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

Mauricio Umansky’s The Agency Celebrates Opening of Boca Raton Office at Private Faena Reception

Beverly Hills-based brokerage The Agency has picked Boca Raton as its first location in its highly anticipated expansion plan throughout South Florida.

The luxury brokerage celebrated the announcement last week at a private cocktail reception hosted in Faena’s Living Room, where they hit the ground running; contracts were signed and deals were inked on the hotel’s velvet, cheetah-print couches. The celebration followed The Real Deal’s South Florida Real Estate Showcase & Forum where Umansky revealed the finalized location.

The Agency is launching its office at 20 Southeast Third Street in mid-November, according to managing partners Chris Franciosa and Jared Ringel, who are leading the Agency’s expansion in South Florida along with Howard Elfman, the managing broker.

The brokerage was attracted to the “long-term stability” of Boca Raton and its potential for growth. The two-story, 6,700-square-foot office will house the Agency Development Group and the Agency Creates, its creative division.

The Agency plans to expand the business to Broward and Miami Dade, according to managing partners Franciosa and Ringel who joined the Agency from Douglas Elliman and have sold more than $100 million of real estate in their careers. The Agency anticipates about 20 agents joining the Boca office, but Ringel hinted at the possibility of a Miami location already in the pipeline as well.  

In addition to its home base in Beverly Hills, the firm has 25 offices in Brentwood, Calabasas, Danville, Malibu, Noe Valley, Venice, Orange County, Pacific Palisades, Palm Desert, Park City, Scottsdale, Sherman Oaks, Turks and Caicos, Los Cabos, Punta de Mita and elsewhere. 

It will compete with other high-end brokerages in South Florida like One Sotheby’s International Realty, the Keyes Company and Lang Realty.

Mike Pappas, CEO of the Keyes Co., stated that “Just as the L.A. market is very intense and competitive, so now is the South Florida market with all the major players, both local firms and firms outside of this market.”

Article by: Katya Demina