WEEK OF THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015
A Singular Voice in an Evolving City
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FINANCIAL TRENDS
Regional Federal Reserve head offers rosy area outlook, pg. 14 CONSTRUCTION ORDERS SKYROCKET: Contracts for future construction in MiamiDade and Broward counties rose 52% last year, a report released last week by Dodge Data & Analytics showed. Total contract values for the year were $10 billion, up from $6.6 billion in 2013. Residential contracts in the area last year were up 62%, from $4.1 billion to $6.6 billion, while nonresidential contracts rose 35%, from $2.5 billion to $3.4 billion. The gains accelerated in December, Dodge reported, when residential contracts for future work rose 91% from $337 million to $643 million and nonresidential construction contracts for the future rose almost fivefold, from $135 million to $658 million.
Few local governments covered for vital pension liability, pg. 15
THE ACHIEVER
BY LIDIA DINKOVA
PARKING MAKES LOTS: Rate-making flexibility that allows Miami’s Department of Off-Street Parking to increase its rates an average of 3% a year without city commission approval helped earn the department’s $68.7 million in outstanding bonds from 1998 and 2009 an “A” rating affirmation and a stable outlook from Fitch Ratings bond rating agency last week. Fitch noted that parking revenues rose 3.7% in the past fiscal year to $28.7 million and that the department “holds a monopolistic position over essential on-street parking spaces in the Miami central business district, which account for about 50% of operating revenues.” Revenues rose 3.7% in the fiscal year while operating expenses rose 4.2%, primarily due to higher maintenance costs, Fitch said. Revenue per space in the fiscal year rose from $1,154 to $1,308, “driven by a 20.2% increase in parking lots revenue per space.” The department owns or manages nearly 36,000 parking spaces. VISUALIZING POSSIBILITIES: The Miami Lighthouse for the Blind has received a grant from the Able Foundation to run the High School High Tech program at the Lighthouse. High school students who are blind, visually impaired or have other learning disabilities will attend sessions Saturdays during the school year, daily during spring break and perhaps in summer during which they will be exposed to talks by experts in areas like radio production, social media for fun and profit, gardening to grow their own food and other people’s, recycling everything, radio journalism and music for people. The students will gain experience in figuring out what areas they might like to work in through career and skills assessment tests and discussion, doing job interviews, shadowing jobs, attending short internships, and longer ones in the summer. The starting group is 30 students, ages 14-22.
Adam Goldstein
Photo by Marlene Quaroni
Running fast in competitive global cruise industry The profile is on Page 4
City charts a waterways course to sink gridlock BY JOHN CHARLES ROBBINS
Miami city commissioners, fed up with ever-growing traffic congestion, are ready to consider the area’s vast waterways for new modes of transportation. Commissioners voted to urge the MiamiDade Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) to study the feasibility of using waterways to transport people throughout the county and review legislation needed to get water transportation flowing. Commissioners didn’t want to limit the study’s scope or the potential modes of transportation. They mentioned everything from water taxis to large ferries and even a gondola lift. In Miami, getting all those people from Point A to Point B in a timely fashion is becoming the challenge of the day. Commissioners bemoaning traffic gridlock began to talk about using the water – Biscayne Bay, the Miami River and tributaries. Chairman Wifredo “Willy” Gort raised the subject. “I’d like to take to the MPO for consideration water public transportation,” he said. “I think with as much waterways that
AGENDA
Cruises set passenger port record
we have here, there should be a system where we can transport people at fixed hours, especially in the mornings and peak hours, and get a lot of the cars off the streets. And I’d like to recommend that Commissioner [Francis] Suarez bring it up at the MPO,” where he represents the city. Mr. Gort suggested exploring ways to transport people over the water, connecting Miami Beach with Dinner Key and Key Biscayne, and other areas. “Right now Miami Beach is beginning to ask for it, Key Biscayne is beginning to ask for it, and we’ve had people in the past who wanted to create [water] taxi routes,” Mr. Gort said. “That sounds great,” said Commissioner Keon Hardemon. “When I was in Hong Kong, I actually took a water taxi, one of the preferred modes of transportation, and it’s not very expensive the way they did it.” Hong Kong uses all modes, he said. “They had cabs, trains, trolleys, water taxis, every mode of transportation that you think you can take… they utilized.” Mr. Suarez praised the idea. “I absolutely think you’ve got a great idea there, Mr. Chair. I’ll definitely push it,” he
said, moving to approve a resolution he can take to the MPO. Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, in support of the waterways study, mentioned proposals to link the City of Miami with Miami Beach. He said a proposal to build a hard rail link to the island and back, basically a “U” route, could cost upwards of $2 billion. “Big money,” he said. But the estimated cost of a gondola lift is about $200 million, Mr. Sarnoff said. He didn’t want to limit the scope of the waterways study. “Let’s leave it very expansive. What is the best use of the waterways? Is it with a cable system? Is it under a more traditional ferry system? Is it private, is it public, is it a mixture of the two?” Mr. Sarnoff asked. Mr. Gort said, “When you travel throughout the world you see the waterways being used by public transportation. There is a great need for us to improve our public transportation… we’ve got to utilize everything we can.” “This benefits everyone, not just the city of Miami,” Mr. Gort concluded. “This will help everyone.”
A record in cruise passengers – nearly 4.8 million – sailed through PortMiami last year. That’s a 17% gain from 2013, when about 4.08 million came through, according to PortMiami. Passengers are counted twice, when they board and when they disembark. PortMiami attributes the increase to the addition of two new cruise ships. MSC Cruises, based in Switzerland, began sailing its MSC Divina from the port. Also, Norwegian Cruise Lines, based in Miami-Dade, started sailing its Norwegian Getaway, which can accommodate nearly 4,000 passengers. While passenger traffic hit a record, cargo loads dipped. Last year, 877,000 TEUs, an industry measurement indicating a 20-foot long standard cargo container, came through the port. That’s 2.7% less than the number handled in 2013. “It’s definitely not a significant drop,” said Kevin Lynskey, PortMiami deputy director. Over the past decade, port cargo throughput has been 800,000 to 1 million TEUs, he said. The port has lost some of the market partly because ports in the Gulf of Mexico have worked to capture some of that cargo. “Florida has had an extremely strong presence in all the Caribbean Americas straits for decades, almost unnaturally high, and competing ports have spent a lot of time going after that business,” Mr. Lynskey said. But, he added, PortMiami will soon catch up – and surpass the 1 million TEUs mark in the next five years. “That’s not just due to the Panama Canal expansion but we’re seeing some growth in our carriers,” he said. “We’re getting containers from lines that have not been here for a few years, and then we are seeing our existing carriers start to pick up traffic a little bit.” “I really think,” he added, “it’s only in the next half decade when we will leave a million [TEUs] behind.”
PARTNER SOUGHT TO BUILD OVER OMNI BUS TERMINAL ...
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TRAFFIC CALLED OUR BIGGEST ECONOMIC CHALLENGE ...
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VIEWPOINT: INCENTIVES DEALS HAVE TO BE SPECIFIC ...
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BANKS ADAPT AS HOME-LOAN APPLICANTS INCREASE ...
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WYNWOOD’S IMPROVEMENTS DISTRICT MAY EXPAND ...
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TERM LIMITS BIG QUESTION IN CITY CHARTER REVIEW ...
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COMMISSION MOVES TO ALTER 20TH STREET’S NATURE ... 11
WILL WE SWAP ONE AGED COURTHOUSE FOR ANOTHER? ... 18