FYI Miami: May 8, 2014

FPL REACTORS GO TO CABINET: Staff is recommending that Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet approve Florida Power & Light’s plan to build two nuclear reactors at Turkey Point in south Miami-Dade. Approval would include support buildings, transmission lines and corridors for the lines. The issue goes before Gov. Scott and the Cabinet –Attorney General Pam Bondi, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater – Tuesday. In December, state Administrative Law Judge D.R. Alexander recommended “certification” for the location, construction and operation of the two 1,100-megawatt reactors. Cabinet approval is a step in a long process that includes gaining federal approvals. If FPL builds the reactors, it will probably be a decade before they start generating electricity.

SHRINE IS HISTORY: The days of the old Mahi Shrine Auditorium on the Miami River are numbered. Demolition of the empty structure at 1500 NW North River Drive is to begin next week to make way for a large mixed-use development, according to Horacio Stuart Aguirre, chairman of the Miami River Commission. At Monday’s meeting, Mr. Aguirre reported the developer of River Landing has closed on the property after two years, retail tenants have signed on and “he’s ready to start construction.” River Landing Development LLC and Hellinger Penabad Companies plan to transform the 10 acres into office, retail and residential development, a grocery store and a riverwalk with waterfront restaurants. The plan calls for a six-story retail center and two residential towers with apartments atop a multilevel garage. When the project was announced, Mr. Aguirre cited a need to get away from the trend of nothing but condos. “I believed that would force out the other players,” he said then. “There has to be a blend. To use the river exclusively only for condos would have been economically detrimental to the community. Businesses produce jobs.”

BAGGAGE BONANZA: The US government will provide Miami-Dade County with more than $101.1 million as reimbursement for the new bagging handling system at Miami International Airport, under an agreement county commissioners approved Tuesday. It calls for the federal Transportation Security Administration to provide the money as the cost of the security-related portion of the project. The project’s total cost was more than $147 million, county documents show. The new baggage handling system serves terminals E, F, G, H and J at the county-owned airport.