Never believe a photo if someone’s trying to sell you something. Fashion models are airbrushed. Fast food restaurants actually have “food stylists.” And unsurprisingly, the photos you see in a hotels’ brochures or websites aren’t always true-to-life. See this guy with a surf board in the pool of South Beach’s…
There are lots of condo association spats and scams in the tiny, scandal-ridden hamlet of North Bay Village. Most of them are pretty boring. That’s because most of them don’t involve a wrathful warlock. A group of condo owners at South Treasure Drive’s North Bay Villas want their property manager,…
Michael J. Muzio, one of four co-conspirators in a Ponzi scheme that targeted South Florida Haitian-Americans, has been sentenced to 163 months in federal prison. In April, New Times told you about the $14.3 million scheme, which offered to double investors’ cash in 90 days. Two of Muzio’s cronies have…
Somewhat encouraging news on the employment front: Florida’s unemployment numbers fell for the second month in a row. That’s only the second two months run of dents in the massive unemployment rate since February 2006. For May, Florida’s unemployment rate was 11.7 percent, that’s three tenths of a percent less than April. Things…
They are a hard-working immigrant group with virtually no financial wriggle room. Whatever money can be scrimped together is often sent to relatives still living in their impoverished and disaster-devastated homecountry. As a demographic, they can least afford to lose their savings– and yet South Florida’s Haitian-Americans community is increasingly…
Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and according to a recent list by Trip Advisor two Miami Beach hotels are devilishly dirty. The website’s list of the ten dirtiest hotels in America includes two right here on Miami Beach.The Parisian Hotel & Suites on 1510 Collins Ave has the dubious distinction…
Are there any iconic Miami hotels that aren’t having some sort of financial trouble at the moment? How about the historic Biltmore in Coral Gables? That’s probably doing good, right? Oh, wait, the management companys owes the city of Coral Gables $2.4 million in back rent according to The Miami…
In 2005, Dallas resident Richard Silverman returned from vacation in Costa Rica convinced the Central American paradise was a perfect spot for a second home. So after searching online, Silverman discovered something called Paragon Properties of Costa Rica. Its website was chock full of Sims-quality computer renderings of elegant villas,…
Nobody pimps it harder than Ponzi schemers. Yachts, Bentleys, Bugattis, Waverunners, Ferraris, Corvettes, Cadillacs, Maseratis, Mercedes-Benzes, and Lambos … That’s just a small sampling of the super-expensive stuff that con man Scott W. Rothstein purchased with his 1.2 billion ill-gotten American dollars. Now, you could never equal Rothstein’s extravagance, right?…
Since joining Twitter earlier this month, Venezuela’s controversial president Hugo Chavez has since become the most popular user of the service in the country. With 282,042 followers now, he’s since assigned a team of 200 government aids to reply to the “@” messages he receives.Yes, 200 people to run a Twitter…
At Miami International Airport, somehow, there is always a couple fighting in Spanish. That such a fiery passion wells up alongside colorless cargo packages and old ladies in wheelchairs seems almost magical. It’s one of the reasons we recommend arriving early with a box of Junior Mints. The drama and…
Hey, you. Yeah, you over there. You look like a man who enjoys watching a video of people being beaten, maimed, tortured, maybe even killed. Yeah, I can tell that about ya. Listen, I know a guy who might be able to get some of those kinda films, but it might…
Back in 2006, New Jersey boxing promoter-turned-South Florida real estate mogul Marc Roberts was the face of the largest urban renewal project in the country. It was called the Miami World Center , and it was supposed to transform a rundown ghetto into a glitzy strip of shops, restaurants, and…
Forbes.com is always busy making their lists, and Miami has finally taken the number one spot on one. Unfortunately it’s called “Ten U.S. Cities In Free Fall.”Miami boasts a popular South Beach club scene, Art Deco Architecture, and perhaps the best Cuban food in the country. But residents don’t have much…
Both New York’s SoHo and Miami Beach’s South Beach were once forgotten urban districts: SoHo full of warehouses and factories, SoBe home to poverty, the elderly, and all sorts of vice. Then came the cool people and creative class, shortly followed by the developers and eventually the fancy shopping, boutique…
12.2 percent. That was the unemployment rate in Florida for February, and the highest ever recorded. Miami-Dade’s adjusted unemployment rate sits at 11.8, up from 11.7 last month. The national rate sits at 9.7 percent.All in all the sunshine state has lost 211,500 jobs in the past year.There’s a bit…
The hotel component of the Four Seasons Millennium Tower has been sold to a New York investment group for just $29.5 million according to Condo Vultures. The hotel had been previously valued at $85.5 million according to tax records. That’s a pretty steep discount.Located inside the 70-story Four Seasons Millennium…
Brickell, the so-called Manhattan of the South, was supposed to be Miami’s next hot spot. Developers fully bought into the idea, and for a while it seemed a new luxury condo high-rise was breaking ground every other month. Then, whoops, the housing bubble burst, the recession hit, and many of those condo…
The owners of the Fontainebleau Miami Beach borrowed about $620 million to complete its recent $1 billion makeover, but according to Business Week, they haven’t made payments on any of the loans since September. Now BW says they’re offering a restructuring plan to lenders. Yes, yet another Miami Beach megahotel…
If you’re a strapping young lad or lass fresh out of college and looking to plant your foot on the career ladder, Miami is apparently not a good place to start. Believe me — all I could snag out of college was writing this here blog*, and that is considered…
There was a time — say, last summer — when no clerk wanted to enter a certain room on the 15th floor of 140 W. Flagler St., a drab Miami-Dade County municipal building downtown. Inside lurked a multiton beast made of dead trees: the collection of pending foreclosure case files…
W Hotels, a chain so chic it needs but a single letter to identify it, finally came to South Beach last fall, but now owners who bought condos in the complex allege they were deceived and want their deposits back.Potential owners were told there would be larger units, additional condos,…
