FYI Miami: November 10, 2022

Bellow are some of the FYIs in this week’s edition. The entire content of this week’s FYIs and Insider sections is available by subscription only. To subscribe click here.

HIGH-SPEED BROADBAND SLOWED: “Our goal is to make the internet as accessible as water and electricity.” That’s what the county’s tech innovation advisor for the Mayor’s Office told Miami Today in July, saying a plan to bring high-speed broadband to all of Miami-Dade County would be ready by fall. But, like rolling blackouts and bursting water mains, there’s been a delay. Innovation advisor Francesca de Quesada Covey said this week that while they’ve been working on the plan diligently, it won’t be ready until the end of 2022 or early 2023.

LEASE SUBSIDIES: A commercial lease subsidy program to address issues in the Art Deco Cultural District with legal non-conforming retail establishments and improve the character of the area is anticipated to launch in January, a City of Miami Beach spokesperson said.

CHARTER BOAT CRACKDOWN: Miami Beach saw 92% fewer violations by charter boat operators from January 2021 to October 2022, said Thomas Curitore, the city’s assistant director of code compliance. After receiving city commission direction, the Finance Department met with the City of Miami’s department to discuss “curtailing the activities happening at our dockside and landside by having stricter enforcement with code compliance and also having a ramped-up enforcement by the police department,” said Manny Marquez, assistant director of finance. This fiscal year, he said, the city is reporting five fewer boat charters or businesses and 20 fewer vessels. Miami Beach and Miami are also working together by meeting quarterly to address illegal charter boats. “We’re going to bring punitive damages for bad operators with business tax receipts revocations, a whole new section addressing the issues with bad operators,” Mr. Marquez said.

INDUSTRIAL RENTS SOAR: Rents for industrial properties in Miami-Dade continued to soar in the third quarter of this year, with the average at the end of September being $14.65 per square foot, the highest figure on record, according to an analysis by CBRE. The firm said asking rents have risen 35% since the start of the pandemic in 2020, largely due to the increased demand for space. In the quarter the county recorded 216 industrial lease transactions totaling 3.9 million square feet. The company said food and beverage firms and logistics companies were the primary drivers of demand for space in the quarter. The largest transaction the firm recorded in the quarter was a 227,000-square-foot lease by All Florida Paper, followed by 209,000 by DO&CO Miami Catering and 150,000 by Triton Logistics.