For nearly a decade, Guillermo Socarras has had a dream of constructing the world’s tallest building in Miami. But plans have shifted. Backers, if they were ever really there, have backed out. The local economy, especially the building boom, has flat-lined. And just earlier this month, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the…
On the off chance you haven’t heard yet, 2009 was not a very good year for the economy. Which means it wasn’t a very good year for real estate, especially not luxury Miami real estate. In their wrapup of year-end stats, the South Beach Real Estate blog notes prices per square…
Normally, the sale of a parking lot shouldn’t be newsworthy, but when it combines the real estate boom in downtown Miami and the decline of the printed press, it’s worth taking note. The Miami Herald this morning reported the complicated sale of its parking lot to developers could drag on for another year…
CocoWalk, the crown jewel of downtown Coconut Grove, has been hit with a $98 million foreclosure lawsuit filed by Bank of America, putting the future of the shopping, dining, and entertainment center into question. CocoWalk was bought by PMAT Real Estate Investments, a New Orleans-based firm, in 2006. But according…
Ever since MTV Cribs moved to CMT, the world has been deprived of seeing the interiors of rapper’s Miami pads. Who could forget Missy Elliot’s Ferrari bed, or Bow Wow’s rented car controversy? Thank goodness for YouTube.While, Lil Wayne did show off his New Orleans crib for the show, we…
The employment rate in Florida increased slightly in November to 11.5 percent, up from 11.3 percent in October according to the South Florida Business Journal. That’s the highest rate since May 1975, when 11.9 percent of Floridians were out of a job, and translates to roughly 1 million people out of work. However,…
This seems almost as ridiculous as that Onion piece claiming Lil Wayne was recruited by the DEA to get rid of all the drugs in Mexico, but this one actually isn’t an attempt at satire.It’s no secret Weezy calls South Beach his part-time home and has his primary residence in…
I don’t know if you can consider a hotel a “guilty pleasure,” but the Gansevoort South certainly comes close. Home to reality TV mess Miami Social and having a strong spot on the list of Miami party spots, the Gansy can also be added to the list of South Beach…
Riptide was feeling all warm and fuzzy this morning. No, it wasn’t just from all the vodka in our coffee. (What, like you don’t start your day with a little ‘Russian java’?) The latest employment numbers came out this morning, and it looks like our Kanye-on-the-VMAs-esque disaster of an economy…
Forget Flagler, Tuttle, and Brickell. We need to start naming streets and bridges after a historical figure whose legacy is honored every day here in South Florida: Charles Ponzi. With heavyweight scammers Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford basing their operations here, we’ve become the nation’s undisputed champion of the classic…
Since at least July, an abandoned and once pricey yacht has been beached on the trash-strewn and molester-patrolled shores of the Julia Tuttle Causeway. It’s been stripped of precious materials, spray-painted by some municipal entity, and slapped with stickers that say it’s not allowed here. It has also gained a…
If you’re behind on your bills, you might not be able to shell out for a night at the swanky Shore Club. Though it seems the posh outpost is having trouble keeping up on its own mortgage. Philip and Michael Pilevsky, owners of the South Beach hotel that’s home to Nobu,…
Nope, the Miami real estate market is not gearing up for a miraculous rebound. It’s not even reached rock bottom, at least according to one analysis. CNNMoney reports that Fiserv, a financial information and analysis firm, predicts the average home price in Miami to tumble another 29.9 percent by next…
We at Riptide, like all good Americans, dream of making an obscene amount of money without doing any work. So when signs recently began popping up alongside Miami roads, reading in bold red lettering, “Rent your home during the Super Bowl for $10,000 a day!” best believe we called the…
Even though the average price for a hotel room dropped 21 percent for the period between January and June compared to the same time last year, Miami still has, on average, some of the most expensive room rates in the nation. But the data reflects only bookings made on Hotels.com, so we…
Just about every interesting statistic in the news these days somehow relates to the economy — or at least the talking heads try to relate it to the economy. Fewer Cubans migrating to America? It’s because of the recession. Lower divorce rate? The recession. People trying their hand at prostitution?…
Not long ago, a 47-year-old Liberty City guy named Slim died. His brother Larry and sister Helen are unemployed, so they didn’t have the money for a standard funeral. What to do? They headed for Opa-locka’s Funeral Store, a drab pink building on NW 119th Street bearing the slogan “Caskets-4-less.”…
Normally politicians’ Twitters are horrendously boring things. Dan Gelber’s is no exception, except for about a minute ago when the state senator from Miami Beach and attorney general candidate roasted Charlie Crist, and in effect, RPOF chair Jim Greer.Crist visited Toussaint L’ouverture Elementary School today for a hurricane preparedness visit…
Florida dominates the list of 20 metropolitan areas still struggling to make an economic turnaround. Eight Florida areas make up the bottom rung of worst-performing cities in Brooking’s latest MetroMonitor Report. In addition to Miami/Ft. Lauderdale/Pompono Beach, Bradenton, Cape Coral, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Orlando, Palm Bay, and Tampa are also included in bottom…
Don’t get us wrong — Miami still attracts the olds by the tour bus full, but we’ve come a long way in distancing ourselves from our ’70s reputation as America’s retirement home. Then along comes Money magazine to list us as the 13th best place to retire in the nation. The problem…
First the models began leaving South Beach, and now, almost predictably, so is painfully hip hotelier Andre Balazs. According to the Miami Herald, Balazs is set to sell the Raleigh, which the newspaper describes as “a favorite stop for celebrities and local hipsters.” The sale will take Balazs almost completely out of…
Last year, Fisher Island was sitting pretty at the top of Forbes’ most expensive zip codes list. This year, it has tumbled to 33rd place. Not coincidently, the price for the only single-family waterfront home on the island was recently slashed by $3 million. This year, in the exclusive Fisher Island zip code 33109,…
