While Gov. Rick Scott was trumpeting the fact that Florida’s overall unemployment rate was lower than the national average for the first time in five years, the picture is considerably bleaker here in Miami-Dade. According to local numbers released today, the county’s unemployment rate is the highest its been in…
All across our lovely, sun-drenched peninsula, acres and acres of cookie-cutter suburbs sit wilting in the humidity, bereft of human beings. They’re “zombie homes”: properties mired in foreclosure whose owners have simply walked away, leaving the rotting places to become havens for drug dealers and squatters.Florida has more zombie homes than…
Florida’s economy slowly trudges on to something resembling recovery as numbers released today show that the state’s unemployment rate is now below the national average for the first time in more than five years.Florida’s unemployment rate was 7.8 percent for January. The national average stood at 7.9 percent. A tiny…
You’re not likely to hear many heavy-handed conversations about business at Ultra Music Festival this weekend, but if you do, it will more than likely be about billionaire Robert F.X. Sillerman’s plans to buy up just about everything related to electronic dance music and consolidate it all under SFX Entertainment…
The next iconic skyscraper that might sprout up in downtown Miami will take its architectural cues from a bug. Plans for the proposed One Thousand Museum building, designed by star architect Zaha Hadid, have emerged and the towering residential building sports an exoskeleton…
Florida’s economy might not exactly be fully recovered, but one of our main industries broke a record last year. Tourists spent a combined $71.8 billion in Florida in 2012. That’s an all-time record, and a 6.8 percent increase from 2011, which was also a record year…
Earlier this month, news broke that the Perry Hotel will undergo its third name change in a little more than a year. The resort was formerly known as the Gansevoort but will soon close for a nearly a yearlong, $100 million renovation to reopen as the eco-friendly 1 Hotel.Unfortunately, that…
Florida history is full of condominium-related corruption, including board members receiving kickbacks for contracts or raiding condo coffers and then disappearing into the Everglades. That’s why state statute bars condo board members and officers from receiving compensation unless explicitly outlined in the building’s bylaws.So it’s not surprising that residents of…
Let your teenage son swim in the pool? Get a warning. Leave your screen door open? Get fined $1,000. Post a written complaint? Watch it get defaced with expletives.Welcome to the Waters Edge apartments, which some residents say has become the condo from hell thanks to board president Jim Lowe.”Jim…
If at first you don’t succeed, try again … and again. The hotel once known as the Gansevoort South (and even before that the Rooney Plaza) and currently known as the Perry will close sometime this year and after some renovation reopen in 2014 as the 1 Hotel & Residences South…
Last week, Gov. Rick Scott unveiled a new PR campaign intended to help draw businesses to Florida, and because Scott cannot do one single thing without generating controversy, critics are attacking the logo used in the PR push as sexist. …
Former Hialeah Mayor and Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Julio Robaina could soon be indicted on charges of tax evasion and loan sharking soon, at least according to Local 10. The former Hialeah kingpin has been under investigation by federal agencies for three years now, and a defense attorney for another man…
If you need a car, truck or van. Who you gonna call? Not Maroone. The mega car dealership chain is changing its name, and will from now on be going using the name of its parent company, AutoNation.But does this mean that South Florida most ubiquitous jingle is going anywhere?…
Both the records for the most expensive sale of a private residence in Miami Beach and the most expensive condo in all of South Florida have been busted once again. Penthouse B at the Setai broke the record by selling for a cool $27 million. Its actually the second time…
The shocking hypocrisy of the NCAA admitting its own ethical flaps while investigating those of the University of Miami was tailor made for Twitter snark, and the Twitterati didn’t disappoint. Though, it shouldn’t be much a surprise that no one likes the NCAA…
You know who really likes billionaire Dolphins owner Stephen Ross’ idea to put taxpayers on the hook for half of the $400 million in renovations to Sun Life Stadium? Other rich people!In fact, the Dolphins blasted out a press releases today touting the support of the Trump Brand. Because if…
Walmart is still marching on with its plans to build a store in the heart of Midtown Miami, but has retreated a little bit to redesign the space. In an unusual move for the retail giant, the store’s new plans would include about 16,000 square feet of non-Walmart retail on…
For most of my life, every time I’ve walked into a gas station or a grocery store I’ve been greeted one way or another by the delightfully ’80s logo of the Florida Lottery. Most things have changed since 1988. That logo has remained a constant.Until now. The Florida Lottery logo…
Unfortunately in Miami we’re all too familiar with bad service, ridiculous pricing and shady business practices, so to become Miami’s most hated industry you really, really have to go out of your way to be terrible.So congratulations vehicle repair shops of Miami-Dade County. You truly are the worst…
Florida Republicans are perhaps the most loyal lapdogs of the National Rifle Association. So maybe it’s not much of a surprise that Rick Scott gave a gun manufacturer a “sweetheart” $1.6 million tax subsidy back in 2011…
Chances are, when you heard that the GOP-controlled House had finally relented on a deal that kept the nation from plunging Wile E. Coyote-style off a fiscal cliff, you popped a little mental champagne. But even though the compromise prevents huge tax increases and keeps unemployment benefits in place, analysts…
South Beach’s famous Raleigh Hotel has been sold for $55 million, and the new owners are already quite familiar with the area’s hospitality industry. They own some of the Raleigh’s rivals. Sam Nazarian, who just opened the SLS Hotel on the same block, and David Edelstein, owner of the W…
