From a subtropical ski slope to a spinning skyscraper, Miami is the nation’s capital of obscenely audacious projects that never come to fruition. Why not a sovereign, moving island the size of Manhattan? English multimillionaire Ben Way, we get the feeling, is the sort of fellow who would demand that…
Theodore Ross Dempster, a relatively little-known attorney in Miami, has been disbarred after allegations he ran a racket similar to a Ponzi scheme. Dempster is alleged to have set up a company purportedly involved in real estate development in Georgia, and collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from various investors…
Buying a house in Miami has never been cheaper in recent times, but that’s probably because so few of us are actually in a financial situation where we can buy a house. Though the alternative, renting, continues to be an economic burden for many South Floridians. The metro area leads…
Brickell Citicentre was one of the most ambitious development projects announced during the height of Miami’s epic construction boom, but it canceled after the bottom fell out of the market in 2007. The project’s collection of skyscrapers would have forever altered the Miami skyline, while its massive retail space would…
Another sign things are slowly getting better in the 305: Miami International Airport reports that 9.3 million passengers somehow survived getting through the airport in the first three months of 2011. That’s the highest number of passengers during that part of the year ever for MIA, and a 6.1 percent…
Back in 1987, writer T.D. Allman declared in the title of his book that Miami was “The City of the Future,” and over the next two decades, our metropolitan area largely made good on the moniker through impressive growth and increasing economic importance. Twenty-four years later, though, Miami is looking…
The Federal Bureau of Economic Analysis has released its county-level estimates of per capita personal income (total personal income divided by population) for 2009, and apparently the people of Miami-Dade brought in $36,357 each on average. That’s a much smaller figure than most of our neighboring counties, though compared to…
Miami’s real estate woes are far from over, but the sales numbers from March bring hope that things are getting better. Sales of existing condos jumped 85 percent in the Miami metropolitan area in March 2011 compared to March 2010, and jumped 80 percent compared to February 2011. Though, the…
Given the high profile cases of Bernie Madoff, Scott Rothstein and Allen Stanford, the image of a Ponzi schemer is usually that of some rich white guy with a cigar hanging out of his mouth praying on already well-off investors, but not all schemers fit that bill. Marguerite Martial Jean,…
Haven’t heard of Barry Jenkins? You will, soon enough.The indie movie director’s latest film, Chlorophyl, opens this weekend at Miami’s very own seventh annual Borscht Film Festival. His first feature film Medicine for Melancholy was called one of the best flicks of 2009 by the New York Times. And he’s…
Call it the curse of 1439 Washington Avenue. When it comes to South Beach nightclubs, this address is deadly.Like Suite, Apple, Liquid, and a half dozen other clubs to occupy the same space across from Española Way over the years, LUX nightclub is no more. Earlier this month, a Miami-Dade…
Much like his shoe line, the décor of designer Donald J. Pliner’s Star Island mansion is of questionable taste. Listen, we’re not gonna directly say his shoes and home are tacky. We’re just going to say we wouldn’t spend $475 on beaded loafers, nor would we shell out $24 million…
The Royal Palm hotel was the first black-owned hotel in all of Miami Beach, and as our Francisco Alvarado once put it, “was supposed to be a beacon of atonement for Miami-Dade County’s racist past.” After it re-opened on 16th and Collins in 2002, a string of bad business calculations…
Now that Amar’e Stoudemire is playing for the anti-Miami Heat up in New York City he has no use for his lavish Miami Beach penthouse at the W Hotel & Residencies in South Beach. He’s just put his 2,428-square-foot apartment (plus 2,700 square feet of private outdoor space) on the…
From Ohio to Wisconsin, organized labor is under attack. In that mitten-shaped slab of cheese up north, governor Scott Walker used a budget bill to kill collective bargaining. In Ohio, the working man is even worse off, with no Super Bowl to distract from the state’s assault on public employees.Not…
It seemed Lil Wayne’s big legal problems were over when he got out of the clink late last year, but the federal government still has beef with President Carter. The rapper owes about $5.6 million to the Internal Revenue Service, and a lien in that amount was filed against his…
These are dangerous times for the conspicuously wealthy. Overtaxed voters just threw out BMW-driving county mayor Carlos Alvarez. The outrage over George Burgess’s $500,000 severance package is still palatable.But nothing brings out the pitchforks quicker than a public works boondoggle. So is it any surprise that Bouygues Civil Works of…
Here’s a staggering statistic from the continued fallout of Florida’s real estate bust: 18 percent of homes in Florida, or nearly one in five, sit empty. That’s a 62 percent increase in empty homes in the past ten years, and the surplus of inventory on the market ensures that home prices…
Rich Urban was looking for a place on South Beach in February when he responded to a Craigslist ad — “Wanted: Cool roommate to share awesome apartment!” — and met Monica Brown, a small woman with a heavy accent who showed him a room at 713 Collins Ave. Urban gave…
Looking for a new home and got $60 million to spend? Well, first-time developers Shlomy Alexander and Felix Cohen have just the pad to you. The pair bragged to NBC Miami this weekend that if the soon-to-be completed mini-resort they just completed sells for its total asking price it could…
A new quarterback? A few running backs? Sure, the Dolphins may need that, but there’s one position on the team that the ‘Fins are seriously looking to fill with only the most qualified of candidates: their cotton candy maker. No, not just any Tom, Dick or Harry can apply for…
“Crygate” is slowly subsiding. The Internet is tiring of those jokes now, but it’s not quite done with making fun of our Miami Heat. Right now, #LastTimeTheHeatWon is trending high on Twitter and holds down the number one spot here in Miami. Yes, the Heat has lost its last five…
