WEEK OF THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 2016
A Singular Voice in an Evolving City
EFFECT OF CHANGES IN CURRENCY EXCHANGE RATES ON PROPERTY PURCHASES BY FOREIGN BUYERS JUNE 2015 - JUNE 2016 COUNTRY
SAMPLE HOME VALUE USD 6/15
SAMPLE HOME VALUE USD 6/16
Argentina Brazil Canada China Colombia Great Britain European Union Japan Mexico Russia Peru Venezuela
$1,000,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000
$1,100,000 $1,100,000 $1,100,000 $1,100,000 $1,100,000 $1,100,000 $1,100,000 $1,100,000 $1,100,000 $1,100,000 $1,100,000 $1,100,000
EXCHANGE RATE CHANGE 6/15 - 6/16
64.7% 3.7% 4.3% 8.4% 14.8% 17.4% 0.7% -16% 17.9% 15.2% 4% 58.5%
ACTUAL COST AFTER CURRENCY & VALUE CHANGES (USD)
PERCENTAGE OF CHANGE IN COST
$1,811,614 $1,141,614 $1,147,009 $1,192,933 $1,262,860 $1,291,948 $1,107,625 $924,546 $1,296,452 $1,267,169 $1,143,638 $1,743,265
81.2% 14.1% 14.7% 19.3% 26.3% 29.2% 10.8% -7.5% 29.6% 26.7% 14.4% 74.3%
Source: EWM Realty International
WWW.MIAMITODAYNEWS.COM $4.00
FINANCIAL TRENDS
Currency rate changes slowing luxury real estate sales, pg. 13
BEACH RENOURISHMENT BEGINS: Construction for the Miami Beach 46th Street and 54th Street erosional hotspots beach renourishment project began Tuesday, the US Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District announced. The corps’ contractor, Eastman Aggregate Enterprises LLC of Lake Worth, is to place 220,000 cubic yards of beach-quality sand from an upland sand mine on more than 3,000 feet of critically eroded shoreline near both areas. On Tuesday the company began mobilizing equipment at the 46th Street access and staging area and is to place sand on the beach in that area within the next few weeks. The $11.9 million project is part of the Miami-Dade County Beach Erosion Control and Hurricane Protection Project.
City eyes two EB-5 projects if program survives, pg. 14
THE ACHIEVER
BY SUSAN D ANSEYAR
TOLL GAINS TO SLOW: The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority’s explosive growth of both traffic and revenue is expected to begin leveling off next year after gains in fiscal 2016 of 28.7% in tolled traffic and 19.7% in revenues as the authority has increased collection points across its five-expressway system with broadened use of open road tolling. Gains in fiscal 2015 were 50.1% in tolled traffic and 41.5% in revenues. The future is expected to see “a normalization of business operations,” says Fitch Ratings as it assigned ‘A’ ratings to $99 million in authority refunding bonds and affirmed the same rating on $1.49 billion in outstanding revenue bonds. They system, Fitch wrote, “has a mature traffic profile with over 472 million annual toll transactions in fiscal year 2016...” While the system’s tolls can rise beginning in fiscal 2019 indexed to the consumer price index, Fitch cites “inherent political risks associated with toll increases...” INDUSTRIAL LEASE RATES UP, VACANCY DOWN: The Miami industrial market has seen a slight increase in average lease rates to $9.41 per square foot and a slight decrease in vacancy rates to 4.4%, according to ComReal’s Mid-Year 2016 Miami Industrial Real Estate Market Report. Average cap rates have increased to 6.62%, while average sales price decreased to $86.45 per square foot. Total inventory increased to 243,653,908 square feet. The largest lease transaction of the past quarter, the report said, was Pricemart’s new 330,000-square-foot. warehouse space at Flagler Station in Medley. The largest sales transaction was COFE Properties’ acquisition of the 167,000-square-foot Webster Business Park for $16 million.
Steven Altschuler
Photo by Marlene Quaroni
Leading the transformation of UM’s Health System The profile is on Page 4
Court clears counties’ way to block rail service BY CATHERINE LACKNER
A court ruling has cleared the way for Martin and Indian River counties, both north of Palm Beach County, to continue their suit against the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) in an effort to block the second leg of the planned All Aboard Florida train service between Palm Beach and Orlando. “U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper sided with Martin and Indian River counties, both of which objected to the USDOT’s award of $1.75 billion in private activity bonds for the All Aboard Florida passenger train project,” said a story in the Aug. 17 issue of The Bond Buyer. The actions will be “the first lawsuits ever to challenge a private activity bond allocation from the U.S. Department of Transportation,” the story said. The crux of the counties’ case
AGENDA
Counties are opposing 32 planned high-speed Brightline trains daily.
is that USDOT’s December 2014 allocation of private activities bonds – which generally are issued for projects that have some public benefit – “should have been considered as part of federal agency reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act,” the story in The Bond Buyer said. The attorneys for the counties also questioned whether any other financing
Metrorail’s growth aim is all in past
was contemplated. The Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing program, an alternate federal plan, requires the environmental review, but the issuance of private activities bonds does not. The two counties, along with an anti-train group called CARE FL, also said the 32 planned high-speed trains daily would cause harm to public services
and archaeological sites. All Aboard Florida plans to begin train service from Miami to West Palm Beach next summer and is building stations along the route. If all goes as planned, the service would be extended to Orlando later in the year. Both counties are considering their next steps, said the story in The Bond Buyer, though Dylan Reingold, attorney for Indian River County, said Judge Cooper’s ruling was a “really significant victory.” “Martin County is very pleased with the decision and believes that the public will have more information as a result of the court action than they’ve ever had before about the project,” said Stephen Ryan of the McDermott Will & Emery law firm, which represents Martin County. Citing the litigation, a spokesperson for All Aboard Florida declined to comment.
Elevated Metrorail is extremely costly to build, county officials say, so street-level light rail seems best for Miami-Dade’s future transit. Transit officials are looking more at light rail for six Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit Plan corridors while in some cases converting Metrorail cars for overhead power, transportation director Alice Bravo told Miami Today last week. She said the technology used for each corridor will be picked after individual studies on the six. “The more we can bring down the cost of the corridors, the more transit lines we will be able to build,” she said. A half-penny sales tax voters approved in 2002 to fund new transit called for 88 new miles of Metrorail in addition to such promises as expanding bus service and improving traffic signals to reduce bottlenecks. Fourteen years later, officials are looking at cost-effective ways to do transit projects quickly. A group developed fresh ideas last summer after viewing the Denver Regional Transportation District’s light rail and commuter rail. MiamiDade transit and elected officials gathered data on how Denver’s community created its FasTracks, which includes 122 miles of commuter rail and light rail using multiple funding sources. Light rail generally has less capacity and speed than heavy rail and metro systems but higher capacity and speed than street trams. According to Railsystem.net, light rail typically is a system with rapid transit-style features using electric rail cars operating mostly in private rights-of-way separated from other traffic but if necessary mixed with other traffic in city streets. Modern light rail technology is flexible and adaptable, and whether a system is considered true rapid transit depends on its characteristics.
TREE REMOVAL DELAYS CITY PLAT IN SOUTH GROVE ...
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28-STORY TOWER DUE ON SITE ART BASEL TENT USED ...
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INSIDE A PLANT ASSEMBLING NEW METRORAIL CARS ...
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FILM WORLD WEIGHS STRATEGY TO WIN INCENTIVES ...
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VIEWPOINT: CLOUDS HIDE OUR SPARKLING JOB GAINS ...
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MARKERS BRINGING HISTORY OF GROVE BACK TO LIFE ...
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CUBAN MUSEUM TO OPEN YEAR AFTER COMPLETION ...
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GROCERY AISLES TO REPLACE ALLEY AT NEW PUBLIX ...
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