica’s reputation grew, the firm began to take on projects in other parts of the U.S. and around the world. One of the firm’s first major international projects was the Banco de Credito Headquarters in Peru, a full-circle moment for architect Bernardo Fort-Brescia, the Peruvian native who co-founded the firm and today remains its guiding force.
After Latin America, the firm expanded to Europe, charged with designing the Microsoft Headquarters in Paris. From there, Arquitectonica went on to design major projects throughout the U.S., Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. Just to name a few: the Agricultural Bank of
China Headquarters in Beijing (China); the International Finance Center Seoul (Korea); the Florida International University School of International and Public Affairs (Miami); the Dijon Performing Arts Center (France); the Landmark East building in Hong Kong (China); the BBVA Tower in Buenos Aires (Argentina); the Banco Real Santander headquarters in Sao Paulo (Brazil); the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse (Miami); and the Sky Tower, Sun Tower, Gate Towers and Arc Tower in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates). The list literally goes on and on, with more than 70 projects in the U.S. alone and another 70-plus around the world. “We like to do all types of projects because every project has a role in the evolution of society,” says Fort-Brescia.
Arquitectonica began in the late ’70s, born from a group of young architects who were struggling to find work after having just graduated. Founding principal Fort-Brescia was in his early 20s when he decided to move to Miami and begin teaching architecture at the University of Miami with co-founder and principal Laurinda Spear, after the two got married. Two years later, in 1977, Arquitectonica was founded in a small studio in Coconut Grove, along with Andrés Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Hervin Romney. (Duany
ABOVE LEFT: FIRST MAJOR INTERNATIONAL PROJECT, BANCO DE CREDITO HEADQUARTERS IN PERU
and Plater-Zyberk left in 1980, destined to become famous as pioneers of New Urbanism, and Romney left several years later.) In 1978, Arquitectonica built its first project, and within five years had designed a series of buildings that contributed to popularizing the idea of modern architecture. The company has since grown to some 400 employees with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Madrid, Paris, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Manila, Dubai, São Paulo, and Lima.
The firm’s early projects were primarily in Miami, where Arquitectonica quickly gained a reputation for bold, colorful designs that stood out in the city’s skyline. One of their earliest projects, the Babylon Apartments, featured a striking zigzag design that became an instant landmark. Another early project, the Pink House, features a bright pink façade that remains an iconic feature of the Miami Beach landscape. “We find business projects that are really transformative for our city,” says Fort-Brescia. “Like putting the arena in the middle of Downtown on the water,” he continues, describing the thought process behind the placement of the Kaseya Center; instead of building in the outskirts, where arenas are usually located, he wanted to keep people in the city.
The Miami-born architecture and design firm, which introduced glass, steel, color, and pattern to a city best known for its Art Deco hotels along the beach, never planned any of this. “We never thought we would be a global firm. Things sort of just happened,” says Fort-Brescia. “We took advantage of the moments and took it beyond the initial opportunities, but we grew organically.” He provides the example of the firm’s office in Asia. When Arquitectonica was awarded a large project in Hong Kong, they saw a future in the region. In 1998, a Chinese-born architect offered to open their first office in China. That office now employs 100 architects and has opened two additional offices in the region, one of the earliest American businesses working in China. “We were very daring,” says Fort-Brescia. “But it was interesting because we liked the people, and the clients were reliable. So, we wanted to provide the service, not because we had a great plan, but because we are based on people. The decisions were made organically.”
Fort-Brescia credits the firm’s success to its employees. “The key thing is that our staff is passionate about what they do. I think part of our personality comes from that passion.” Arquitectonica uses a collaborative
We never thought we would be a global firm. Things sort of just happened...
BERNARDO FORT-BRESCIA, ABOVE, ARCHITECT & ARQUITECTONICA CO-FOUNDER
TOP LEFT: MICROSOFT EUROPE HEADQUARTERS, PARIS ABOVE LEFT: INTERNATIONAL FINANCE CENTER, SEOUL OPPOSITE PAGE
TOP: BRICKELL CITY CENTRE, MIAMI
MIDDLE: INTERIOR, BRICKELL CITY CENTRE, MIAMI
BOTTOM: UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI DONNA E. SHALALA STUDENT CENTER, CORAL GABLES
approach to design. Its architects, planners, and designers work together closely to develop innovative solutions for each project, drawing on a wide range of perspectives and expertise. From Shanghai to Dubai, the firm’s locally grounded employees know what the latest trends are, how people live, how the market is, and even the construction culture of the region. Each office has rooms equipped with visualizers – a camera that looks down on drawings being created by an architect. All offices can interact with
real-time sketches 24/7 from their computers. According to Fort-Brescia, another key to the global firm’s success is its birthplace – Miami. “We love our city, and we keep our [headquarters] here because we owe it to Miami. The success of the firm arrived from the success and the activity of this city.” The architect also notes how easy it is to recruit young architects to the Magic City. “Everybody wants to move and work here. Miami was a great choice… We’re known as the firm from Miami.”
For Fort-Brescia the quality of living was also a huge factor in the decision to keep their global HQ in Miami. “People in Miami are always smiling, have very good attitudes, and are hard-working. It’s a very pleasant lifestyle here. And for us, it’s important that our staff is happy with the office and outside it.”
While the firm will continue to design and build globally, the founder looks forward to the next few years in Miami. Currently under construction is the curvilinear MSC Cruises terminal at PortMiami. Then there is the forthcoming 1,000-foot super tower: One Brickell City Centre. When completed, the project will bring 1.7 million-square-feet of Class A office space to Miami’s Financial District and will be the tallest non-residential tower in Florida. Most recently, Arquitectonica won the approval to design a new luxury hotel at Miami International Airport. “There are [projects] coming that will change the skyline and change the nature of the city,” says Fort-Brescia.
The firm has also changed the nature of modern architecture with the colorful, curvy, and playful designs that have redefined the industry. Arquitectonica became “a representation of the new international style,” says Plater-Zyberk, who, after leaving Arquitectonica, went on to become the dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture. “When they started out, many architects were looking back historically for influences. Arquitectonica looked back to early modernism in Miami and South America, and the influences worthy of mining. It had to do with both climate and culture – Morris Lapidus and the architects of Miami Beach, and the Brazilian modernists. That was part of their background and their clearly global approach to modern design.”
Adds Plater-Zyberk: “Their work is a very important part of the modern history of our era. In addition to that, it’s often very clever. They do interesting floor plans, and the interior space can be quite amazing. Each [building] is somehow representative of its place but it doesn’t replicate. It’s constantly innovative.” l
The idea of Barefoot College International (BCI) is as straightforward as it is profoundly effective: train women from rural areas with the skills they need to improve their lives and the standard of living in their communities, then send them home with their newly acquired knowledge. In the case of Guatemala, the most recent program in the Americas, the women are trained to install mini solar power grids.
“We work for women,” says Aura Reinhardt, who directs the Central and South American programs for BCI from Miami. “We want to make sure that women, particularly those that are left behind, have an opportunity to improve their livelihoods – and then, obviously, the living standards of their families.”
In Guatemala, Barefoot works with Indigenous women from what’s known as the Northwestern Highlands, in Mayan villages that are literally in the middle of nowhere. Here, the indigenous people of Guatemala, who faced what amounted to a genocidal campaign for decades, fled to distant mountainsides and rainforests. As with their other projects in Latin America, India, and Africa, Barefoot goes into the rural areas and partners with a regional NGO, which supplies the local knowledge and guides them to remote villages. “We have done a lot of work in Guatemala,” says Reinhardt. “We go into the villages and invite the community to send two or three women to our training camp.”
In Guatemala, the native women then spend three months learning how to assemble solar panels, a solar grid, and solar lanterns. “It is a six-month situation because these women don’t read or write… It’s a major commitment for the chieftain or head of the village to assign a woman or two to go away for six months for training. Sometimes they are grandmothers, sometimes they are mothers, and sometimes they are just young enough that they haven’t had children yet,” says Reinhardt.
When the women return to their villages, they oversee delivery of the equipment that allows them to illuminate houses and huts. Suddenly, the villagers are not living just by candlelight or kerosene lantern. “At night, they can actually flip a switch and a light goes on. Now, children can study at night. It’s really an interesting proposition,” says Reinhardt. And the women don’t just learn how to assemble a solar panel. “They learn how to solder the wires, they learn how to repair, they learn how to put something together from scratch, because once the equipment is there, and they’ve installed it, they become the trainer of the next group, and they become the repair [person],” says Reinhardt.
The base camp in Guatemala, about an
eight-hour drive from Guatemala City, was just opened in 2022, and has been so successful that it’s now preparing to serve as the training center for women from other Central American countries. At any given time, 30 to 40 women will be taking instruction there.
“We call the people who get the training ‘Solar Mamas’ because, no matter what country they are from – from Africa, or from the Middle East, wherever we are training them – they are always women. And the reason for that is because women are much more responsible than men,” says Reinhardt. After training, she says, women go back to their villages and actually do what they were sent to do – in Guatemala, installing lights in scores of village shacks, and teaching others how to maintain the system. Men, on the other hand, typically use their training to go off and get a job somewhere else. “They don’t go back to their villages,” she says.
The solar training in Guatemala is just the latest effort by Barefoot College International to lift rural communities out
of poverty. The organization, initially called the Social Work and Research Centre, was launched in 1972 by Sanjit “Bunker” Roy, an Indian national who was then a university student in the U.S. Naturally enough, its first programs were set up in India, with the mission to bring water and irrigation to rural communities. That objective soon changed to empowerment and sustainability; in 2010, Roy was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
“It was all about how they build their houses, how they grow their vegetables, or how they take care of their livestock, and then to bring them up to a level where they can be sustainable. So, it’s really all about sustainability,” says Reinhardt, who joined the organization 12 years ago and is now the Chair of Board in the U.S. “One of the objectives I had when [I joined] was to focus on Central and South America. So much attention was being given – and for good reason – to Africa, India, parts of Asia, and so on. But I said, ‘We’re over here now. We
AURA REINHARDT, SHOWN ABOVE, DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS FOR BAREFOOT FROM MIAMI
OPPOSITE: A SOLAR MAMA INSTALLS A SOLAR PANEL ON THE ROOF IN THE MOUNTAAINS OF GUATEMALA
TOP LEFT: THE BAREFOOT TRAINING CAMPUS IS A DAY'S DRIVE FROM GUATEMALA CITY.
TOP RIGHT: SOLAR MAMAS LEARN HOW TO INSTALL AND MAINTAIN THE EQUIPMENT
ABOVE LEFT: DIRECTOR AURA REINHARDT
BOTTOM: THE PROGRAM NOT ONLY GIVES THE WOMEN A LIVELIHOOD, BUT ALSO RAISES THE STANDARD OF LIVING FOR THEIR FAMILIES.
need to be doing this for all the indigenous people in all the countries in Central and South America who are off the grid.’”
The first Latin American ‘students’ were brought from deep in the Amazon, three women for whom it took eight days to get to a training camp in India, traveling by canoe and then tiny jungle airports. That was before the center was set up in Guatemala, on the grounds of an old coffee plantation. “It took a long time to get it because we were dealing with the government,” says Reinhardt. But last December, the president of Guatemala gave the organization an award for what they were accomplishing.
Funding for nonprofit Barefoot College International comes from grants, many from corporations, including a recent one from Gap. Another came from Puma Energy, an energy company based in Switzerland, and Starbucks funded a Barefoot tea-growing project in India. They are also supported by the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP).
The organization is based in Geneva, with offices in London and Delhi, India. In Zanzibar, they are teaching women how to be beekeepers and sell honey to hotels. In East Africa, the instruction is about sanitation, with night school for cattle herders.
“Our latest program is to teach women how to fly drones over the countryside to evaluate the quality of the soil and the vegetation,” says Reinhardt, a project funded by the World Food Programme.
“The work we do in 93 countries allows women to transform their lives and the lives of their loved ones for the better,” says Sue Stevenson, head of strategic partnerships and international development for Barefoot College International. “Our programs are unique in that they focus on self-sufficiency first, and therefore they equip women with the tools and the knowledge they need to both access and leverage clean energy – real educational and vocational growth for a better future than they ever thought possible.”
We want to make sure that women, particularly those that are left behind, have an opportunity to improve their livelihoods...
The arrival of Lionel Messi is just one event fueling Miami’s fast-growing international sports scene
BY KYLIE WANG
The crowd is roaring, a deafening cacophony of jubilance and raucous celebration as feet stamp and whistles pierce the air. Smoke bombs are going off with such gusto that it’s nearly impossible to see the glistening green field below. As they dilute, there’s a glimpse of a small figure in pink sprinting across the grass, arms spread wide. He jumps into the embrace of his teammates, immediately engulfed in a pile of joyous pink jerseys. He’s five-footseven, 36-years-old, and currently one of the biggest driving forces of the South Florida economy.
He’s Lionel Messi, soccer’s brightest star, considered by pundits to be the best player of all time – and, now, the captain of Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami CF.
Only a few months ago, DRV PNK Stadium was much emptier. In 2022, Inter Miami had the lowest attendance in Major League Soccer (MLS) with an average of 12,637 fans per game. The average ticket price came in at around $152 and the club’s Instagram followers were steady at about one million. Nowadays, all 19,100 seats at DRV PNK Stadium are sold out, or close to it. Average ticket prices went up 459 percent to $850 in the month after the club announced Messi’s signing. Tickets for his debut skyrocketed to as much as $110,000. On Instagram, @intermiamicf’s followers swelled to well over 14 million. But Messi’s impact extends much further than just Major League Soccer, or even soccer in general. Because this isn’t just Messi’s moment. It’s Miami’s moment.
Miami has been a home for international sporting events for some time now. The Miami Open tennis tournament, for one, has been held here every year since 1987. But with the arrival of Messi, Formula One, the FIFA World Cup, and tournaments like the FIBA 3x3 AmeriCup and the World Baseball Classic, it’s now a veritable capital for global sports. “All of these events are moving to Miami because Miami is growing,” says economist and University of Miami professor Alex Horenstein. “It’s part of a circle. As the city grows and becomes appealing for businesses, it also becomes appealing for entertainment.”
While we clearly can’t place Miami’s recent explosion of economic growth on the shoulders of one athlete or even one event, however, there’s no understating the impact of Lionel Messi’s arrival or the myriad international sporting events attracting millions of visitors to the area.
For a city that relies on tourism as one of its economic pillars, events like the Miami Open or the F1 Miami Grand Prix are huge gets, despite only occurring annually. The Grand Prix – held this year at the Miami International Autodrome around Hard Rock Stadium – boosted the local economy by a whopping $449 million. During the course of “race week,” visitor spending reached over $195 million, with more than 270,000 fans from around the world drawn to attend the race and associated events. While some of the infrastructure was already in place – the Miami GP is considered a “street race,” so most of the asphalt used for the racetrack was already in use by regular commuters – the construction-related economic impact on the Greater Miami economy reached $230 million. A huge campus was constructed surrounding the stadium, complete with grandstands, art installations, food and merch booths, restaurants and bars, and, of course, VIP clubs for the upper echelon teams. Thousands of workers were hired to staff the event space, from janitors to security guards to bartenders. Vendors, most of them local, lined virtually every inch of the 3.4-mile track.
Whe Miami Open tennis tournament, which has utilized the same area at Hard Rock Stadium since moving from Key Biscayne
in 2019, is an even lengthier affair. Over the course of 12 days, the grounds are filled with hundreds of thousands of fans, with over 14,000 hotel rooms reserved. This year, the event saw a record-breaking 386,000 attendees with four individual matches setting records for attendance. The economic impact of the tournament was roughly $390 million – but it took a big move and millions of dollars in investment to make it so.
In fact, a few years ago it seemed like Miami was going to lose the tournament altogether. Bruce Matheson, a local resident who controlled the land on which the event was held in Key Biscayne, refused to allow a proposed $50 million renovation of the site. After a series of lawsuits, it seemed the Miami Open would be no more. Then Stephen Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins football team, stepped in.
The billionaire real estate developer had already spent $550 million renovating Hard Rock Stadium, where the National Football League’s Miami Dolphins play, when he approached IMG, owner of the Miami Open, with an offer. With an additional $72 million provided by Ross to transform the stadium and surrounding area into a state-of-the-art tennis venue, Hard Rock became the home of the Miami Open. The hundreds of millions in local revenue were saved and now, “we can do more things,” Tom Garfinkel, CEO and president of Hard Rock Stadium, said back in 2019. “This place has a much larger footprint.”
“I think of Hard Rock as being the anchor tenant that has promoted a lot of this growth,” says Dr. Erin McNary, associate
I think of Hard Rock as being the anchor tenant that has promoted a lot of this growth...
DR. ERIN MCNARY, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF SPORT ADMINISTRATION AT UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI OPPOSITE:F1 MIAMI GRAND PRIX AT THE HARD ROCK STADIUM
professor of sport administration at University of Miami and the director of the Global Sport Industry Conference. “When it was renovated and they added more premium suites, the open-roof concept, and increased the stadium capacity… that made [Miami] more attractive.” The increased capacity meant the Super Bowl could now be hosted here, which it was in 2020. And it didn’t only make the stadium attractive to sporting competitions. Mega stars like Taylor Swift and Beyonce, who have their own economic impacts on cities they tour in, have since visited or plan to.
Though Hard Rock is now the undisputed nexus of international sport in Miami, other local stadiums and arenas have also begun to take on global events beyond their regular programming. In 2022, the second FIBA 3x3 AmeriCup in Miami took place outside the downtown Kaseya Center (formerly known as FTX Arena) where the National Basketball Association’s Miami Heat play. The International Basketball Federation (also known as FIBA) is the governing body of basketball. It puts on international tournaments similar to the FIFA World Cup, with players representing 161 countries divided by age groups and gender. The 3x3 AmeriCup included 18 different countries’ teams (both men and women) from the Americas, playing in a condensed version of the usual game with a modified points system and adjusted rules.
“If you look at the FIBA 3x3 engagement, the Chinese market
was super engaged because they are completely supportive of and love basketball,” says Dr. McNary. “That event draws fans from all over the world.” It also came on the heels of FIBA America’s new headquarters opening in Miami three years ago, after the organization decided to relocate from Puerto Rico. “This region has been so important for international basketball over the years and now we have an excellent location to attend to our daily business as it relates to governing basketball in the zone,” said FIBA President Hamane Niang at the unveiling in 2020.
In April of this year, the Kaseya Center also hosted UFC 287, a mixed martial arts competition in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). UFC’s return to Miami after 20 years was a huge success, with a total of 19,032 fans in attendance. Gate revenue was $11.9 million, according to UFC President Dana White, outstripping Madison Square Garden’s event (UFC 281) in November 2022, which brought in $11.5 million featuring the same title fight between Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira. With that number, Miami’s fight became the highest-grossing event in the arena’s history and the sixth-highest grossing in UFC history.
At LoanDepot Park, where Major League Baseball’s Miami Marlins play – an international team in its own right, with a baseball academy in the Domincan Republic – most of the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC), including the quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship, was held. The Park became the first venue in tournament history to host games in all three rounds of a WBC in the same year. Teams ranging from Israel to Nicaragua competed in
the tournament that Japan eventually won over the U.S.
The event also heralded another first – the first and only time a non-stop flight from Japan has flown into Miami International Airport: a charter flight containing most of the Japanese national team. Baseball, once known as “America’s favorite pastime” has now overwhelmingly infected Japan and Latin America, so much so that, on the World Baseball Classic’s website, you can now pick from three languages: English, Spanish, or Japanese.
Over 1.3 million fans attended the tournament across its four locations in Asia and the U.S., making it the highest-attended WBC since its inception in 2006. Eleven of the 15 games were played at LoanDepot Park, which seats 36,058; all were sold out. Some 6.5 million viewers watched the final game in Miami, making it the most-viewed WBC game of all-time. Though the game aired at 8 am on a Wednesday morning in Japan, 42.4 percent of all Japanese households tuned in to the Final. Indeed, two of the four most-watched games in tournament history took place this year in Miami. “That’s a lot of eyeballs on our city,” says Dr. McNary. And those eyes came from everywhere. In Taiwan and Mexico, viewership increased by over 100 percent compared to 2017. Canada (44%), Korea (36%), and Puerto Rico (11%) also saw significant increases. In the U.S., streams of the final game far surpassed the previous record set in 2017 by over 69 percent. Overall, people from 163 countries and territories watched the tournament with 63 different media partners broadcasting in 13 different languages.
Then there are the less traditional sports that have found homes in Miami. Esports is one, the name given to professional video game competitions. Just this year, FURIA, a Brazilian gaming company, opened its first public venue in the U.S. in Wynwood, Miami’s art district. The brightly colored building unites amateurs and professionals alike, giving casual gamers the chance to use FURIA’s computers and LAN connections to play with their friends, while also showcasing professional gamers who stop by to play “show matches” for fans. The company raised $4.5 million in funding in 2021 and now has over 200 employees. It’s one of many esports ventures trying to make it in Miami.
“I think there’s tremendous opportunity for more [esports] tournaments and growth here,” says Dr. McNary. “Especially if you look at the investment from the Asian market into some of these sports.” Asia made up 56 percent of esports revenue in 2022, but there are many in the U.S. who are capitalizing on the opportunity professional gaming presents – and trying to fill the employment pipeline with capable, homegrown animators and designers.
In 2015, Miami-Dade College’s Miami Animation and Gaming International Complex (MAGIC) opened, providing students with a new program that, besides academics, includes an esports component, referring to those involved as “student athletes.” On the MAGIC website, Miami-Dade College (MDC) says it “recognizes that esports can help create a path to lifelong success and strives to enrich the lives of participants by providing quality coaching, facilities, and support services.” MDC Esports is currently recruiting players for games like “VALORANT,” “Rocket League,” and “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.” Students must be enrolled at MDC and in the college’s Esports Club with an average GPA of 2.0 or higher to enroll in the program – similar to requirements held by many universities for their student athletes.
Perhaps the most niche sport to enter the Miami scene, however, is drone racing, another competition that’s attracted lots of overseas investment. Still in its infancy, the fast-growing sport has been connected to Miami since its inception seven years ago, when the city hosted the DRL’s very first race at Hard Rock Stadium. This year, it returned to Miami with its championship event, aptly named Miami 3-0-FLY (a play on Miami’s “305” area code) at LoanDepot Park. The competition transformed the stadium into a neon-lit aerial course where professional drone pilots raced their custom drones at speeds up to 90 miles per hour. A crew of over 100 was on-site for the event, which packed the baseball stadium.
Sponsors of the League include international brands like Google Cloud, SkySports, and Champion, and the DRL now has over 5.4 million TikTok followers. In 2022, it claims to have reached more than 320 million households through its media partnerships with NBC, ESPN, and FOX Sports. And it’s still growing.
With over 40 events now completed throughout the world and a total of 80 million fans worldwide, according to Drone Racing League CMO Anne-Marie Gianutsos, the high-tech sport is reaching a new generation of consumers. The league calls these 16-to-34-year-olds “Tech Setters.” Seventy percent don’t even watch traditional sports.
“The days of following the same sports you played in gym class are over,” DRL President Rachel Jacobson says. “Today, kids are flying drones, connecting on digital platforms, and learning about STEM in school; they are the future innovators in AI, Web3 gaming, and emerging technology, and they love the Drone Racing League because our sport celebrates them.”
While not altogether untrue, that first sentence might be a slight overstatement, and the proof lies at DRV PNK Stadi -
um. There, an entire generation of children are learning to love soccer; playing it in school, in clubs, on public fields with their friends, and in the new soccer academies that are beginning to pop up all over the county. They follow Lionel Messi – and, by extension, Inter Miami – with a close eye and enthusiastic verve. They are the now and future consumers, and the impetus for the growth in soccer equipment sales across the U.S., which rose to $437.8 million in 2022, according to Statista.
“If you look at soccer in the U.S., it’s continually growing,” Dr. McNary says. “You’re seeing teams pop up in places like St. Louis, Missouri. Even in those smaller markets, there’s incredible growth. And that speaks to the growth at the youth level. At the end of the day, you’ve got to have your youth on board.”
Youth sports tourism is an economic factor that largely goes unnoticed, but soccer, with its academies and camps, is uniquely built for it. One of the best examples in Miami is the Barça Academy Pro Miami, a grassroots soccer academy owned and operated by FC Barcelona. “We may see more of that sort of stimulation not only excite kids, but also develop elite talent,” says Dr. McNary. “If you don’t have investment at the youth club level, well, obviously, your fans are going to grow up and they’re going to have kids, so we have to complete the cycle.”
With Messi’s arrival, Miami is now a ripe market for the “beautiful” sport. But even before the Argentinian superstar stepped foot in the
city, soccer had already identified Miami as a potential growth market. In 2018, CONCACAF, the Confederation of North, Central American, and Caribbean Association Football, moved its headquarters here with the objective of growing soccer in North America.
“The opening of our new headquarters in Miami… underpins the great work we are doing across the Confederation and the journey that we have taken to grow football in this city and across the region,” CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani said at the time. The office now houses over 50 employees and offers the organization’s 41 member associations a centralized location with easy air access via Miami International Airport. (It still maintains their Central American hub in Guatemala as well as offices throughout the globe.)
Outstripping that, in August FIFA (the Federation Internationale de Football Association and soccer’s governing body) announced it would be opening a new office in the Miami suburb of Coral Gables, an affluent area with an array of Class A office space. The organization boasts 209 members (on par with the United Nations’ 193 members) and is arguably the most prestigious sports organization in the world. Its new office will be dedicated to the imminent arrival of the 2026 FIFA men’s World Cup, in which Miami is one of 11 U.S. cities acting as host. Though nobody could possibly name Messi the catalyst for this – he had only just joined Major League Soccer at the time – it is certainly fortuitous.
The Argentine has been linked to an economic surge throughout South Florida in everything from sales of soccer balls to airline tickets to the ever-present hospitality industry. In Fort Lauderdale, where Inter Miami’s current stadium lies until a new one is
constructed close to the Miami International Airport (MIA), the effect is already showing. Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis says Messi has “jump-started economic growth, investments and opportunities that have made an impact not just on South Florida, but the state as a whole. Hospitality is leading the pack, catering to those traveling from out of town or looking to cheer Messi on.”
Brightline, Florida’s high-speed rail which provides service to Fort Lauderdale from Miami and vice versa, has begun providing added transportation during Inter Miami games. Flights from Messi’s home country of Argentina to MIA have been steadily increasing, with August 2023 set to outpace August 2022 by over 3,000 passengers. It seems every local business within a 100-mile radius is providing some sort of special or deal or watch party. Subscriptions to the MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+ have more than doubled since Messi joined Inter Miami. Real estate analysis firm RentCafe is predicting a jump in the market where Messi eventually buys a home. “The arrival of a high-profile figure like Lionel Messi in South Florida could generate increased attention and interest, potentially impacting the real estate market,” a spokeswoman wrote in an email to the Palm Beach Post. “His international popularity could also increase tourism to Miami, potentially impacting the demand for short-term rentals.”
Developer Oscar Roger, who is building Coral Gables’ first short-term rentals hotel – the Avenue – is thrilled by the prospect. “Messi’s arrival can do nothing but improve the demand by visitors who want to come here to see the superstar. The demand is going to really blossom once the Inter Miami stadium is finished in Miami.”
Meanwhile, Messi’s pink No. 10 was the top-selling jersey across
all sports from mid-July, when he was announced, to mid-August, on Fanatics. The first 24 hours of sales were the best of any player changing teams across all sports, edging out Cristiano Ronaldo with Manchester United, NFL quarterback Tom Brady with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and NBA superstar LeBron James with the Los Angeles Lakers. To put it in perspective, last year Messi’s Barcelona jerseys garnered a whopping $130 million – $14 million more than the total revenue of the current (emphasis on “current”) top-earning MLS team, Los Angeles FC. And his Miami jersey should outdo that.
“Messi is almost a weekly event,” University of Miami’s Horenstein explains, citing the difference in impact between yearly events like the Miami Open and Messi’s arrival. “I don’t think there’s any figure more international than Messi… [and] soccer is probably the most international sport.” It follows, then, that thousands of international fans will travel here to see the most decorated soccer player in the world play in a city that already boasts a history of globalization.
While it’s still too early to tell exactly the capacity of Messi’s impact – economically, culturally, and socially – it’s not a forgettable one. Consider the impact on Paris Saint-Germain FC when Messi moved there. A MARCA report showed that the club subsequently generated over $750 million through new sponsorship deals, merchandise sales, ticket purchases, and the uptick in social media followers. And those dollars can and will get fed back to the city, because every ticket purchase means money spent on travel to the game or lodging in the area.
Without argument, Messi is currently the biggest international athlete in the U.S. But, in a city now on the trajectory of becoming the sports capital of the world, he’s just one more piece of the puzzle. l
BY YOUSRA BENKIRANE PHOTOS BY RODOLFO BENITEZ
When you first enter USA Bouquet’s main distribution center, it seems like a normal office space, just really big. As you explore deeper, a symphony of vibrant colors, bustling workers, and crisp air greets your senses. The vast, chilled expanse is a labyrinth of activity, as workers in bright jackets navigate the organized chaos with practiced ease. Towering shelves are lined with an array of boxes, each holding an exquisite bouquet or a bundle of freshly cut flowers. Rows of workstations dot the space, where nimble workers arrange petals and stems while forklifts glide through the aisles, loaded with crates of their delicate cargo.
In Miami, you’ll find a multitude of warehouses like this, all for flowers. The floral industry here is blooming, with Miami International Airport (MIA) responsible for 90 percent of the fresh-cut flowers coming into the U.S. market – itself, the world’s number one importer of fresh flowers. According to MIA Marketing Division Chief Jimmy Nares, the U.S. imported 409,770 tons of flowers by air in 2022 (worth some $3.3 billion), with Colombia and Ecuador alone accounting for three-quarters of this tonnage, all arriving through Miami’s airport.
How do so many flowers from these two countries enter the U.S. through MIA? The airport has 13 freighter airlines with direct service from Bogotá and Medellin, Colombia, and three passenger airlines
(all carrying belly cargo) with direct service from these cities. In addition, MIA has seven freighter airlines with direct service to Quito, Ecuador, and two passenger airlines with direct service to that city.
Nares also points out the other contributing factor to MIA’s success in securing a large market share of U.S. air imports of flowers (and 70 percent of all U.S. perishable imports, including fruits, vegetables, and seafood): cold chain capabilities necessary for handling and storing large volumes of such products. MIA has 466,372-square-feet of on-airport refrigerated warehouse space, approximately 16 percent of its total on-airport warehouse space, which is greater than any other U.S. airport.
“We are a product that not only is in every supermarket and mass market, but is an essential product for the health and wellbeing of people,” says Christine Boldt, executive vice president for the Association of Flower Importers of Florida (AFIF). “In three and a half to four hours, we can have flowers from Bogotá, Medina, or Quito, which are the three main places of origin.”
How the floral industry was planted in Miami is something of an urban legend. According to people in the industry, in the early 1970s, a floriculture professor named Edgar Wells was studying ways to reduce the cost of producing flowers while improving their quality. In the end, the anwer was geographic: He traveled to South America and found the perfect environment to grow flowers in Bogotá. Upon making that discovery, he quit the university and became a floral entrepreneur.
“I think there’s a misconception that we go to South America for cheap labor, which is not the case,” says Scott Hill, vice president of sales and marketing for the USA Bouquet Company. “It’s literally a prime growing area – you’re on the equator and the weather is perfect year-round. The infrastructure that you need to grow is a lot less because here [in the U.S.], you have to heat greenhouses, you have to have glass, and there are a lot of different things that make growing in the U.S. very expensive. There, we can do it with wood poles and plastic.”
Establishing the industry in Miami was an organic progression that made sense. Once the industry turned to South America for breeding, Miami’s strategic location as the Gateway to the Americas positioned it as the primary entry point for flower distribution in the U.S. Several airlines had already established flights from Bogotá to Miami as early as the 1960s. “The airport in Miami was growing at the time, so there was a huge opportunity for more planes to come. And because the relationship between South America and Miami has been there for decades, it was kind of an easy transition,” says AFIF’s Boldt. And the industry grew. When MIA expanded its cold storage capabilities for all perishables, and later for pharmecuticals, the industry exploded.
“When I first started at AFIF, the government only worked 8:00 to 4:30, Monday through Friday,” says Boldt. “With the volume of stuff that’s coming in today, if the government only worked 8:00 to
4:30, Monday through Friday, Miami wouldn’t be what it is. There’s no way that we can have all those perishables sit. So now, we are the only airport in the U.S. that has – 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year – Customs and Border Protection agricultural inspections.” For the USA Bouquet Company, a flower importer based in Miami, the floral flow never ends. They receive around 30 planeloads of cargo a day, seven days a week – which can triple during holidays. During Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, the industry’s busiest times of the year, importers and carriers are overloaded with shipments, often searching for additional refrigerated facilities to rent. USA Bouquet’s 114,000-square-foot Miami headquarters, located five minutes from MIA, includes 75,000-square-feet of cold storage, 12 loading docks, 12 bouquet processing lines, and a conveyor system. This past Mother’s Day, the company had to rent out five additional cold storage facilities in Miami because of the high volumes they were receiving. Other importers may even ask their competitors to borrow some space. “It’s a friendly industry, and a lot of these companies grew up together,” says Hill. “But the produce industry is very cutthroat. It’s still very competitive.”
According to experts, of all perishables, flowers are the most difficult to deal with. The process is long and complex. The importing starts with a freight forwarder at the port of origin, with an importer in the U.S. purchasing and trying to bring the flowers into Miami or another U.S. port. Logistically, there are four different ways that
flowers are imported and distributed. First, there are flower importers like USA Bouquets, who unpack, sort, and sell, either to wholesalers or large retail chains. These importers typically partner with farms and contract for all or part of their harvests. Next come the farms themselves, some of which have their own distribution centers in the U.S. Third come the wholesalers, typically in northern U.S. states, which buy directly from the farms, employ cargo companies to deliver the flowers to them, and then sell to mass makets or smaller retailers. Finally, there are the large retail chains, which usually follow a similar route of contracting directly with a farm.
But everything starts with the freight forwarders. The importers will make a booking for their cargo with a freight forwarder, who will then organize with an airline to move the products from – for the most part – South America. Based on port of origin, destination, and type of cargo, the carrier will assign delivery times and spots. Some airlines, like SkyLease Cargo, have teams in South America that handle cargo screening and palletizing prior to loading it onto the plane. Before the flowers can be shipped, however, a series of documents must be prepared, including invoices, packing lists, phytosanitary certificates (certifying that the plants are free from pests and diseases), and certificates of origin. These documents are necessary for customs clearance both in the exporting country and the U.S. A few hours later, depending on the origin, they arrive at MIA, or in SkyLease’s case, their warehouse located at the airport.
“We control our own ramp; we are not being controlled by the Miami-Dade Aviation Department,” explains Ricardo Nieto, vice president of operations for SkyLease Cargo. “So, when the planes land, we can park them directly at our warehouse.” Other airlines
I think there’s a misconception that we go to South America for cheap labor, which is not the case. It’s literally a prime growing area ...
must land their planes at MIA ramps for inspections, and use the airport’s cold storage warehouse facilities. “Ninety-eight percent of the time, the cargo you bring from South America is all perishables,” says Nieto, “so we always try to work the plane as close as possible to the cooler. The transition from the plane to the cooler is only two minutes per pallet. That way, we protect the cold chain.”
Unlike other carriers, SkyLease offers additional logistical services beyond the regular carrier role, including vacuum-packing salmon for direct shipment to supermarkets. SkyLease’s facilities feature a 235,000-square-foot dry cargo warehouse with 60 loading dock bay doors, but key to their perishable business is 160,000-square-feet of cold storage (maintained at 33 degrees Fahrenheit), the largest such space within an airport in North America. Other importers keep their cold-storage warehouse facilities on private property near the airport.
Samples are taken from the shipments and inspected by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) for any pests or illegal products. This process can take from two to 12 hours, most of which is just waiting for the officers to arrive. Once cleared, the flowers are transported to distribution centers off-site, like those of USA Bouquets’, or, in the
case of Skylease, unloaded at the airport. The distribution centers act as hubs for further sorting, processing, and distribution to local florists, wholesalers, retailers, and, more recently, supermarkets. If things are working smoothly, the entire process of flight time and inspections at both ends should take no more than 24 hours before the flowers are on their way to wholesalers or actual points of sale.
The efficiency of the floral flow at MIA is a prime example of a successful public/private partnership. A major contributor to the industry’s success in implementing efficient policies is the Association of Flower Importers of Florida, whose members consistently collaborate with the government to advocate for their interests. “In 1982 when the association was formed, it was formed for specific reasons,” says Boldt, who has been the executive director for 19 years. “First, to help collaborate. Yes, everyone’s a competitor, as far as selling. But for us to work with the airport, the government, and the airlines, we had to come together to try to have common goals.”
When the industry really started booming and large volumes began coming in, AFIF had to figure out a more efficient way to get the cargo released. Typically, the produce for every importer was individually inspected, so every broker would have to go to the airline and have their product shown to a customs inspector for it to get released. Seeing that plane-loads of flowers were coming from the same farms, however, AFIF fought to consolidate the process. “Why were we going to have 10 brokers come to the airport and [undergo] different inspections for the same exact farm’s carnation, just because it’s going to different importers?” says Boldt. “So, we worked with the government for years, and the government agreed.” Now, the airlines act as the broker for the entire plane-load of flowers, so they can be inspected and released quickly.
Boldt also got the government to recognize flowers as an essential product during the COVID pandemic. “I immediately went to the government and said, ‘Listen, South America is not closed, the airport is still moving products, the cargo airlines are still flying, and
Ninety-eight percent of the time, the cargo you bring from South America is all perishables. So, we always try to work the plane as close as possible to the cooler...
RICARDO NIETO, SHOWN RIGHT, VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS FOR SKYLEASE CARGO
we are an essential product [for happiness and mental well-being]… And we got an exemption.”
What has also contributed to Miami’s multi-billion dollar floral import industry is the vastly expanded U.S. market. Until about 30 years ago, there was basically only one avenue to buy fresh-cut flowers as a consumer, and that was through retail floral shops. You had the local florist handle birthdays, anniversaries, funerals, etc. Whereas now, “There are great flowers in any and every venue in the U.S.,” says Boldt. “Every supermarket, mass market, and drugstore has fresh cut flowers. The industry has come a long way to providing an opportunity for a customer where, if you want flowers, there’s no reason for you not to have them because they’re everywhere.”
Supermarkets are now the largest buyers of fresh-cut flowers. At Publix, for example, you can easily run over after work and grab a last-minute bouquet of flowers... like the Salsa Bouquet – fresh, fun, and very Miami. And it comes from none other than USA Bouquet. Touring the facility, Hill pointed out the station that was assembling this specific product. “Those are the Salsa Bouquets from Publix. We arrange it, package it, and ship it ready to be put on shelves,” he explained as I shivered in the refrigerated cold. The bouquets even had Publix bar codes and price tags already on them.
Another emerging player has been e-retailers selling flowers online. According to a report by IBISWorld, online flower shops’ revenue has been growing 14.5 percent annually over the past five years – including a 4.7 percent increase in 2022.
This year, the total value of the market is expected to reach $16.3 billion. With e-commerce, since flowers are so light, carriers charge by dimension instead of by the actual weight. This allows for importers who sell to online retailers to add more items in the boxes like a vase or some chocolate. “The key to bringing the flowers out of South America is you have to get that balance between real weight and dimensional weight. Because if you’re over on one, you’re leaving money on the table. So, if you’re paying for a fivepound box, let’s put in as much stuff as we can,” explains Hill.
Although MIA handles the majority of flower imports and other perishables, South Florida’s ports do still handle some of the flowers from South and Central America. In 2022, PortMiami imported $63.1 million of fresh-cut flowers while Port Everglades imported $15 million. While shipping by sea instead of air takes days versus hours, diminishing the flowers’ lifespan, the cost is far less. And in some cases, the industry is forced to adapt. During Hurricane Irma, airlines stopped flying, and the AFIF had to work closely with the ports of origin countries to divert flower shipments to sea instead of air. During the holidays, when airlines become overwhelmed with large volumes, importers will sometimes turn to shipping containers for sea transport as well. Before shipping containers were refrigerated, this would not have been an option. “Sea transport is never going to be the main way; we will always continue to use airlines,” says Boldt. “It just gives us another opportunity to move products.” During holidays, since the containers are refrigerated, it gives importers additional temporary cold-storage facilities.
Finding space to grow is another challenge for the industry, especially as Miami continues to expand and cold-storage becomes scarce. But solutions are in the works. According to Nares, MIA and PortMiami are working on a joint venture to benefit both ports’ perishables capabilities. The plan is to build a phytosanitary treatment and cold-chain processing facility just outside the airport. This will provide additional capacity for processing and storing perishables (including flowers) and will create new intermodal opportunities for shipping flowers once they arrive.
The other answer, of course, is just to do things at a more rapid pace. “I think we just need to work with our partners to have the product move through faster,” says Boldt. “If we can continue working with the government and have programs that can move perishable products through the airport facilities even faster than they do today, we don’t need to worry about having more storage.”
Regardless, Miami will remain a hub for importing flowers into the U.S. market. Some of its distribution centers have been around since the 1970s, and the combination of infrastructure, decades-long partnerships, and the overall convenience of the city’s location should cement its position as a pivotal gateway. “The infrastructure that the airlines have today versus what they had 25 years ago is like night and day,” says Hill. “The commitment from the airlines, the airport, the city, and the government agencies would be very difficult to duplicate, and Miami’s not going to let it go.” l
Yes, everyone’s a competitor, as far as selling. But for us to work with the airport, the government, and the airlines, we had to come together to try to have common goals...CHRISTINE BOLDT, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT FOR THE ASSOCIATION OF FLOWER IMPORTERS OF FLORIDA (AFIF) THE SALSA BOUQUET
Adriana Hoyos did not start her design career with the intention of becoming a furniture manufacturer. That came later, at the suggestion of her husband-turned-business partner, Eduardo Perez, who helped launch her eponymous design brand in 1994. I learned this when I recently spent an afternoon with Hoyos, now an internationally renowned Colombian designer, at her new flagship atelier in the upscale Miami suburb of Coral Gables.
Perez explained that opening the furniture company was a natural progression to extend his wife’s talents as well as to meet her needs as an interior designer. Today, there are two separate but conjoined entities: Adriana Hoyos Design Studio, where we met, plus Adriana Hoyos Furnishings, the latter based in Hollywood, FL. “The company is completely vertical,” says Perez. “We control the entire supply chain, including the growing and farming of trees, five of which are replanted for each one cut down for lumber.”
As well as ensuring the sustainability of the firm’s resources, Perez says that both he and Hoyos care deeply about the social impact of the business. Currently, it provides jobs to 340 employees in Ecuador, with the workforce equally divided between men and women. (A significant advantage of having the manufacturing based in Ecuador is a shipping time of just 10 days. Most highend furniture, Perez explains, is made in Asia, four or five weeks’ away.)
For Hoyos, the ability to supply her interior design work with her own furniture creations makes the work – ranging from residences to resorts and hotels, cruise ships, even airport renovations – a seamless operation. On my arrival, she pointed to myriad large photographs on the walls that showcase her projects – past, present and future. These commissions include the reimagined airport in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; the complete renovation of the clubhouse and restaurant on Miami’s Fisher Island; and numerous multi-million dollar private homes, stretching from New York to Central and South America and the Middle East.
Hoyos says that even as a young girl in Colombia, she knew she was going to be a designer. (Her childhood passion: constructing homes for her dolls, including all the furniture.) Later, she decided against a sixyear architecture degree, opting instead for a four-year course in interior design. After graduating from Marymount University in Arlington, VA, Hoyos returned to Colombia. At that time, there were few interior designers in Quito and little demand for
THE ERGONOMIC FURNITURE OF MIAMI-BASED ECUADORIAN DESIGNER ADRIANA HOYOS BRINGS AN EFFORTLESS SENSE OF STYLE TO HER NUMEROUS PROJECTS WORLDWIDE
BY HARRIET MAYS POWELLtheir services. She realized it would be a difficult industry to break into, saw the growth potential, and opened her own studio.
Initially, Hoyos could find only a few projects at architecture firms, doing schematic drawings. So, she considered going to France to pursue another degree, this time in fine art. But when she met Ecuadorian-born Perez, she decided on marriage over a master’s, realizing that he possessed the business skills and vision to complement her role as the company’s creative force.
The firm’s sunlit premises on Sevilla Avenue in Coral Gables now hold all the fabric and material samples for her work. A new furniture showroom, set to open on the ground floor by year’s end, will house the latest collection. Having long commuted from Ecuador to the U.S., the couple decided to
move to Miami permanently three years ago, while still maintaining an office and staff in Quito. Hoyos says the decision to make Miami home was a simple one, not just because she had an established clientele in the city, but also because “Miami is a super eclectic city nowadays, with so many things happening. Construction is booming and it is both high-end and artistic at the same time.”
And now, almost three decades after founding the company, the second generation has become involved. Daughter Andrea Perez-Hoyos, a graduate from the well-respected Savannah School of Art and Design, co-created the company’s latest furniture collection with her mother.
As for the key influences on her design concepts, Hoyos cites her enduring admiration for Frank Lloyd Wright. “He is an
inspiration, given that he was an architect as well as both an interior and furniture designer,” she says. Like Wright, Hoyos strives to create furniture with a timeless aesthetic. “I like my pieces to be sculptural,” she says. And while Hoyos keeps her eye on market trends, she rarely follows them, eschewing temporary fads. In general, she feels her background in interior design gives her an original perspective.
“Of course, my team and I also pay a lot of attention to comfort and textures, as well
as trying to understand the needs of clients,” she says. “And we’re on the lookout for gaps in the market. For example, it was hard to find a stylish rocking chair, so my husband suggested that I design one for him, a comfortable yet modern take on the iconic piece.” The result: the ‘Eduardo rocking chair,’ with a design Perez says is suggestive of a sports car and not dissimilar to the lines of a Porsche.
Hoyos says her furniture is built to last. The unintended consequence, she chuckles, is that clients say the quality is so good they will never need to buy more. For Hoyos, the devil is in the details – the stitching, the piping, etc. – all of which are meticulously inspected. She says her company’s artisans offer the same level of workmanship found in luxury handbags and custom-made suits.
Another key characteristic of her work is the use of distinctive textiles. Hoyos takes notes of the colors, textures, and prints that are paraded down fashion runways, citing Chanel and Loro Piana as perennial favorites. She and her husband also travel annually to mills in Como, northern Italy, and Spain, where their exclusive fabrics are made. Each collection takes almost two years to complete and is designed around
a theme. “Coco” used coconut shells as a leitmotif, while “Gem” took the facets and cuts of jewelry as its starting point. Her 14th and latest collection, “Lua” (“moon” in Portuguese), takes its inspiration from the textures, shadows, and ever-changing phases of the moon, and perpetuates Hoyos’ preference for furniture in curved organic forms and sculptural shapes.
Hoyos has some 30 projects underway simultaneously and says she acquires new business chiefly by word of mouth. She also has “shops within shops” in Clive Daniel Home stores – located in Naples, Boca Raton, and Sarasota – as well as representatives in 17 U.S. states, Latin America, and the Middle East.
It is this diversity of locations, environments, and climates that demonstrate the adaptability of her furniture designs. Each piece can be transformed by changing the fabric or the finishing. The same armchair covered in a bold black-and-white Chanel-like tweed for a Manhattan apartment can be upholstered in a warm yellow textured fabric for a home in Dubai. For Hoyos and Perez, a friendly and charming couple as well as a successful business team, Miami is now the epicenter of a burgeoning global empire. l
[Frank Lloyd Wright] is an inspiration, given that he was an architect as well as both an interior and furniture designer...ADRIANA HOYOS, SHOWN WITH HUSBAND & BUSINESS PARTNER EDUARDO PEREZ ABOVE: RESIDENCE ON FISHER ISLAND, MIAMI ABOVE RIGHT: DINING ROOM AND LIVING ROOM SHOWCASE THE LATEST COLLECTION, 'LUA' INSPIRED BY PHASES OF THE MOON
BY ANDREW GAYLE
Considering the huge number of companies from Spain that operate in Miami, it’s surprising how few Spanish restaurants there are here; even those few are located mostly in the leafy suburb of Coral Gables. Zeru, which opened on Brickell Avenue just over six months ago, is a dramatic new entry into the Spanish culinary scene that tips the balance back to Miami proper.
Zeru Miami is the third iteration of the restaurant that was born in 2009 in Mexico City, where it is rated as one of the top dining spots in that cuisine-mad city. While its creators are Mexican, their families come from the Basque region of Spain – including Executive Chef Israel Arechiga, whose grandfather was Basque –and that is the focus of Zeru Miami: a refreshingly different palate derived from the seafood of the North Atlantic and the produce of Northwestern Spain. Yes, they serve dishes from other parts of the Iberian Peninsula, but it’s the Basque dishes that predominate. And thankfully so, for the Basque region is renowned in gustatory circles, with 22 Michelin star restaurants, three of them considered among the top 50 in the world (the word “zeru” means “heaven” in Basque).
“Our primary focus is Basque and Northern Spanish [food], with some Mediterranean cuisine,” says General Manager Alex Moredia. “So we have Valencia rice and other dishes from around Spain, but instead of listing the different places, we just say ‘Mediterranean.’”
While the menu offers a requisite array of beef – filet mignon, ribeye, Kobe striploin – the showstopping entree is the whole fish, grilled Getarian-style. This means it’s cooked in the ancient manner of the Basque village of Getaria – over hot coals in a special metal cage to keep the fish intact, then finished with olive oil, vinegar, and garlic. This brings out the taste while keeping the fish moist and tender; diners can pick between turbot, branzino, and dover, or the fish of the day, for between $40 to $52 a pound. We picked the turbot and it was a delight, fresh and flavorful, enough to turn the hardest carnivore into a pescatarian.
Before we reached that magnificent fish, however, we dove into the “pintxos” part of the menu, to sample these small “pierced” snacks that are especially popular in Basque country. Among these were two arrays of croquettes; one of seafood (shrimp, mussels and octopus puree inside) speared with mussels and placed on a drizzle of aioli sauce ($24), the other of pureed Iberian ham, topped with a slice of exquisite jamon Iberico pata negra and grated parmesan ($22). Both were quite good, but the ham variation reached greatness.
Also from the pintxos menu, we sampled piquillo peppers stuffed with black cod ($26), which beautifully combined the salty fish with the soft, red peppers, and bonito tuna montaditos with anchovies and avocado ($22). This latter dish was remarkable in the way it brought out the tuna flavor, spiked by the anchovy; it was a table favorite.
From the appetizer menu, we tried the “Mojo Canario” octopus. We are not big fans of octopus; at most restaurants it’s served grilled and rubbery. But at the urging of our waiter Danny we tried what amounts to the tastiest octopus we’ve yet tried: flattened, grilled,
MIDDLE:
BOTTOM: FISH GRILLED OVER HOT COALS
OPPOSITE:
TOP LEFT: MELLOW VEGETABLE RICE
BOTTOM LEFT: HAM CROQUETTES
TOP RIGHT: TUDELAN ARTICHOKES
MIDDLE: OCTOPUS IN RED MOJO SAUCE
BOTTOM RIGHT: SOCARRATS - PRAWNS IN A
SEPIA BLACK INK WITH RICE
and then baked with a caramelized red mojo sauce ($30), a Canary island specialty made from Pimienta Palmera peppers, cumin, garlic, and red wine vinegar that gave the soft octopus a sweet edge.
We also sampled (and were in awe of) the Tudelan artichokes, which come from the Spanish Navarre region adjacent to Basque country. These were infused with Idiazabal – a nutty, smoky Basque cheese from sheep – and served with the precious pata negra ham ($28). These looked like small lamb chops, baked and then crisped in the oven with a last dash of parmesan cheese.
As stunning as these tastes were, our favorite dishes were from the two rice sections of the menu – the “Socarrats” and “Mellow Rices.” From the Socarrats section, we tried the wild baby squid with prawns in sepia ink ($38), and from the mellow rices we chose Josper-oven roasted organic vegetables ($34).
“Our rice dishes are among the most popular,” says Moredia, “in particular the socarrats, which forms a crust underneath. Socarrat means burned, and we stick it in a very special oven manufactured in Barcelona where we let the lower part of the rice burn.” We also loved our Mellow rice selection, almost a stew of slow-cooked roots and greens. “When you have a good product – a good fish or good vegetables – you have to touch it as little as possible. You have to pamper the ingredients, and when you do you will have something amazing,” Moredia says.
You can say the same about Zeru, with all the right ingredients of excellent service, elegant décor, creative cocktails, and exquisite new flavors that have created a loyal clientele. When you go, keep in mind that it is set back from Brickell, reached by an inner driveway from either 13th or 14th Street. l
It might be strange to find a fine dining establishment like Leku in an art museum in the heart of Allapattah, but that oddity is superseded by the wildly eccentric Rubell Museum, where it is located. Even the neighborhood of Allapattah is somewhat of a nonconformist alien in Miami, a working-class area west of the city which is aggressively striving to reinvent itself as the affordable rival of the Wynwood art district. Wynwood, once a gritty warehouse district known for its many galleries and hand-painted murals, has transformed itself into a hip hub for entrepreneurs and tech startups. Allapattah, however, is still off the beaten path, though considered “up and coming” thanks to the arrival of artists from Wynwood, the vast Rubell collection, and the uniquely immersive art museum Superblue.
All of this unconventionality, however, is tempered by the tranquility of the Rubell’s in-house restaurant Leku, which is full of greenery and contemporary but simple décor (excluding, of course, the mural above the bar – an eye-catching homage to the museum it calls home). It has a Basque-inspired menu you might not find ordinary, but certainly more mainstream – a welcome respite to the bemusement you might experience at a tour of the Rubell before dinner. And it is, quite simply, beautiful, easily combining indoor and outdoor seating with artful elegance.
Still, the most remarkable element of Leku is actually its chef, Carlos García, a Venezuelan educated in Spain who opened his first
restaurant in Miami in 2017 (Obra Kitchen Table, which closed during the pandemic). His Caracas-based restaurant Alto, which he has co-owned since 2007, won the award for the Best Restaurant in Venezuela from “The World’s 50 Best” list, and he himself is highly rewarded. In April, he took the helm of Leku, bringing forth dishes like the tartar de remolacha (beet tartare) and an artichoke dish too long to name here that’s served with a sauce made from txakoli, a bone-dry white wine from the Basque region.
Though Leku is notable for its Basque grill, the centerpiece of the outdoor patio where wood-fired items are prepared, it’s Chef García’s vegetables that take centerstage when it comes to flavor. The aforementioned beet tartare is exquisite, served with mini cones full of mushrooms that look like the end of an ice cream cone and provide an earthy, nutty flavor to an otherwise light and refreshing dish. Deceptively simple but vivaciously saporous, meanwhile, is the seasonal tomato and basil cracker. Served on what is, effectively, just an ordinary tortilla chip, and then loaded with tomato and basil, the dish is surprisingly vibrant and delicious, considered a favorite among Leku afficionados.
Ultimately though, what makes Leku special is its placement at the Rubell Museum, which is also conveniently across the street from Superblue. It’s the sort of place you might spend your day off in Miami at (if you like art, that is), bringing along a spouse or business partner to drink in some culture between meetings. l
BY JAMES BROIDA
If you drive south on U.S.-1 from Downtown Miami, you probably won’t notice Fox’s Lounge. Formerly known as Fox’s Sherron Inn, the legendary bar (founded in 1946) had a long and lurid reputation as “Miami’s Darkest Bar” before it closed in 2015, well before the pandemic. It was known as a place where you could meet someone incognito.
In August of this year, Fox’s reopened. Still, unless you know it’s there, you probably won’t notice the single outline of a fox head on the otherwise blank wall facing U.S.-1. To find the place, you’ll have to drive down Red Road into South Miami and cut back along 74th Street. Then you will see the neon sign, which hangs over a door simply marked “Enter.” It has that vague feeling of “For Madmen Only” - the neon sign from Hermann Hesse’s novel “Steppenwolf.”
Inside, you will find that it’s, well, dark. A back-lit bar provides most of the illumination for the relatively small space, which consists mostly of red-leather booths and a few tables. There is a hallway that leads to another room with a few larger booths, past a vintage jukebox.
The vibe here is just what the new proprietors, Lost Boys & Co., hoped to achieve. “We believe in resurrecting the past, in keeping the direction straightforward, and in connecting the world through sacred geometry,” states the website for the company, which is also behind the rebirth of the Mayfair Grill in Coconut Grove, along with the pub-like Lost Boy Dry Goods (Downtown Miami), and the Joliet and Tropezón bistro restaurants (both Miami Beach).
We visited Fox’s on a Thursday evening, since Thursday is prime rib day (Friday is French dip day). The menu is what you would expect in the way of bar food – cheeseburgers, Philly cheese steak sandwiches, chicken wings, French fries, onion rings – but with some elevated “dinner” dishes, like steak au poivre ($39.95), fresh pan-fried yellowtail ($24.95), and chicken marsala ($24.95), and with some unusual twists, like breaded frog legs with garlic butter ($19.95) and sauteed fresh mushrooms ($7.95). If you get there before 7 pm, the classic cocktails (martini, Manhattan, cosmopolitan, Old Fashioned) drop from $14 to $7.
We ordered the prime rib, which was nicely seasoned (vs. the usual pink slab) and the fried chicken, which was surprisingly good – crisp on the outside, not a lot of wasted breading, and hot and juicy inside. We also ordered a couple of vodka martinis, and in no time sank into a very pleasant trance, the soundtrack playing classic rock, the air filled with just enough chatter to keep your own conversation lost in the noise.
Fox’s is not for everyone, drawing an eclectic collection of guests from all walks. But on a warm evening, its dark, cold interior is something from another time, miles away from the glitz and glamour of Downtown Miami, a worthy watering hole that provides a discrete escape. l
Having just opened in November 2022, the Loews Coral Gables Hotel is the crown jewel of The Plaza Coral Gables, a seven-acre “urban oasis” in Miami’s toniest suburb, complete with Class A office space, high-end retail, 229 luxury townhomes and condominiums, a rooftop fine dining restaurant, myriad public spaces… and now, a leading hotel.
The Plaza and nearby Miracle Mile – the main drag of the walkable Gables downtown area replete with boutique shops and fine dining establishments – are what gives the Loews that most important, forever sought-after piece of realty lore: location. But hospitality comes from within, and at the Loews, it’s everywhere.
Oftentimes, high-end luxury hotel chains employ people who are trained to maintain an unruffled façade of friendliness at all times. Sometimes that can come across as overbearing or artificial, even unctuous. At the Loews, the genuine warmth of each staff member, from the valet to the bartender by the pool, to the executive chef, is a welcome divergence from that norm.
Then there are the amenities themselves, each of which are executed with simple elegance. Take the lobby bar. Shimmering and golden, with crystalline bottles lining the shelves and doors that open onto The Plaza courtyard, it’s all smooth sophistication. The drink list is wonderfully simple, without pretension. The bartenders can make virtually anything, but here the classics are celebrated: vodka martinis, gimlets, cosmopolitans, Manhattans... right from “Madmen” days.
The food at the adjacent Americana Kitchen is similarly traditional, with dishes like burgers, pastas, and pizzas on the menu, but elevated to “New American” status by Chef Ricardo Jarquin’s innovative culinary approach. Jarquin oversees the entire food and beverage program for the hotel and is known for his unique approach to otherwise conventional dishes – like truffle pizza or plantain empanadas. If you manage to make it before the end of Miami Spice on October 1, we recommend the seared Florida grouper on the dinner menu, which comes with a green foam extracted from tomatoes and a side salad made from precision-sliced squash ribbons.
The Phineas poolside bar (named after a famous Gables Architect) is, in contrast, almost entirely Latin-themed. Tacos, quesadillas, and guacamole are the “classics” here and a cabana (starting at $250 for a day) is worth it for the service alone. Each rental comes with a plate of chips and salsa, a fruit platter – and your own personal attendant/
LOEWS CORAL GABLES HOTEL
2950 COCONUT GROVE DR. 786.772.7600
LOEWSHOTELS.COM/CORAL-GABLES
bartender.
Since the hotel is among the newest in Miami, it follows that its amenities and policies are also contemporary. The property is pet-friendly and caters to those traveling alone or with families. Children under 18 stay free, ‘Pack and Plays’ and baby bath amenity kits come without charge, and a $25 daily destination fee includes Wi-Fi, a bike rental, and a $10 Uber credit. Also included is a photoshoot with a complimentary digital image – influencers rejoice!
The property’s 30,000-square-feet of function space was created to cater to corporate clients. The premier meeting area includes 16,000-square-feet of indoor space, providing the largest ballroom in the city, and features high-tech amenities and packages for international travelers. Groups that book over 10 rooms are given special room and meeting space discounts as well as complimentary upgrades, discounts, and
improved Wi-Fi. The hotel has an online portal for event planning and a “Business Travel” section about available amenities –including ergonomic work desks, grab & go’s from Miami Joe Coffee Co., and the hotel’s spa and 24-hour fitness center. Need anything else? Just text the front desk via the Chat Your Service feature.
Though a trip to Miami strictly for business leads more travelers to take up suites in Downtown Miami or Brickell, the Loews in Coral Gables offers a distinctly different experience. The city of Coral Gables is low-rise, walkable, and covered with an enviable tree canopy. There are theaters, cinemas, parks, restaurants, bars, museums, and even a brewery all within a few blocks, making the Loews a perfect place for families and business travelers alike. And, while Miami is 20 minutes away, that is balanced by extreme proximity to Maimi International Airport, just 10 minutes away. l
Miami has long been renowned as a fitness hub, perhaps due to the warm climate and the yearround desire for “beach bodies.” Having earned the title of the most active city in the U.S. in 2022 and with 83 percent of residents engaging in weekly
workouts, the Miami real estate scene has taken notice. We asked three developers that put health and wellness at the forefront of living to give us information on their fitness-focused projects. This is what they offered.
STARTING PRICE: $1.1M
500 Alton Rd., Miami Beach
1 to 4 bed / 1.5 to 4.5 bath. 878 to 6,000 sq. ft.
The first luxury condominium built in South Beach within the last decade, Five Park’s units range from one to four bedrooms and pair a landmark residential tower with a public park and a bridge connecting residents to the South of Fifth
neighborhood. The tower’s roster of amenities touts a fully-outfitted gym, branded beach club, pools, a poolside restaurant and café, waterfront lounge areas, spa treatment rooms, and workspaces. Director of Sales: Charlotte Maietto, 305.520.7974
An awe-inspiring two-level home at The Residences at 1428 Brickell, this spacious residence offers 11-foot ceilings, an Arclinea kitchen, and a deep sunrise terrace with a summer kitchen. The
tower is home to over 80,000-square-feet of curated amenities, including an entire floor dedicated to health & wellness. Listing Agent: Anthony Flexas (Cervera Real Estate / Ytech), 305.338.7089
LISTING PRICE: $10M
330 Biscayne Blvd., Miami 4 bed / 4 bath. 3,542 sq. ft.
Sky Residence 02 at Waldorf Astoria Hotel & Residences features epic scenic views from larger-than-life floor-to-ceiling windows, French balconies, and expansive terraces with summer kitchens. The property
will offer a holistic wellness spa and fitness center with capabilities for residents to book spa and fitness treatments through a custom mobile app. Listing Agent: PMG Residential/PMG, 954.833.4271
There is no better way to appreciate the quality of a world-class city than through its cuisine. Miami has a dynamic and growing culinary scene, propelled in part by its multi-cultural community. What follows is a selection of fine dining establishments in Downtown Miami, Brickell, Wynwood, the Design District, Coconut Grove, and Coral Gables.
and booths. Bento boxes, a raw bar, udon noodles, and Korean fried chicken populate a relatively small but inventive menu. Impressive cocktail bar.
871 S. Miami Ave. 786.878.4493. kaorimiami.com $$$
LA MAR
High-end Peruvian seafood restaurant with great views of the Brickell skyline from the outdoor patio. Chef Gastón Acurio won a Michelin star for his creative dishes, including ceviche with local snapper, grouper, and cod. Recommended: the conchitas a la parmesana, grilled jumbo mollusks served in a large scallop shell in a creamy parmesan base. Modern and lively without being overbearing.
500 Bickell Key Dr. (Mandarin Oriental Hotel) 305.913.8288 $$$
TRULUCK’S
BRASSERIE LAUREL
Chef/owner Michael Beltran’s hip French entry into the downtown eating scene. Exquisite modern French cuisine in a modern yet cozy setting in the midst of the new Miami WorldCenter. Lobster in a bisque served with veal sweetbreads, venison with a sauce au poivre, escargot served in puff pastry, with a signature boeuf en croûte. 698 NE First Ave. 305.330.9048 $$$$
IL GABBIANO
Northern Italian cuisine with stunning views of Biscayne Bay, PortMiami, and Brickell Key. Located at the base of Biscayne Boulevard on the Miami Riverwalk. Impressive selection of pastas, risottos, and 12 veal dishes.
335 S. Biscayne Blvd. 305.373.0063 $$$$
KLAW
From another era in time, a restored 1920s gem of woodwork and high ceilings in the top floor of the old Miami Women’s Club, on the water behind the Omni/Hilton on Biscayne Blvd. High-quality American surf and turf in a large, upscale setting.
1737 N. Bayshore Dr. 305.239.2523 $$$$
TORO TORO
InterContinental Miami’s premiere lunch and dinner restaurant, Toro Toro (reservations recommended), is led by Chef Richard
Sandoval and features a pan-Latin cuisine, heavy on Peruvian with ceviches and tiradito, although the real highlight is their steaks. The traditional Peruvian lomo saltado is the best choice for a specialty entrée.
100 Chopin Plaza (Intercontinental Miami) 305.577.1000 $$$
ZUMA
Modern Japanese cuisine from Chef Rainer Becker, the 2010 flagship of what is now a global brand. Chic and minimalist interior with a modernized version of Japanese izakaya – dishes meant to be shared. Nigiri, sashimi, sushi rolls, and three different omakase menus.
270 Biscayne Blvd. (Kimpton Epic Hotel) 305.577.0277 $$$$
BRICKELL
One of the oldest restaurants in Miami’s Brickell financial district, with a setting as elegant as its food and service. Specializing in seafood, Chef Odel Arencibia prepares lobster tails from South Africa, king crab legs from Alaska, branzino from the Mediterranean, sea scallops from the New England coast, and giant prawns from Nigeria. 777 Brickell Ave. 305.579.0035. $$$
QUINTO
On the fifth floor of the East Hotel, with a large, lush outdoor terrace that takes you far away from one of the busiest neighborhoods in Miami. The culinary focus is South American dishes with a Mexican veneer, in the best possible way – refined, inventive, multi-layered. Chef Ivan Uria uses a wood fire to add flavor.
788 Brickell Plaza (EAST Miami) 786.805.4646 $$$
WYNWOOD
MARYGOLD’S BRASSERIE
NAOE
The most expensive meal in town at $280 per person before beverages are served. High-end Japanese with 10 weekly seatings in an intimate space. Received the Forbes Travel Guide Five Star Award and AAA Five-Diamond Designation.
661 Brickell Key Dr. 305.947.6263. naoemiami.com $$$$
KAORI
Modern Asian-inspired menu of highly original, complex, ingredient-driven dishes in a clean setting of wooden tables, chairs,
Chef Brad Kilgore is the talent behind this trendy Florida-inspired showcase for modern American cuisine. Distinctive dishes like oxtail beignets and ricotta “pillows” are both toothsome and strange – and further elevated by sides like delicately flavored spun potatoes. 2217 NW Miami Ct. 786.522.6601 $$$
Originally from New York, this criticallyacclaimed Parisian bistro serves up classic French cuisine in a stylish yet comfortable setting. A unique but limited “midday menu” (served between lunch and dinner) plays on
the more expansive lunch and dinner offerings, which range from escargot to steak au poivre to French onion soup.
380 NW 26th St. 305.686.3050 $$$
COTE MIAMI
COTE’s golden-hued dining room in the midst of Miami’s Design District is expansive, lined with comfortable black leather booths and tables inset with golden Shinpo grills, the focus of COTE’s culinary experience: Korean barbecue cooked at each table. The Butcher’s Feast is the highlight, tailored for a power lunch, and second only to the Steak Omakase Grand Tour.
3900 NE 2nd Ave. 305.434.4668 $$$
TABLÉ BY BACHOUR
The beautiful new Design District restaurant from pastry impresario/restaurateur Antonio Bachour opened in March 2023. The talented chef’s most ambitious venture to date, with a stand-alone bakery counter with togo offerings of the chef’s Instagram-worthy desserts. Tuna tartare, lamb meatballs, crispy Spanish octopus, miso-roasted salmon.
180 NE 40th St. 786.842.0551 $$$
AMAL
Mediterranean food in a an airy and lightfilled space with a focus on Lebanese cuisine. Inviting ambiance with a nod to Old World arabesque charm, though reimagined with bright and modern tones. Mezzes, pita, hummus, etc., peppered with traditional Lebanese spices and coastal flavors.
3480 Main Hwy. 786.369.0846 $$$
French and Spanish cooking here. But the chicken Florentine, Ravioli aragosta, ravioli zucca, golden calamari, and veal ossobuco say otherwise. Well-prepared dishes in a quiet setting make this Power Lunch Central in Coral Gables.
162 Alcazar Ave. (Hotel St. Michel) 786.580.3731 $$$
TUR
BELLINI
A European-style hideaway on top of the Mr. C Miami hotel, with views of Biscayne Bay and the Grove’s skyline. Italian menu inspired by the founder of Harry's Bar in Venice, the great-grandfather of the hotel owners. Recommended: the translucent langoustine carpaccio to start, followed by the pesce del giorno, a whole Dover sole.
2988 McFarland Rd. (Mr. C Miami) 305.800.7672 $$$$
MAMEY
The overriding culinary proposition of Mamey, with some South Asian exceptions, is Caribbean cuisine infused with the spices of India. Award-winning Chef Niven Patel has a background in both, with ingenious combinations and contrasts of tastes and textures that create complex flavor profiles.
1350 S. Dixie Hwy (THesis Hotel).
305.266.2639 $$$
ZUCCA
They will tell you they serve “continental” fusion cuisine, and yes, there is a touch of
Mediterranean cuisine carried to new heights by Chef Christian Chirino, who plates each dish with exquisite care. Amazing pork loin, offered both for dinner and as a smaller portion on the $39 executive lunch menu, plus delicately-flavored ice creams and sorbets unlike any other. Flavors here range from Middle Eastern to Spanish – but everything is delicious.
259 Giralda Ave. 786.483.8014 $$$
MESA MAR
The place in town for pescatarians, where the fish is flown or driven in from the nearby Florida Keys or the Caribbean. Chef Lilia Molina’s commitment to freshness is evident here based on the quality of the food and the fact that the restaurant receives shipments four times a week – meaning that nothing is ever more than a day old.
264 Giralda Ave. 305.640.8448 $$$
TULLIO
The newest fine dining experience in Coral Gables. Elegantly presented Italian cuisine from northern Italy, with a focus on Venetian dishes and seafood. Cinematiclevel service with many dishes prepared table-side. Unique seafood options like fully intact prawns and pan-seared octopus with chickpea puree, plus delicious homemade gelato.
160 Andalusia Ave. 305.926.4208 $$$ l
In 2022, Formula One came to Miami in the form of the Miami Grand Prix, a three-day event held at the Miami International Autodrome around Hard Rock Stadium. Last year, the event’s second iteration boosted the local economy by $449 million as more than 270,000 fans from around the world came to attend “race week.” Visitor spending reached over $195 million and the construction-related economic impact on the Greater Miami area topped $230 million.
As Miami grows, more and more events like the F1 Cypto. com Miami Grand Prix are drawn to the city, leading to yet more growth – a cycle that benefits not just the corporate sponsors and the fans, but also the entire population of the city. Every ticket bought for the Miami Grand Prix – or an Inter Miami game, or the Miami Open, or any of the many international sporting competitions held here – leads to more dollars put into the local economy. See cover story on page 50.
