FYI Miami: April 4, 2024

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.

SUPERSIZE BILLBOARDS BATTLE: County commissioners are moving fast to repeal the ability of the City of Miami to opt out from county sign ordinances, an act that allowed the city in January 2023 to update its billboard ordinance to allow 10-story, two-faced signs of up to 1,080 square feet at sites that included Bayfront Park, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and Maurice Ferré Park. Those signs are nearly twice the size that the county’s rules would allow. The county waived its required vote between the first 11-0 favorable vote and the committee hearing, which will be at 9 a.m. Monday, April 8, before the Chairman’s Policy Council and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee. The giant signs have led to loud protests from downtown. The county legislation is also to deal with the jumbo signs already being built.

CRUISES BOOMING: PortMiami’s cruise passenger totals rose 9% from October through January compared to the same period the prior fiscal year, Fitch Ratings noted in rating port bond issues. Last fiscal year the port recorded 7.3 million passenger moves – which total both ship boardings and departures of those passengers – compared with 6.8 million in 2019, before covid decimated the cruise industry. Port management expects more than 7 million passenger movements this year as totals rise to over 9.4 million by fiscal year 2028. Many cruise lines, Fitch said, are “operating at over 100% occupancy.”  

BOAT SHOW SPEED-UP: The South Florida Summer Boat Show at Miami Marine Stadium on Virginia Key plans a temporary 249-slip dock at $212,000 cost with sea trials allowed for up to 50 slips. Operator Engage Live didn’t seek a permit for the docks early enough prior to the start of construction for the May 17-19 event, said a memo to county commissioners from Lourdes Gomez, director of the Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources, so the item had to be heard this week to let the work start now. The permit would allow 65 days from then to remove the dock. The show sought a permit for five years at the site, which the City of Miami owns and operates. The stadium itself has been dormant more than 30 years and the city recently deleted borrowing plans to restore it. Ms. Gomez noted in recommending approval of the application that “the Marine Stadium Basin has historically supported boat show events.”

GAS PRICE CLIMBING: Average gasoline prices in Miami rose 6.3 cents per gallon last week to $3.62, according to GasBuddy, 22.6 cents higher than a month ago and 15.8 cents higher than a year ago.