Voters Approve Privately Funded Miami Beach Convention Center Hotel

In the highly anticipated election on Tuesday night, Miami Beach residents approved the construction of an 800-room convention center hotel. The referendum needed a 60 percent vote in order to lease public land from the city and passed at 64 percent in its third attempt to bring a headquarter hotel to Miami. The hotel will be built on a city-owned parking lot adjacent to the newly renovated convention center.

The previous attempt in 2016 failed due to concerns over the size, originally twice as large as the current proposal, and traffic congestion. The tourism bureau estimates Miami Beach lost at least $250 million in economic revenue over the last several years because it was unable to accommodate larger scale conventions.

South Beach resident Andres Montejo, 43, said that the convention center hotel was one of the issues that drove him to the polls. Montejo, a businessman who travels frequently for work, said that the other cities he visits already have hotels connected to their convention centers.

“A convention center is great, but without a hotel it’s just another convention center,” he said after casting his ballot at Miami Beach Senior High School. “Anybody that travels ... you know that’s how the game works. It’s like that all over the world.”

Other residents, annoyed with the constant flow of construction and resulting noise and traffic in the area, decided to vote against the hotel.

The hotel will connect to the convention center via a pedestrian bridge and include a 53-foot podium containing parking, meeting spaces and ballrooms as well as two 185-foot-tall wings of hotel rooms. Voters authorized the lease and the construction of an 800-room hotel with a maximum height of 185 feet, but specifics of the hotel design will be evaluated by the city’s Design Review Board at a later date.

The group behind the proposal — Turnberry’s Jackie Soffer, Terra Group’s David Martin, Miami Design District developer Craig Robins and architecture firm Arquitectonica — emphasized that the hotel would be roughly 100 feet shorter than the previous proposal and include six times more space for cars to queue on the property so that they don’t spill onto the street.

“This is the right project for our city at the right time, and Jackie, Craig and I look forward to working with the community to deliver a hotel that will make Miami Beach proud,” said developer David Martin.

On a related ballot item, residents voted to earmark the guaranteed hotel rent payments for traffic reduction measures, stormwater projects and education initiatives, rather than sending the money to the city’s general fund where it could be used for a broader range of expenses.

According to the terms of the lease agreement, the hotel will have to pay Miami Beach either fixed rent totaling $16.6 million over the first 10 years or a percentage of hotel revenue, whichever is greater. Miami Beach estimates that the city will also collect $96 million in taxes from the hotel over the next 30 years.

Article by: Katya Demina

Augmented Reality App Launching in Miami to Help Drive Foot Traffic to Brick and Mortar Businesses

ARVISL Future is a Miami based technology startup founded by Krystal Kunyue Zheng, a recent Florida International University graduate. ARVISL Future is based at CIC Miami, the hub of South Florida's startup and technology scene.

This November, ARVISL is launching its first mobile application, SAVR, in Miami. SAVR aims to bring measurable foot traffic to local brick and mortar businesses with technologies like location based service and augmented reality. Zheng describes SAVR as the fusion of Pokemon Go and Groupon.

With location based services, SAVR can reach, measure and engage with local and tourism traffic at any specific location. By combining augmented reality and location based service technology, SAVR also allows businesses to showcase products in real life that are outside of their current geographic location.

Consumers are navigated to a business if they find its AR incentive enticing: complimentary drinks, food or swag items.Zheng has introduced an innovative marketing metric for physical businesses called “cost per traffic™", where brick and mortar businesses will measure how much an individual's foot traffic costs. SAVR provides performanced based service fees to businesses who decide to place AR incentives around the city. Therefore, businesses will only pay for foot traffic brought into their location.

“Instead of driving attention strictly to a web page, we're offering local businesses that aren't able to compete with national online retailers a way to survive in the digital age while maintaining the charm of their physical presence that has such a profound effect on our communities,” said Zheng.

SAVR will welcome Miami users and businesses for a first-hand experience this November. Users can download SAVR on both the iOS App Store and Android Google Play Store and businesses can participate in AR sampling by filing a request on the SAVR website.

Article by: Katya Demina

Pulte Group to Redevelop Former Golf Course in Oakland Park

National home builder Pulte Group has submitted a smaller development proposal for the former Oak Tree Golf Course, a 139.2 acre site in Oakland Park that they have under contract from Blackwood Partners. The trend of golf courses being repurposed is a familiar story line in South Florida due to high operation and maintenance costs. According to Marty Kiar, a Broward property appraiser, at least three of 45 golf courses in the county have closed in the last five years.

Residents of Oakland Park raised concerns about density and traffic in response to the original 850 home proposal, which Pulte Group downsized to 288 homes and 117 townhouses. The revised plan also preserves 40 acres for green spaces and fitness trails, and includes a buffer zone to separate the community from existing homes near the greenway. The defunct Oak Tree Golf Course stopped operating about ten years ago.  

The development is pending Broward County’s approval for the land-use change and site-plan application, represented by attorney Dennis D. Mele. Prices for the townhouses would start in the $300,000s and range from $400,000 to $600,000 for the one and two-story homes.

Article by: Katya Demina