Miami Today: Week of Thursday, April 26, 2018

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WEEK OF THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2018

A Singular Voice in an Evolving City

WWW.MIAMITODAYNEWS.COM $4.00

AS MIAMI-DADE UNEMPLOYMENT RISES, SOME INDUSTRIES GAINING JOBS RAPIDLY, PG. 7 JOY AT THE INN: Miami-Dade hotels increased revenue per available room 18.2% in March from March 2017, achieving the nation’s highest average daily revenue per room at $235.70, according to national rating firm STR. Miami’s average in March 2017 was $199.46. At the same time, Miami hotels had the highest average daily room rate in March at $268.22, up 15.2% from $232.68 in March 2017. Miami hotels were second in the nation in occupancy for the month at 87.9%. The marketplace saw 1,504,279 room nights sold in the month, up 2.4% from March 2017 though slightly fewer rooms were in the marketplace, 55,221 versus 55,331 a year earlier.

The Achiever

By Catherine Lackner

RAIL SAFETY FUNDS: Miami-Dade County is seeking a $1 million federal grant to inspect and perform preventive maintenance on the 25 miles of Metrorail and 4.4 miles of Metromover guideways. State statute requires safety inspections of the rail bridges and an inspection program on the system began in 1986. If the grant were approved, the total cost of the work would be paid from Federal Transit Administration funds. Last week the county’s Transportation and Public Works Committee unanimously approved applying for the money. The full county commission is to vote May 1 on making the request. BINDING IN SECURITY: Miami-Dade County is adding focus on security measures at its 50 public libraries, according to a memo that Mayor Carlos Giménez sent to county commissioners last week. Thirteen of those libraries over the past year have replaced a closed circuit television system that was set up in about 2006 with a newer system that is focusing not only on library interiors but outside and in parking lots, the mayor wrote. The other 37 libraries should get the new system by the end of this fiscal year, the mayor said. The library system, he said, has increased spending each of the past three years on security, and 29 of the libraries have either contract security guards or full-time library security officers. “Increasing security coverage will continue as an operational priority moving forward,” he said. ON-DEMAND TRANSIT: Money from the county’s half-percent sales tax surcharge for transportation could be use to provide on-demand transit to or from Metrorail stations and South Dade transitway bus shelters if twothirds of county commissioners approve the use that was recommended last week by the county’s Transportation and Public Works Committee. Maximum length of allowable trips would be five miles in the legislation presented by Commissioner Esteban Bovo Jr.

A possible bridge deal on Brickell

Adolfo Henriques

Photo by Marlene Quaroni

Malina award honoree maintains civic leadership roles The profile is on Page 4

82-story tower to replace heart -of-Miami hotel By John Charles Robbins

City review board gives project raves, pg. 12 care put into designing the building and where

Goodbye Courtyard by Marriott, hello 2nd & 2nd. The heart of downtown Miami is set to change in a big way – literally – when the 14-story Marriott hotel comes down to make room for an 82-story skyscraper known as 2nd & 2nd. A developer plans an 898-foot mixed-use tower at 200 SE Second Ave., with a hotel, rental apartments, retail and a two-story corner bar in a glass circle. The site today is home to a Courtyard by Marriott. Miami Convention Hotel Corp., a Yonkers, NY, entity, has filed the ambitious plan with the City of Miami. The city’s Urban Development Review Board last week recommended approval. The high-profile site is hugged by an on ramp to I-95, off of Second Avenue, and is right beside the iconic Miami Tower. The new tower will bring more than 1.5 million square feet of development to the compact site, according to the application to the city. The lot area is 50,187 square feet, or 1.15 acres. 2nd & 2nd is to provide 266 hotel rooms, 637 residences, 9,245 square feet of commercial-retail

and 8,563 square feet of open space. Parking will be built to handle 553 vehicles. The podium also contains hotel lobbies, restaurant space and loading and service areas. Attorney Iris Escarra, representing the developer, said the plan is to build a sleek, elegant tower on an amazing corner. “It will be a great asset to the Miami skyline,” she told the review board, adding that the site has four interesting frontages. She wrote to the city, “The project is centrally located at an intersection which has a variety of retail, civic, and restaurant uses located on all sides of the Project.With the abutting Metromover Station, the entirety of downtown and Brickell is accessible from the property.” Redevelopment will provide ground level retail, which the existing structure lacks, she said. “This will enhance the pedestrian realm and encourage walkability along a stretch of downtown with no retail frontages,” she wrote. The tinted-glass tower design is from Coral Gables architects Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates Inc. Architect Igor Reyes spoke of the time and

it will be on the site, noting that access is very important to the project. “There is a lot of traffic there. The intersection is really busy,” he said. The developer is requesting several waivers, including: ■A 10% increase in maximum lot coverage. The unique shape caused by I-95 on-ramps and elevated Metromover tracks makes strict compliance with lot coverage requirements impractical for a site within the urban core, the application says. A waiver to increase lot coverage will alleviate a practical difficulty caused by the unique site and allow a functional design, the request says. ■A 10% increase in the maximum floorplate above the eighth story. ■Substitution of a commercial loading berth for an industrial loading berth. ■Parking encroaching into the second layer above the first story, along the primary frontage, with an art or glass treatment approved by the planning director with the review board’s recommendation. The Courtyard by Marriott has 208 rooms, 25 suites and four meeting rooms, its website says.

After years of wrangling, a temporary compromise seems near on lockdowns of the Brickell Avenue Bridge over the Miami River. Miami’s Downtown Development Authority has been at loggerheads with the Coast Guard about what the authority calls improper openings to let pleasure craft through. Current hours of no bridge openings (at least in theory) are 7:35 to 8:59 a.m., 12:05 to 12:59 p.m., and 4:35 to 5:59 p.m. weekdays, except for vessels in distress or under tow (usually freighters.) All other times, the bridge is to open only on the hour and halfhour if a vessel requests it. Authority chair and Miami Commissioner Ken Russell held a mediation session among authority members, the state transportation department, the Miami River Commission, the federal marine agency and other stakeholders, he told authority members Friday. A potential compromise was reached: in a pilot program, the bridge will be locked down from 8 to 9 a.m. and from 5 to 7 p.m. weekdays. “It’s a shift and a trade-off,” Mr. Russell said, in that the authority is giving up some morning time to gain more in evenings. “FDOT is on our side. They pushed back with dueling studies” when the Coast Guard said locking down the bridge would affect waterway safety. “I say, ‘Good, great, let’s try this,’ but they’re going to keep falling on the ball,” said authority board member Richard Lydecker of the Lydecker-Diaz law firm, a vigorous proponent of longer lockdown hours. He said the authority shouldn’t rule out filing suit “if there’s a fight to be had.” “A two-pronged approach could work if we have the teeth to move forward with it,” Mr. Russell said. “It’s a good option to have.” It might serve the interests of all to create more exceptions, Mr. Lydecker said: “anything with a mast sits and waits; any noncommercial boat sits and waits. Then we have a united front.”

RENEWING COUNTY’S A/C CONTRACT GETS CHILLY REVIEW ...

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MIAMI CONSIDERS FIGHTING 20-YEAR-OLD HOMELESS DEAL ...

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MIAMI ASKS FEDS TO KEEP OCEANIC HEADQUARTERS HERE ...

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BOARD RECOMMENDS OK FOR WYNWOOD OFFICE BUILDING ...

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VIEWPOINT: BUS OUTSOURCING SUCCEEDS, SO TRY IT MORE ...

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DOWNTOWN AUTHORITY DIGS INTO A MIAMI RIVER TUNNEL ...

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DRIVE TO ADD LOCAL COUNTY CONTRACTORS EXPANDING ...

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COUNTY PROBES HOW TO HANDLE INTERNAL COMPLAINTS ...

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Miami Today: Week of Thursday, April 26, 2018 by Miami Today - Issuu