FYI Miami: November 9, 2023

Below 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.

THE BIG PICTURE: Miami-Dade County would establish a $5 million to $10 million per year fund to attract major television and motion picture projects and would seek partnerships that could boost the funding to $20 million under legislation being heard by the Chairman’s Policy Council of the county commission next week. While the county has a smaller fund for other productions, this one would aim for TV shooting with budgets of $4 million to $8 million per episode or an estimated $50 million for motion pictures, a far higher target.

LARGER CULTURAL HUB: A proposal to develop a new African Heritage Cultural Center for the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs in being enlarged, causing a request from Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to reject all seven development offerings that the county got in response to a July 2022 request for proposals. A memo asking the county’s Housing, Recreation, Culture and Community Development Committee to act on the rejection next week says “Cultural Affairs has since expanded the programmatic requirements of the project” to include outdoor performance space, outdoor exhibition space and a parking desk, which could “increase the size of the new proposed building or campus.”

OFFICE CONCESSIONS SURFACE: Landlords and asset managers have started to shift their strategies in filling office space to offer concessions to select current tenants in order to keep them, the third-quarter South Florida office market report from Lee & Associates says. “South Florida Class A and B office rental rates have peaked and are holding, and the vacancy rate has remained steady for the last few quarters despite absorption of new space showing a trending decline,” the report says. Lee puts South Florida’s office vacancy rate at 8.6% for the quarter, with an average net asking rate per square foot of $36.64 and 6.4 million square feet of offices now under construction to add to the area’s nearly 249 million.

SORTING OUT SEPTIC TANKS: A Miami-Dade commission committee is to discuss Nov. 14 a measure to address the county’s long-standing septic tank problem that would require sellers of real estate with a septic tank system to disclose in advance what level of system is on the site. An Infrastructure, Operations and Innovations Committee hearing is required before a commission vote to make it law. The measure is one of several brought by Commissioner Raquel Regalado to address the septic tank problem, an issue that has gained attention as environmental experts raise alarms over fish kills and algal blooms in Biscayne Bay and the health of the public water supply.