How dirty is Miami real estate? A LOT DIRTIER than you think ... by gimleteye

It is time for reflection, after a long run as a Miami-Dade taxpayer. When I moved from the Keys to Miami in 1992, I embraced the challenge of calling attention to the importance of preserving open space and farmland as a buffer between the intensely developed areas of Florida’s most populous county and the fragile beauty of the Everglades. Previously, I spent nearly four years as an advocate for Monroe County marine resource issues and had become involved for the first time in my life in local county politics, part of a successful effort to run out of office a majority who had proudly called themselves, “The Concrete Coalition”.

In Miami-Dade I discovered two planning tools critical to protecting the downstream economy and environment in the Keys; 1) the Urban Development Boundary embraced by the county but under constant pressure by developers and the supply chain of special interests and 2) state law mandating comprehensive land use plans by every one of Florida’s counties.

“All growth is good” propelled Miami into the 20th century, but by the end of the century it was evident that a new model needed adjustments. These two planning tools were intended as a rationale framework to bring together competing interests. The problem, of course, is that the competition between civic values and private property owners is not fair. One of the ways failure manifests is through the unregulated influence of corporate law that encourages property owners and speculators to hide their identity through invisibility shields like limited liability corporations.

Every issue of concern to Miami Dade taxpayers — traffic congestion, overburdened schools, fire and police protection — manifests through county politics. And as we know, too well, county politics are extraordinarily influenced by deep pocketed donors who now, thanks to the Citizens United decision by the Bush Supreme Court, give unlimited amounts of money to support causes and candidates.

Today, there is attention on the decision by Mayor Gimenez and the majority of the county commission to support the extension of a major state highway, SR 836, into the southwest corner of Miami-Dade; exactly the geographic area that absorbed my interest after moving to Miami two and a half decades ago. It is as true today as it was then: it is impossible to know who one is negotiating with, when one’s opponent can shield his or her identity through a limited liability corporation, or, LLC.

Eye On Miami is virtually the only space in the media universe where this and related issues have been investigated.

We have mapped to the extent possible, with freely donated time and energy, the LLC’s behind the push that absorbs so much of the elected officials' attention. Sometimes the identities are well known — lobbyists, for instance, who are required to identify themselves. But those are just the tips of the icebergs.

A very small group of land speculators, who are extraordinarily wealthy through the growth of suburban sprawl, dominate the outcomes that put such huge costs on the backs of taxpayers. They’ve figured out the playbook to persuade voters that their cause is noble: ie. “jobs” and that opponents are “elitists”and worse.

If voters knew their names and could make the linkages, it would be a start to a level playing field. At least, then, there would be some “sunshine” to illuminate a path for voters. That’s why, in 2016, I was so excited to learn about an Obama Treasury Department initiative to require the disclosure of LLC ownership in property transactions, as a test case in a few areas of the nation. Miami-Dade was an obvious place to start. I wrote at the time, this was “the best story of 2016”. Attention was being paid.

The Herald's recent report, "How dirty is Miami real estate? Secret home deals dried up when feds started watching", is a book-end to the federal effort to find out who is behind the biggest land deals in South Florida. It turns out that as soon as the speculators found out the feds were watching, they stopped using LLC's..

LLC transactions declined by 95% during the study period. The breathtaking number answers the question, “How dirty is Miami real estate?” The answer: Very.

The land flippers and speculators who stand to benefit from Mayor Gimenez’ SR 836 jihad don’t want to be identified, but we know they exert profound influence.

The take-away is as true today as it was those long years ago: VOTE. If you care about Miami-Dade, your taxes, and your quality of life; vote for candidates who aren’t stuck on the suburban sprawl merry-go-round because they are tethered to campaign cash from special interests whose identities are shielded by corporate law.

More subdivisions to flood out West? Maybe. By Geniusofdespair

 Not sure what this group will recommend to the County Commission but by its members I can make a prediction (but I won't, I am saving my butt):

We Want to Hear From You! The Miami-Dade County Urban Expansion Area Task Force was created to provide recommendations related to the County’s Urban Expansion Areas. To inform these recommendations, the Task Force will hear presentations from subject matter experts ( I believe lobbyist will be making Some of the presentations as they made motions to supply their own speakers -- that passed very aggressively) and receive public comments on key topics during scheduled input sessions. Below is a list of upcoming input sessions of the Urban Expansion Area Task Force. The public is invited to attend and provide input on these issues.

·         September 25, 2017 at 1:00 p.m. - Environmental Considerations Input Session

South Dade Regional Library

10750 SW 211 St, Cutler Bay, FL 33189

·         October 16, 2017 at 1:00 p.m. – Agricultural Considerations Input Session

South Dade Regional Library

10750 SW 211 St, Cutler Bay, FL 33189

·         Additional input sessions will be scheduled at a later date addressing development, transportation, limestone mining and affordable housing. Please check the UEA Task Force website for updates. 

BUT, A BIG BUT:

Nooo. Not a Butt...a "but"

We had better remember Texas' flooded subdivisions before erecting anymore subdivisions of our own....

Texas subdivision in 2016 and then flooded in 2017.

We should heed Robert McCabe's words of 2011 (Real Estate and Economic Research):

South Florida really needs a regional plan for controlled growth (before it becomes a concrete jungle similar to Houston), and a completely new set of elected officials that make decisions based on what's good for the future of South Florida instead of what's good for their wallets.

National Flood Insurance is already $25 BILLION in debt. What could another hurricane do to all those Florida Subdivisions a couple of feet above sea level?

When the Everglades Is Only Good For a View From a High Rise. By Geniusofdespair

You know those two towers near Sawgrass Mills? This is the view from the top of one of them.  I went up there knowing I would need these photos someday and today is the day. A developer in Broward wants to develop 65 acres with high rises (he says with views of the Everglades) bordering the mall. And he will be building another shopping center within it.

I am going to say, it is not much of a view, but of course I would never live this far West. A big city bordering the Everglades, what else could you hope for...massive flooding??

The Miami Herald reports:

The first phase of the mixed-use project, scheduled to open in early 2017, will include a 263-unit residential tower with views of the Everglades and a 480,000-square-foot mall anchored by the luxury cinema iPic Theaters, as well as two hotels, an apartment building and office space. It will be centered around a 21-acre park.

Completing the massive development, called Metropica, could cost more than $1 billion.

“We’re creating a downtown for southwest Broward,” said developer Joseph Kavana. The project’s neighbors include the 350-store Sawgrass Mills mall and the BB&T Center arena.

Here it goes: Metropica Sucks!!

Leverage: why the county commission should not accept FECI's zoning change request tomorrow … by gimleteye

Florida East Coast Industries is one of the largest, if not the largest, property owner in southeast Florida. At issue, tomorrow, is whether the county commission will accede to the company's plan to rezone the former rail line stretching near Ludlam Road, from approximately the airport in a straight, uninterrupted line to US 1.

FECI evinced no interest, other than land-banking, this property until citizens began thinking what a good idea it would be to create a huge linear park, turning the rail line into a unique feature that could be used daily by hundreds if not thousands of nearby residents. It is an area of the county desperately lacking public amenities like parks.

Suddenly, FECI began moving toward a plan to rezone and thus increase the value of the property.

It is hard, of course, to find money for public parks. In this case, however, the case will be made that the by bonding a purchase price, the park will smartly pay for itself through increases in property values nearby and, hence, tax revenues.

In other parts of the United States, there would be leadership and a spirit of cooperation to bring together community aspiration (raise your hand if you want more development in your neighborhood!), private property owners, and funding.

The missing ingredient, here, isn't money. FECI would get its money, if it helped push for funding allocations from the recent Amendment 1 victory (a portion of the documentary stamp tax will be allocated to land acquisition). The missing ingredient is leadership.

Unfortunately -- except in one recent case, the removal of incumbent Linda Bell from the commission (this will be, by the way, her final commission meeting) -- have not held county commissioners accountable at the polls. Two good examples of the tendency of local elected officials to abdicate: how commissioners surrender to Florida Power and Light. Whatever the corporation wants, it gets, and routinely bulldozes straight through expert recommendations of planning staff. The better example: the Miami River where a vision for using the waterway as the Central Park of Miami was crushed by land use lawyers, lobbyists, and developers like Jorge Perez (a board member of FECI) eager to use "public access" as little as possible to achieve their maximum profits.

FECI is not going to lose anything, by the commission refusing to vote and to delay on tomorrow's zoning decision. On the other hand, the public's dream for Ludlam Trail will be badly compromised if the commission accepts FECI's plan. Instead of cooperation, the Ludlam Trail advocates will be in an adversarial relationship with a powerful developer in a hostile political climate.

By denying or delaying the vote, the county commission could use its leverage for a better outcome.

Now this is a SUGAR story you all should care about. By Geniusofdespair

Sugar Can't Buy You Love...But it Sure Can Buy You Favors.

Gimleteye, do you know about this? You're the Sugar Man.

U.S. Sugar wants to -- according to the Miami Herald through the Broward Bulldog:

"The Sugar Hill Sector Plan envisions turning 43,313 acres -- or more than 67 square miles -- of sugar cane fields (me: historical Everglades), citrus groves and pasture lands into a planned community featuring 18,000 residential units and 25 million square feet of space to accommodate manufacturing, warehousing, transportation services and other kinds of businesses."

All of this development is North of the Everglades in Hendry County. This is the same group that paid for that nitwit Governor Scott to go to that shoot 'em up ranch in Texas, the secret trip we all know about. Talk about a trip currying favors.

I don't write about sugar. Gimleteye does. Is he trying to shirk his duty as sugar writer? Let him editorialize just how beyond bad this is. He never reads my blogs, so he might miss this. I never read his, so he might have reported on it already. We have a mutual admiration policy  --- I think he shudders when he reads what I write. Oops Gimleteye said he DID write about this...

Say goodbye to the Everglades if this goes through. It is just a swamp anyway to most of you, even though it is your source of drinking water.

Good luck trying to find this in the Miami Herald online. If we ever needed Charlie Crist we need him now. Charlie, save us from this development plan.

Much better than drinking water don't you think?

Transparency, please: who is MDM Development Group? … by gimleteye

There certainly has been a lot of ink spilled over the discovery of an ancient Tequesta Indian site, including the line that will follow Miami white stocking attorney Gene Stearns, "Hokum".

"Hokum" sounds like a perjorative from a native American vocabulary, but the best I could tell from a quick search: it only has roots stretching back to segregationist era entertainments. Who knows what ancient enmities Gene Stearns was channeling when the word came to mind.

And who is the MDM Development Group?

If corporations are people, who are the people of MDM Development? I've argued for years  -- but probably for a shorter period of time than "hokum" was in Gene Stearn's vocabulary -- that the Florida legislature must stop allowing individuals to hide their identities in limited corporations. We could all benefit from transparency in knowing the players in proliferating sprawl and condo canyons in South Florida.

It's the same thing with dark money in political campaigns. All should be in the sunshine.

But back to MDM. A few years ago, during the housing and real estate bust, we touched on MDM and its downtown activities.

By the way, if the City of Miami and the developer sends archeologists to dig in a prehistoric village site, wouldn't you expect those archeologists to find signs of a prehistoric village? And wouldn't you know those signs had been there all along? And wouldn't you know that forcing a development off one culturally significant site in downtown Miami cost Florida taxpayers about $50 million?

Some of us have long enough memories to remember both the controversy over the Miami Circle (check our archive) -- the inspiration! for Jorge Perez' idiotic Easter Island like sculptures at the ICON summoning meso-America --  and the handsome payoff for a developer who walked away from property he owned with tens of millions in taxpayer money so a site could be protected; a site that has never opened to the public and sits at the mouth of the Miami River like a forlorn comma dropped from a sentence that no developer misses unless it is in his own contract.

Readers, we don't know the half of the truth about insiders shielded by corporations pushing around chips on the Miami development scene but the half we do know is hokum compared to the rest.

Watson, I presume? More on Related Group's Jorge Perez ... by gimleteye

In the Herald, it looked like one of those sober, face-saving events when big land deals involving elected officials and zoning changes go awry. The same Jorge Perez who dragged neighbors of Mercy Hospital through years of protracted conflict and litigation, is now "a very responsible citizen of Miami" who gave up a project because it would over-burden infrastructure.

In the case of Mercy Hospital, where Perez had the politics lined up, a majority of city commissioners loved the plan -- now scuttled -- to put multi-million dollar condos on the Coconut Grove waterfront. The highly unpopular Perez condo fizzled in the solvent of the housing crash, during a period when Perez' empire and status was teetering on an edge.

Perez survived because bankers from far away who funded over a billion in loans to Perez, icon of overdevelopment, decided he was too big to fail. But Perez never cared about "overburdening" public infrastructure. His entire fortune is based on shifting costs of traffic, water, wastewater, etc. to taxpayers. Why give up the formula for millions, now?

My sense is that there is more to the cancellation of the Watson Island overdevelopment. The reported antagonism the project engendered between Miami and Miami Beach was the ostensible rationale.

It had to be about business and profits, and my guess is that the costs to Perez had to outweigh the benefits. No Miami developer has ever flinched from putting more traffic onto overcrowded roadways. That's the rationale offered by the neat as a pin press conference featured in The Miami Herald. So what would those costs have included, that perhaps the attendees of the public/private press conference would not want to talk about?

I wonder if Perez had trouble insuring the project. Is the back story that sea level rise is finally braking the overdevelopment of coastal South Florida? That would be a good question for Herald reporters and Miami Today, to start asking.

Perhaps Perez' prospective insurers, or re-insurers, are paying attention and read UM chair of the Department of Geologic Science Dr. Harold Wanless' testimony on wastewater infrastructure issues and seal level rise, in the lawsuit by Biscayne Bay Waterkeepers in federal court: "By 2063, there is projected to be further sea level rise of 1.8 - 3.1 feet according to the most recent NOAA projects. With a further 1.5 - 2 feet of sea level rise there will be no natural Virginia Key left. This will happen within the net 32-53 years."

Watson, I presume?

BBWKWanlessVKStatement8813-1

Friggin' Developers Hit Maggy Hurchalla with a Slapp Suit. By Geniusofdespair

Maggy Hurchalla and her Sister Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno

A slapp suit is a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. It is done against citizens, not to win but to harass them. Most developers have deep pockets, apparently Lake Point Phase I and II, LLC does.

Former Martin County Commissioner (sister of Janet Reno) and long time environmentalist Maggy Hurchalla has been slapped with a slapp suit in Martin County. According to the Palm Beach Post:

The SLAPP suit claims Ms. Hurchalla “is singling out Lake Point” and trying to put it out of business and that the project has followed the rules, hasn’t destroyed wetlands and has met public notice requirements.

Criticizing government is, of course, a constitutional right. A SLAPP is not filed with the intent to go trial but to intimidate people, to scare them and to shut them up. The idea is that when the defendants have to spend money on lawyers and endure the stress of a lawsuit, protests will end.

...Residents, Ms. Sherlock (Hurchalla's attorney) said, 'have the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. Comments and communications with elected officials are very highly protected. The idea you should get sued for speaking out is mind-boggling.'

The deal Maggy Hurchalla was criticizing: "The 2009 deal gives Lake Point the right to mine its 2,200 acre property for 20 years."

Maggy Hurchalla was the 2002 recipient of the Barley award. Since 1996, the Everglades Coalition has conferred the George M. Barley Conservationist of the Year Award to a person who has made a great contribution to Everglades restoration and protection. "Suing a Martin icon may prove problematic for Lake Point. Even those who disagree with her respect Ms. Hurchalla’s efforts to preserve the county’s quality of life" Said the Post.

There is a MIAMI connection. One of the Managers listed on Lake Point corporate papers is BC Property Investments, L.C. and the Managers of BC are: George Lindemann Family, Francis Judson Laird and Eran Schreiber.

Tony Goldman, Developer ... by gimleteye

One of the First of Goldman's Wynwood Walls

I didn't know Tony Goldman, but I knew his work: finding profit in rehabilitating parts of Miami's urban core. The Miami Herald reported on Goldman's formula for success in Miami, after having made a fortune buying up dilapidated buildings in NYC's SoHo: "Flush with cash, Goldman came to a similar conclusion about Miami Beach during a visit in 1985. He’d already invested in Coconut Grove, and began buying one Art Deco property a month for 18 months along Ocean Drive. “I go into an area five to seven years before it happens,” Goldman said in 1986. “I like the smell of a property, and I like to be able to afford it. Advance real estate is undervalued. Miami Beach is undervalued.”

He explained that he’d gone into SoHo “when it was still raw. It had architectural integrity, a small scale and the community was obsessed with preservation. I see a vast similarity” to SoHo."

Goldman was right. I came to Florida at about the same time. In the late 1980's I found a small theater company to produce plays I had written and hoped to develop in emerging South Beach while working, at the same time, on Florida Everglades issues. I commuted from one small community that had retained its value, Key West, to Miami Beach.

Those ingredients: architectural integrity, a small scale and a community obsessed with preservation could have saved Florida's economy and the Everglades, too. It is a lesson that has imprinted on my experiences in the interim, as I became less involved in theater (and eventually turned off by Miami Beach) and more involved in communicating the essential irrationality of Florida surrendering its key economic assets -- the environment and a sense of place -- to suburban sprawl and the Growth Machine.

Developers like Tony Goldman created value at the same time they created profits. Their vision was the opposite of the zero lot line, platted subdivisions that bloomed like metatastic cancer across Florida at the same time.

Goldman's passing provides an opportunity to review. Today Tea Party activists charge through the political landscape like a bull in a china shop. One of their claims: that government should not pick winners and losers in the economy. But government -- in the case of Florida, that is primarily GOP government -- picks winners and losers ALL THE TIME.

In point of fact, the development model of suburban sprawl -- that is responsible for destroying Florida's economy and bringing down the national economy as well -- could not exist but for pressure by insiders promoting government subsidies. Roadways, like he SR 826 extension, are pushed toward lands owned by politically influential developers. These days, they have figured out how to put lipstick on the proverbial pig, renaming sprawl to fit the cliche du jour.

I regret that successful developers like Goldman who mined the urban core for profit did not also use their voices to advocate in public forums against the terrible subsidies and ultimate costs of suburban sprawl. Civic activists -- like the Hold the Line Coalition against moving the Urban Development Boundary-- could have used their help and still can.

What is remarkable is that developers like Tony Goldman succeeded in making profits and communities despite suburban sprawl.

When I first arrived in Miami in the late 1980's and began regular visits to rehearsals on Miami Beach, from my relatively fresh eyes the fact that Miami Beach had not been bulldozed seemed a joyous mistake. Walking down Ocean Drive, still dotted with SRO's and retirees gazing at the world from porches, I thought: "Thank God the bulldozers were all pointed the other way; outward from the beach." It did not escape my attention, either, that many of wealthy sprawl developers chose to live on Miami Beach where scale and community still existed and sow their evil spawn in Everglades wetlands where land was cheap and it was easier to "get things done" fast.

Driving my son to youth soccer tournaments in the wastelands of West Dade, it was simple to observe how the rush to build anonymous, soul-less places in Kendall and beyond had simply left Miami Beach behind. That's when Goldman came in.

Developers like Goldman intuitively understood the value of place and were rewarded for their hard work in bringing that value to life.

In remembering what Tony Goldman accomplished, it is also worthwhile to contemplate where Miami's politicians failed: succumbing to a builders' lobby, land use attorneys, and economic interests (US Century Bank comes to mind, its board of directors, and the unreformable majority of the county commission we frequently observe on Eye On Miami) who extracted massive wealth by commandeering government zoning and permitting to build cheap, crappy subdivisions in irreplaceable farmland and Everglades wetlands.

Tony Goldman will be remembered for South Beach and Wynwood. Although there will always be critics (and I am certainly a critic of what Miami Beach has become), no one can argue that Goldman built value. That is certainly something to applaud, through the cinders of a housing boom and bust that wouldn't have happened if only wiser minds had prevailed across America's blighted suburban landscapes.

More of Goldman's Wynwood Walls

A Lobbyist Bonanza Development. By Geniusofdespair

Why does Fortune Land Investments, LLC ( Miguel Poyastro) need all these lobbyists? Anyone live near here? The biggest piece is zoned Townhomes/Residential. The land on the right and the sliver at top on the left are zoned Vacant Land 0081. Augustin Herran signed the deed of sale for Quantum Ventures, LLC.  So again, why all the lobbyists, and why the two lobbyist classifications:

Subject "NONE":
MICHAEL FREIRE
JOSEPH G. GOLDSTEIN
ALAN KRISCHER
INES MARRERO-PRIEGUES
JUAN MAYOL
RICHARD PEREZ
TRACY R SLAVENS

Subject SUBSTANTIAL COMPLIANCE DETERMINATION:
(a substantial compliance determination is required when a development plan is not sufficiently identical to the plan approved pursuant to a Zoning Hearing or Administrative Site Plan Review)

HUGO ARZA 
MICHAEL FREIRE
JOSEPH G. GOLDSTEIN
ALAN KRISCHER
INES MARRERO-PRIEGUES
JUAN MAYOL
RICHARD PEREZ
TRACY R SLAVENS
ALBERTO J TORRES

The land was purchased in 2010 for $12,000,000. There was a sale 11/2005 to Quantum for $47,853,600 but it is marked "Other Disqualified". That is a big difference in price.

If they aren't doing anything out of the ordinary, why do they need so many damn lobbyists? Even outside the UDB (This parcel borders the UDB at 157th Ave. but it is inside)  there are usually only one or two lobbyists. This over-kill makes me very suspicious.

Can the Miami Marine Stadium be The High Line? ... by gimleteye

No. Not in a million years. But The Miami Herald publishes a puff piece on the question. The High Line in Lower Manhattan is an inspiration of urban planning. It depends on people arriving either by mass transit or walking. By virtue of location, there are many, many options for pedestrians either before or after walking on the High Line. The Marine Stadium is just like the Parrot Jungle at the end of another causeway. Worse, you have to pay a toll to get there. In both cases, it is a single destination unlikely to attract audiences by mass transit. I'm happy for the renovation project of the Marine Stadium because otherwise the entire area would be consumed by a developer's dream of privatizing the remaining waterfront in Miami. That still could happen, Marine Stadium or not. The bottom line is that we don't know how to protect value in Miami. We just know how to exploit it.

Century's Sergio Pino Not Paying Fine to Feds. By Geniusofdespair

The Herald says Pino is "pleading poverty" on a $460,000 federal wetlands violation.:

"The federal government isn’t buying the poverty plea, asking in court papers that a magistrate declare Century Homebuilders in contempt of court and sock the company with $313,000 in added penalties.

U.S. Justice Department attorneys, in Miami federal court filings over the last few months, expressed skepticism about Century’s plight and questioned whether the company was maneuvering to escape its obligation. They contend that Century was tardy with an initial $50,000 payment, remains two months overdue on a second installment and that Pino “secretly” transferred ownership of the Doral parcel at the heart of the dispute to a “mysterious’’ Venezuelan mining company."

This is why I hate mitigation. What happened here is that in order to build on our precious wetlands, 415 acres of wetlands, Pino promised to create a paltry 51 acre wetland preserve. This is called mitigation, or in my book "a shitty deal for the environment". He gets a sweetheart deal and he couldn't even make good on it.

Genting Berhad: Being Jaded in Miami doesn't mean getting ripped off on a condo purchase ... by gimleteye

I don't know how you feel about the a Malaysian billionaire parachuting in to rescue downtown Miami, but serial, developer "visionaries" and the costs they inflicted on taxpayers and voters have me jaded. There was Bayside Marketplace ("The completion of the colorful Bayside Marketplace in 1987 and the Miami Arena last year helped revive the inner city... ", Miami Times, Jan 21, 1989), The Mayfair ("Coconut Grove, an offbeat neighborhood that denizens like to compare to New York City's Greenwich Village, is struggling to maintain its identity..." Miami AP, Feb 24, 1986), Thomas Kramer ("The city gave a German developer approval to build an array of towering structures. Critics fear a condo canyon will result", AP July 28, 1995), Leviev Boymelgreen ("An Israeli company has quietly assembled a large portfolio of land in the heart of downtown Miami and plans at least $1 billion worth of projects there ... the assemblage would give Africa-Israel Investments the ability to significantly shape the future of downtown Miami", Miami Herald, July 14, 2004), and Jorge Perez ("... prices are rising, community activists are railing against development, and observers are wary of a possible bust because of speculation fueled by investors in the pre-construction and condo-conversion markets. Perez and others say they don’t anticipate a collapse, but instead are preparing for a price correction that would level out the sales prices for condos." AP, August 8, 2005). Now Genting Berhad is going to reclaim the civic space on Biscayne Bay with a family-oriented hotel and casino and twenty restaurants? I am still waiting for the public park and soccer fields promised at American Airlines Arena ("The mayors of Metro-Dade and Miami stood on a weedy lot and shook hands Wednesday on a land sale for a new Miami Heat arena, a deal they say will spark a rebirth of a decaying section of the city's downtown. Metro-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas and Miami Mayor Joe Carollo said their 17-acre, $34.7 million deal is just a start: In addition to the 20,000-seat waterfront arena, their deal promises a pedestrian bridge from the arena to Bayside Marketplace and a soccer field, shops and more...", Miami Herald, August 7, 1997) The revival around the Performing Arsht Center and the Marlins Stadium? "Waiter, check please."

An Infill Opportunity at Auction...Hmmm. by Geniusofdespair

Yes, I know, I shouldn't poke fun at high density infill development, but I couldn't resist when I saw this ad this morning. They advertised this parcel as suitable for multi-family, senior housing, hospitality, assisted living facility and limited commercial. They said: "Blue Lagoon Miami is a unique waterfront multi-family development site." (Is this 'lagoon' a rock pit?)

They didn't mention in the ad what is across the lagoon...


Actually, being at the end (or beginning depending on the wind) of airport runways has it advantages. I am not sure what they are. Is that black pavement on the two runways (upper left-hand corner of photo) from the airplane's brakes engaging? They do say 'seniors housing' and 'assisted living' in the ad....hard of hearing folks. That makes sense. The property will be auctioned to the highest bidder over $5,000,000. The property appears to have cost the owners $1,650,000 in 1979.

Hiaasen and Eye on Miami and Amendment 4 ... by gimleteye

In his editorial on Sunday, Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen chips in from the 17th fairway, an eagle. I don't begrudge Carl playing his regular golf far from the congestion and over-developed Miami-Dade. We're still here, scouring the weeds for lost golf balls. We're a different breed, the duffers who stayed behind; fighting zoning codes and raking through the hot coals of master plan changes for some piece of evidence that would hold up in court, to protect our quality of life, our schools, our traffic, our water quality and environment.

So many people chose otherwise: to leave Miami-Dade County because they were just plain fed up with fighting and local government held hostage by big campaign contributors and arrogance at County Hall. The landscape in South Dade and West Kendall bears the perfect stamp of what went wrong; the West Dade wellfield, the waters of Biscayne Bay, Krome Avenue. It is a long list but it is Sunday and there are other things I want to do, today.

The only question for Amendment 4, the ballot measure on November 2-- the sole chance in our lifetimes to change the corrupt relationship between local public officials and land use decisions-- is whether enough voters will take the time to actually read the ballot measure that would return the decision for changes to land use plans to local, popular vote. If enough voters read the ballot referendum, that is a question, and if enough voters are angry, and they are, then Amendment 4 will pass by the supermajority its opponents pushed through as a ballot referendum a few years ago, for the single purpose of defeating Amendment 4. This is no exaggueration: the Growth Machine and Engineering Cartel have been whipped to a frenzy by the chance that voters could actually change the locks on the barn door. The entire rationale for big developers funding local elected officials campaigns disappears, if now the final arbiter of their mega-plans is the public, and not Little Joe, Dorrin Rolle, Dim Bruno or VNS. The fear campaign against Florida Hometown Democracy is about to be unleashed. Read Carl Hiaasen, below. And thank you, Carl, for being a devoted reader of Eye On Miami.
Posted on Sat, Oct. 09, 2010
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/09/v-print/1865470/running-scared-over-amendment.html
Running scared over Amendment 4

By Carl Hiaasen
chiaasen@MiamiHerald.com

Major home builders are uncorking a bombastic media blitz to scare Floridians away from voting yes to Amendment 4.
The same people who helped ignite the housing crash and mortgage meltdown are absolutely terrified of giving citizens actual control over growth in their own communities.

The so-called Hometown Democracy Amendment would require local voters to approve any significant changes to a county or city ``comprehensive land-use plan,'' the map by which municipalities evolve.

If the measure passes -- and it needs the support of 60 percent of voters -- no massive housing subdivision or commercial development could be built without the project first appearing on a ballot.

It's not exactly a radical concept, but the opposing special interests will do just about anything to kill it.

They're scared because they know Floridians are fed up with lousy planning and overbuilding, and the high taxes that always result.

They're scared because they know Floridians are sick of watching elected officials cave in again and again to developers, making a farce of land-use regulations.

But mostly they're scared because, if passed, Amendment 4 has the potential to disrupt the influence-peddling and outright corruption that's made it so easy to subvert the will of the public.

As things stand now, development interests can thwart opposition to projects by simply buying off the politicians whose votes are needed to make it happen.

Typically that's achieved by hiring connected lobbyists, who then approach a receptive county commissioner or city council member. In many cases, the lobbyist has raised money for the officeholder's election campaign, so a favor is perceived to be owed.

And a threat implied, too: If you don't line up behind the project, don't expect any donations for your next campaign.

Occasionally, if the elected official is exceptionally greedy and dim-witted, a cash bribe or some other illicit benefit is arranged.

Public hearings are often a formality, a minor road bump. Plenty of earnest folks show up to question the impact of a proposed subdivision or shopping mall upon their neighborhoods and lives, and the politicians pretend to listen.

By that point, though, the deal is already sealed, the necessary majority of votes secured.

This cynical charade has been going on since the beginning of statehood. It's the reason so many Florida cities look like they were planned by chimpanzees on LSD.

It's also the reason we now have an estimated 300,000 homes and condos sitting vacant statewide, while leading the nation in foreclosures as well as mortgage fraud. The term ``growth management'' is a joke.

Amendment 4 isn't a perfect solution. Much will depend on how the language is interpreted -- for instance, determining how large a project must be before it goes to a vote.

Many thoughtful people, including some professional planners, fear the amendment would generate an endless spate of elections in fast-growing counties. They're also worried that deep-pocketed developers will be able to sway the outcomes with slick advertising campaigns.

Another issue is the wisdom of holding a countywide or citywide referendum on a building project that might affect only one neighborhood. At the very least, the amendment is bound to spawn lawsuits until the courts clarify its reach.

Despite such concerns, it's hard to imagine a system for managing growth that could possibly be more dishonest, or deaf to the public interest, than what we have now.

Nobody with half a brain believes that development pays for itself. Study after study shows that residents are the ones who pay big-time for sprawl, which is why taxes are so brutal in Florida's most densely populated counties.

So is the cost of living. Clogged highways, overcrowded schools and jails, water shortages -- we pay for all of it.

Opponents claim that Amendment 4 will actually raise taxes, one of many straight-faced lies that will saturate the airwaves between now and election day. This is well-financed desperation.

While the amendment's supporters have raised only about $2.4 million, the opposition had a war chest of $12 million by mid-summer.

The biggest donor is the Florida Association of Realtors -- what a shocker -- followed by some of the biggest home builders on Wall Street.

Here's the killer: Many of the companies bankrolling the ad campaign against Amendment 4 are recipients of a congressional bailout, in the form of humongous tax refunds earlier this year.

According to an industry magazine (Headline: ``Builders Cash in on Tax Refunds''), Lennar Homes has already taken $251 million in taxpayer-funded relief.

Yet somehow the firm scrounged up $367,000 to fight the Florida Hometown Democracy movement.

Pulte Homes accepted $800 million in federal bailout refunds while kicking in $567,000 to a political action committee opposed to Amendment 4.

So, when you see all those dire-sounding, fright-filled TV commercials, remember whose paying for them. You are.

These guys are using your money to keep your voice, and your vote, out of the neighborhood planning process. Think about that when you're standing in the voting booth on Nov 2.

Do the thing they dread the most: Read Amendment 4 and decide for yourself.

Tar and feathering all developers in the same Publick Square ... by gimleteye

Yes it is something I do. Lumping developers together as enemies of the public interest. Sure it is hyperbole: I did it yesterday with anger at news that the developer lobby is interfering with the implementation of the new zoning code for Miami, Miami 21.

I know why land speculators are against regulations that limit the type or density or height of future projects. Speculators want to maximize revenue per square foot. That is the story of the miserable Shops at Sunset, former Bakery Center, that could have been so much more for the community of South Miami if it hadn't been so much more for Greenberg Traurig lobbyists. Or, Route 1 in Florida City, pre and post Hurricane Andrew, for the local Homestead bankers and yo-yo's. These are two, of ten thousand examples in the state of Florida.

It is the same story outside the Urban Development Boundary where every "wish" to rationalize planning in the future runs straight up against some speculator's plan to replicate the model of suburban sprawl based on the eagerness of Wall Street to be agnostic to sprawl and conform debt to demographic averages that will be used by Moody's or Standard & Poors to rate the aggregate debt as Triple A.

I know all developers do not bear the same tar and feathering in the publick square. I do it for a reason. Developers in Florida will not stand forward and criticize their brethren, no matter how egregious the violation of common sense. Two more examples. First: moving the Urban Development Boundary in Miami-Dade. There are big and respected and small and lesser known developers who are against moving the UDB. I know this, because they tell me. But they won't come out and criticize these efforts publicly, because they consider the protagonists to be friends or colleagues; people they have to work with, in other contexts. As a result of the developers' silence, only a few citizens end up carrying the burden of a massive weight: protecting the rest of Miami-Dade from speculators and their sprawl.

The second example is Amendment 4, Florida Hometown Democracy. The citizens' ballot initiative will be voted in November in Florida. It proposes that changes to local development plans go to a public vote, or electors, and not local zoning councils. Many, many developers could care less about changes to local development plans: their business is not involved in building new sprawl, for instance. Amendment 4 does not apply to their business model or practices or costs. Yet, find one developer who will speak in favor of Florida Hometown Democracy. Show a group of developers who are challenging the $15 million war chest being assembled by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Realtors, and Associated Industries: why not?

So there you have it. As a group, Florida's developers have failed to differentiate their positions from those of the speculators and sprawl boosters. Florida's developers are stuck with elected representatives who believe their marching orders are to destroy regulations and barriers to growth as a matter of political principle, as a matter of "what the market wants", as a matter of property rights. It is the Age of Stupid, and Florida's developers paved the 8 lane highway to its doorstep.

Miami 21 under attack by Growth Machine... city officials, don't listen to the developers ... by gimleteye

The Herald reports a behind the scenes attack of the new Miami zoning code, Miami 21 before it is implemented, by land use attorneys and builders associations including the LBA. 5 years and countless hearings and controversies proceeded its passage. The developers never want more government intervention through zoning and planning. Even in the worst bust since the Depression, they want whatever it takes to bring the boom times back. In the state legislature, the Growth Machine worked like busy beavers dismantling state planning requirements. And it is no different, here in one of Florida's most populous cities and the political epicenter of the housing boom and bust.

City commissioners would do well to consider how the absence of rational zoning created exactly the quality of life deficits and conditions for disaster that developers want to re-create, again. We can't go backwards, except at great expense, and correct the problems etched in the Miami landscape in cement, steel and glass, but we can remember just what grief has been inflicted on Miami taxpayers and voters by our local builder and development lobby. Former LBA president Willy Bermello etched that hubris turned to grief in The Miami Herald in a 2005 editorial:

"
Lately, there has been more written about the "condo bubble" than the weapons of mass destruction during the Iraq war. There is a relationship in both phenomena: If you say it often enough, you actually start believing it, and soon enough you're on your way toward a self-fulfilling prophecy. 
Miami is a great world city, and there is no going back. Build them, and they will come." (May 21, 2005) The parallel logic to this nonsense is driving the Growth Machine today. Build whatever we want to build, for which there is "demand", and it will be good for the tax base. It is a bunch of nonsense that also lead to enormous billion dollar infrastructure deficits and a built landscape that makes little sense at all in terms of layout and transit.

Miami 21 can't go backwards and fix all the mistakes made in South Florida by developers who made the playing field uneven as possible, to get what they wanted out of local government in zoning changes when they wanted it. The damage by speculators like Greenberg Traurig's land use lobbyists and attorneys is right there. "... real estate continues to still be a safe harbor for investors," Mr. Bermello wrote in 2005, "whether it be equity or the purchase of a condo in South Florida, where doubling of your investment in less than two years is commonplace... 
Miami deserves its place next to Shanghai and Dubai. More important, it deserves our confidence. The bubble is not latex but stainless steel."

What did listening to this nonsense accomplish? City commissioners should understand it made Miami what it is today: a casino for vulture investors. So let the developers and their lobbyists froth. Leave Miami 21 alone.

Power Developers of Miami: Then and Now ... by gimleteye

“What is a developer?” the 2004 feature from the now defunct Sun Post begins. “According to the Second College Edition of the American Heritage Dictionary, a developer is "one that develops." Well, ok. But it is also possible to say, now, that a developer--especially one from Miami--is someone who is banking cash from the boom now bust. A developer not holding cash is, today, a former developer. But who knew, in 2004? Those were the best of times, when spin masters for the Growth Machine searched dictionaries and Thesauruses for more and more outlandish ways to persuade people to invest in a market that could never go down. Remember those days?

The Sun Post did a pretty good job: "A developer can also be "a chemical used to render visible the image recorded on a photosensitive surface." The hyperbole has an unintended staying power. In the light of its recent historical fixative—the worst crash in housing, construction and development since the Great Depression—all is illuminated, if only by comparing some of the "Power Developers of Real Estate" to more recent press accounts. Take the example of massive condominiums built by former partnership, Leviev Boymelgreen, in Miami. Long after topping off, the towers sit mostly empty providing a see-thru reminder to anyone going to a Heat game or the Performing Arsht Center from the interstate. Check it out:

Then: “By himself, Shaya Boymelgreen was one of the most prolific developers in New York City. Now, teamed up with Africa-Israel Investments, a company that earned billions in the diamond market and other transactions, Boymelgreen not only continues building in New York, but has announced his intent to invest $1.5 billion in Miami and Miami Beach.” (December, 2004, Sun Post)

Now:"(Boymelgreen) is battling a bankruptcy filing against one of his companies, eviction from his Brooklyn headquarters — a judge ruled Tuesday morning that the proceedings could move forward early next year — and the seizure of a Queens theater in what the buyer calls a “friendly foreclosure.” Condo owners are filing lawsuits over his construction. He has cut his staff to 15 from 200, his spokeswoman says..." (NY Times, Dec 9, 2009)

"U.S. regulators have shut down LibertyPointe Bank, chaired by real estate magnate Shaya Boymelgreen. The bank thus gained the dubious distinction of being the first bank to be shuttered by U.S. authorities in New York in 11 years. " (Haraetz, March 16, 2010)

Then: Edgardo Defortuna

2004 has been stellar for Fortune International, with its ever-present founder and president, Edgardo Defortuna, at the helm. Just last month Defortuna opened the doors to Fortune's iconic tower, Jade Residences at Brickell Bay, co-developed by Hong Kong-based Swire Properties. The $290 million luxury tower is 48-stories tall with more than 300+ residences along Biscayne Bay.

Now:

The sun isn't shining these days on Miami-based Fortune International's real estate portfolio. The third-largest residential developer in South Florida faces the loss of most its $30 million equity in a previous partnership deal with Boston-based Sonesta (NASDAQ: SNSTA) this month when the shuttered Sonesta Beach Resort is sold to Argentine developer Consultatio S.A. The price is $78 million. In 2005, the 37-year-old property at Key Biscayne, FL, a Miami suburb, carried a $120 million price tag. ... In a second setback, Defortuna is named in a $67 million foreclosure lawsuit against the former 12-story Seville Hotel South Beach, which he had hoped to also redevelop. Its other projects include Jade at Brickell Bay and Jade Beach condos. Fortune International's last published sales volume was $563 million in 2007. (9/7/2009, Real Estate Channel)

"The developers didn't get to start building until they had a certain number of contracts signed, so anyone putting down money was good for them,'' Goodkin said. Many "flippers'' closed on their units and now can't sell them, said Michael Cannon of Integra Realty Resources-Miami Inc., leaving completed condo towers with floors of dark windows and empty balconies. The Jade Residences at Brickell is an example, Cannon said. The 338-unit, 48-story waterfront tower, a block from the Brickell Avenue financial district, opened in August 2004 with buyers willing to pay as much as $5 million snapping up all the units. Now, the new owners have listed 112 condos for sale and 17 units totaling $15 million are in foreclosure. Jade Residences developer Edgardo Defortuna, president of Fortune International Realty, didn't return calls seeking comment. (July 20, 2007)

More to come...

What's up with our Best Buds? By Geniusofdespair

I always like to check-in on the doings of our local developers. In February Sergio Pino was getting a mortgage from U.S. Century Bank - the same bank that he is a Board Member. The end of March he sold his condo at Club Atlantis in Miami Beach. He got market value.

Ed Easton was modifying a Krome Grove Land Trust mortgage (3 original notes were $1,935,606.88) in December. The original notes were made in favor of the Mortgagee Lennar Homes, Inc. (now known as Lennar Homes, LLC). Anyway, Easton is the Mortgagor (signing for the Land Trust) and also signing as the Mortgagee (hard to figure out these transactions). This property is part of the development of Regional Impact (DRI), Parkland. The entire property was purchased for $64,895,670 in October 2004. Lucky it is classified as AG land. The large parcel, 590 acres, only was taxed at $27,069 ($45,000 exemption) - a bargain. Easton got the property from Lunsford Richardson, Jr. -- the Vicks VapoRub heir?

This month Armando Guerra foreclosed on a parcel of land, lot 9 of Eureka Ranches (SW 188 Street and SW 185 Court, Homestead) for $476,295.48. The land was purchased from Guerra (as a trustee for a group of investors) for $838,000 in March, 2005.

No more fish? Let the people eat cake ... by gimleteye

A noteworthy report in The New York Times, "In Florida, the Seafood Becomes Less Local", makes the case obvious to anyone with half a brain in their heads over the past fifty years: the vision of the oceans to be the world's future breadbasket is rapidly fading in the rear view mirror. I grew up with that vision. I can remember it in my fourth grade social studies because we were tested on it: where will our future food come from? From the oceans.

Damien Cave reports from the Florida Keys, that special bastion of ignorance when it comes to measuring the impact and calibrating the response of rules and regulations meant to protect natural resources. Cave notes how little fish consumed in the Keys actually comes from Florida waters. We haven't been able to protect our fisheries because we live in an age of Idiocy where the reality of scarcer resources we need to survive provokes the opposite of conservation-- it provokes the impulses of greed: get what you can, while it lasts. We live in a time when being "for" a rule or regulation to protect the long term interest-- which surely, the health of oceans is-- instantly summons a hail of spitfire and brimstone from Fox News acolytes and dittoheads fueled by corporate interests. Instead of common sense and wisdom, we get a race to the bottom where crabs and scavengers flourish. That's freedom.

"Jerald S. Ault, a marine biologist at the University of Miami and an expert in statistical assessment of underwater populations, acknowledged that scientists were still struggling to assess the damage from coastal condominiums and houses, which have destroyed many of the mangroves where fish develop." Well, yes: the scientists and agency officials will not only study, they will spend millions of dollars meeting in hotel rooms and banquet halls to build careers and devise new reports that will take decades to accomplish and end up on some county commissioner's shelf, who doesn't like its conclusions because they don't please her campaign contributors. (I'm talking about county commission Natacha Seijas (VNS), from Hialeah, who killed the South Dade Watershed Study-- the most exhaustive study of a water shed in the US, shelved after objections by local bankers and the engineering and development cartel. What is so stupid about Seijas' reign of power is that her positions against environmental rules protecting shorelines and wetlands don't mesh with the considerable interest of Cuban Americans in fishing. Oh well: we get the democracy we deserve.)

You don't have to look any further than Biscayne Bay, where until the mid-1950's a highly productive fishery provided both food and incomes for MIami and beyond. It has all been fished out, and the fish have been prevented from coming back by the destruction of breeding habitat on mangrove coastlines sacrificed to development. “Unfortunately,” he (Ault) said of today’s fishermen, “certain people have to pay a price for other people not paying attention to the resource.” The people not paying attention to the resource would be all of us and the Idiocracy that passes for elected officials and their legislatures over a very long period of time. It would be all of us who keep blindly putting deposits in banks and financial institutions whose shareholders couldn't care less about protecting a resource if it affects their bottom lines. Then, they pass of their own net worth issues as grandly important to the broader public interest; in "jobs, jobs, jobs" or some other hooey.

I have empathy for fishermen. In large part, the joy of fishing and Florida's bays brought me here. I have spent the better part of 20 years fighting with conservation groups so that future generations might have the same joys I have experienced, fishing on Florida's bays. I have learned, too, that many of the people and interests on the other side, also love to fish. Just not here, anymore.

Right now, the US EPA is trying to impose standards on nutrient pollution in Florida; one of the very most important measures to heal the food chain that fisheries depend on. This important effort has been opposed by the state of Florida for decades, fortified by campaign cash. The energy for this opposition comes from Florida's agricultural industry, from developers, and the Chamber of Commerce: all of whose constituents take their own fishing away from Florida to the Bahamas, or Gulf of Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica for predictable reasons. Nowadays, if you want to eat fish in the Florida Keys, more likely than not it is frozen from one of those places our own gold-plated standards have not touched. God bless, America.


March 30, 2010
In Florida, the Seafood Becomes Less Local
By DAMIEN CAVE
ISLAMORADA, Fla. — The postcard Florida experience: sun, fun and plenty of local seafood. It was the latter that brought Gary and Vicki Haller from Kansas to Wahoo’s here last week, with its waterfront views, toucan colors and promise of fresh food “from our docks.”

“We live in cow country,” Mr. Haller said. “Here we eat fish.”

But the fish in his “belly buster” sandwich actually traveled farther than he did. It was Pangasius, a freshwater catfish from Vietnam. The grouper and tuna were also imports, according to Wahoo’s managers. And the “local” label on the menu? It still applied, they insisted, because their distributor was down the road.

Florida, from sea to plate, just is not the seafood buffet it once was. Reeling from a record, fish-killing cold snap and tougher federal limits on what can be caught, commercial fishermen and charter-boat captains are struggling. Distributors and restaurants are relying more and more on imported seafood — some of it clearly labeled, a lot of it not.

Federal fisheries managers say that a law reauthorized by Congress in 2006 now requires them to take more aggressive action against overfishing. They cut back the legal catch for some kinds of snapper last year, and 11 species of grouper are now off limits from January through April on the Atlantic coast. It is the longest ban on record for grouper and the first to include both commercial and recreational fleets.

In a state that bills itself as “the fishing capital of the world” — with a commercial industry worth $5.2 billion and a recreational one worth $4.4 billion — thousands of anglers are angry.

“For a fisherman that works 12 months a year, you’ve just taken a third of his livelihood,” said Tom Hill, whose family has owned Key Largo Fisheries since 1972. “You’ve also taken away the ability of someone who comes here to enjoy a local piece of fish.”

Last month, several thousand fishermen from all over the country held a “sea party” protest in Washington to demand that federal fishing limits be loosened.

They were especially concerned about a series of proposals that would continue a ban on catching red snapper in federal waters, as well as close off an area from North Carolina through the Florida Keys to bottom fishing for all 73 species of fish in the “snapper grouper complex.”

The proposed area for closing has since been shrunk by the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council, but fishermen who depend on the 6,161-square-mile area of water from Savannah, Ga., to Melbourne, Fla., remain fearful of bankruptcy.

Robert Johnson, the owner of Jodie Lynn Charters in St. Augustine, Fla., estimated that if the closing plans are approved this spring, at least 600 boats and 1,800 fishing jobs would be lost — more if bait shops, marinas and dockside bars are included.

“They’re not just saying you can’t catch red snapper; if that was it, we might survive,” Mr. Johnson said. “But when you come in and say you can’t even fish where they live because you might catch one, we can’t.”

Fishermen also argue that the science driving the fisheries’ decisions comes from limited models that exaggerate declines in fish stocks and the role fishing plays.

Jerald S. Ault, a marine biologist at the University of Miami and an expert in statistical assessment of underwater populations, acknowledged that scientists were still struggling to assess the damage from coastal condominiums and houses, which have destroyed many of the mangroves where fish develop.

But he said that peer-reviewed statistical models showed clear reason for concern. Populations of most of the snapper and grouper species once so common in Florida waters are down 30 percent or more from their historic highs, according to recent estimates.

Keeping hooks and nets out of the water is simply the clearest path to improvement, Mr. Ault said. He noted that while the state’s commercial fleet had declined by 11 percent since the 1960s, to about 24,000 registered vessels, the number of recreational fishing vessels had soared to 944,000 in 2009, up from 128,000, in 1964.

“Unfortunately,” he said of today’s fishermen, “certain people have to pay a price for other people not paying attention to the resource.”

The result — and the disconnect between marketing materials and reality — is evident not just on restaurant menus, but at fish houses like Mr. Hill’s.

Sitting on the edge of a marina, it is an open warehouse with melting ice on concrete floors, brochures bragging about Florida fish and very little actual fish from Florida. Workers in white coats were busy on a recent morning cutting snapper flown in from Mexico, and on the blue sign for shoppers, nearly everything came from far away.

Mr. Hill, 59, a serious-sounding man in a flowered shirt, ran down the list. The salmon was from Norway. The yellowfin tuna? Frozen, from Ecuador. And the dolphin, or mahi mahi? Ecuador as well, Mr. Hill said, adding that in about a month, it could be caught locally.

It was a similar scene in the coolers at Independent Seafood in West Palm Beach, where the salmon came from Scotland and the largest crates stamped Florida held frogs’ legs and alligator meat. The food from Independent Seafood will end up on white tablecloths at some of the area’s fanciest restaurants, from South Beach to Palm Beach. But most of it will have come from abroad.

“We’re sourcing stuff all over the world,” said Mike Molina, a co-owner. “If you have product that’s not readily available all the time, the restaurants don’t put them on the menu.”

Does it matter? Some say no. “It’s still good fish,” said Luis Garcia, the owner of Garcia’s, a seafood restaurant on the Miami River that buys its grouper from Mexico.

But others, like Doug Gregory, a marine biologist with the University of Florida, say that overall quality has decreased because of looser regulations in other countries and longer shipping times — if you can even believe what the menu says.

Since 2006, grouper prices have climbed, and it has become one of the most commonly misrepresented food items on Florida menus, with 241 complaints investigated by state inspectors. Even the Eatz Capital Cafe a floor below the Florida Department of Agriculture was found in 2007 to have been selling a “catch of the day” that was supposedly grouper. In fact, it was catfish.

Mr. Gregory said he had almost stopped eating seafood because of the problems. Others, like the Hallers from Kansas, may feel differently. When told of his fish sandwich’s provenance, at first Mr. Haller was appalled.

“Well that’s not good,” he said. Then he took a bite.

“It’s pretty good fish,” he added. And at least he was still in Florida.


MORE IN U.S. (1 OF 23 ARTICLES)
In Florida, the Seafood Becomes Less Local
Read More »
Close