WEEK OF THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2016
A Singular Voice in an Evolving City
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HEALTH UPDATE
County to borrow $735 million in vast Jackson upgrade, pg. 13 FLYING HIGHER: Miami International Airport passenger traffic continues to grow, with 2.75% more passengers this year than last through the first seven months of the year to total more than 26.7 million passengers arriving and departing combined, reported statistics reveal. The totals include almost 14.2 million domestic passengers, up 4.28% over the first seven months of 2015, and nearly 12.6 million international passengers, up 1.07%. Freight flowing through the airport, meanwhile, slipped a hair, down 0.07% for the year to 1,226,040 tons.
Miami Cancer Institute due for October move-in, pg. 16
THE ACHIEVER
FLYING MORE PLACES: Scandinavian Airlines is to launch new flight service at Miami International Airport on Sept. 28, flying three times a week between the airport and Copenhagen, Denmark, and four times a week linking with Oslo, Norway. The next day Dominican Wings begins weekly flights linking Miami and both Punta Cana and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Both airlines are new to the airport, officials announced. Last week the airport welcomed new international routes with four weekly flights to and from Bimini, Bahamas, by Silver Airways; three weekly links with Cologne, Germany, by Eurowings; and weekly non-stop flights to and from Paramaribo, Suriname, by Surinam Airways. WYNWOOD REIMBURSEMENT: Miami-Dade commissioners were expected to vote this week on a resolution by Chairman Jean Monestime urging Congress and the Florida Legislature to allocate funds for economic recovery packages to help the Wynwood business section recover from the effects of Zika and to reimburse Miami-Dade County for funds expended on mosquito control and outreach and education efforts. The resolution noted that Mayor Carlos Gimenez on Aug. 11 wrote Gov. Rick Scott requesting state funds for economic recovery packages and to reimburse the county for its spending. It also said that on Aug. 10 the Wynwood Business Improvement District had reported that Wynwood’s economy had already seen a 50% to 75% drop in revenue. NEWCOMERS TO SPUR HOME PRICES: Current home prices in Florida were down $42,000 compared to fourth quarter 2006 values, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s inaugural Florida Population Report. However, prices have risen $83,000 in the span of five years after bottoming out in 2011. According to the report, tight supply and pentup demand are driving price increases and pace of sales as new residents snap up homes in fast-growing metros.
John Murray
Photo by Marlene Quaroni
Barry University provost seeks new educational paths The profile is on Page 4
City explores Brickell fire station-school combo BY JOHN CHARLES ROBBINS
Miami officials and the Miami-Dade County Public Schools are exploring options for a new school for Brickell, perhaps combined with a new city fire station. Talks are in the early stage. City and school officials met Friday and a consensus remains that a deal can be worked out. In addition, a private developer has expressed interest in a public-private partnership in the area. The item was subject of a sunshine meeting Friday at the City Hall office of Commissioner Ken Russell, at the request of Commissioner Frank Carollo. Mr. Carollo said he was “taken a little bit by surprise” when he learned that legislation had already been written and submitted to the school board. He said he wants the idea to move forward, yet “I’ve had no briefing.” He complained about lack of communication. “There’s something missing here, and I think it’s communication,” he said. Representatives of the city and school district first discussed a shared facility at a sunshine meeting July 13.
AGENDA
Mr. Russell said he too was a bit surprised to hear legislation was already being submitted for a school board vote. It was scheduled for the board’s consideration Wednesday. Lisa Martinez from the Office of the Superintendent said the draft legislation merely verifies what was discussed in July and asks the school board for permission to explore the idea. Fire Chief Maurice Kemp also voiced “surprise” by recent events and said it sounded like school officials were drafting their own memo of understanding while the city’s Department of Real Estate Asset Management was busy working on its own version. “Where will there be an intersect?” Mr. Kemp asked. Ms. Martinez said “there are not two versions” of the memo. “You may have seen different iterations” of the draft agreement, she added, but none of them negates the fire department’s concerns. The school board was being asked to authorize the superintendent to “finalize negotiations” and execute a memorandum of understanding with the city “to provide a
general framework under which a collaboration between the city and the board could be further formulated to co-develop and co-locate a new, expanded fire station and a future educational facility on the cityowned fire station No. 4 site (1105-1133 SW Second Ave.),” the agenda item reads. Chief Kemp said his primary concerns are continuity of service and compatibility. He stressed that there can be no interruption of service at the fully functioning fire-rescue station that’s now in that neighborhood. “The department needs continuity of use.” Mr. Kemp said he’s open to options but questioned the co-locating a fire station with a school, stressing that fire operations would take priority over school functions. “We can’t have kids loading and unloading in front of a fire station,” he said. The only public school now in the area is Southside Elementary at 45 SW 13th St. Commissioners Carollo and Russell said they remain open to all options. Mr. Russell suggested all parties move forward in good faith “but not get too far down the road that we leave an option behind.”
Distributor seeks boost to hire 1,000 Miami-Dade County commissioners this week were being asked to approve up to $300,000 in job incentive funding for a confidential 1,000-job company expansion into Opa-locka for a company rumored to be Amazon. The Beacon Council, the county’s economic development organization, brought the project before the commission for approval of the incentives. The state would pay $1.2 million in incentives as well if 500 of the jobs were created over a four-year period along with the projected $198 million capital investment. While the site of the company’s high-tech fulfillment center was not stated in the application that went to county commissioners for their vote, the likely site is beside the county’s Opa-locka Airport on 120 acres owned by the county that are leased to the Carrie Meek Foundation. Amazon already has a 300employee center west of Doral and another is in the works. While the application lists 1,000 new jobs, incentives would only be paid on the first 500. As long-standing state legislation spells out, the state would oversee the creation of jobs in accord with its agreement and after the jobs were created paying at least 115% of the state’s average wage. It would then notify the county of its obligations to pay 20% of the total while the state pays 80%. As is typical of Beacon Council applications for incentives, this one is given a code name for commissioners to act on: Project Sol. The application says that the employees functioning in the warehouse and distribution space would receive an average annualized salary of $50,675, plus employee benefits averaging $7,601. The center itself would have more than 855,000 square feet of warehouse and distribution space. Construction would begin in the second quarter of 2017 with operations beginning in the second quarter of 2018.
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