FYI Miami: July 25, 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.

DIGGING INTO AIRPORT: Commissioners are directing Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to look behind the walls and underground at the state of Miami International Airport’s mechanical, plumbing, electrical and information technology systems. The resolution by Kevin Marino Cabrera that passed last week notes that the county’s largest single economic engine is one of the oldest airports in the US and says that while new terminals are being built and old ones modernized, “portions of the airport may incorporate aging and degraded infrastructure.” The measure tells the mayor to “immediately begin investigating all internal infrastructure at MIA.” If no existing contract can handle the scope of the job, it tells her to “immediately begin efforts to procure an engineering firm or firms” to do it and report quarterly to the commission plans to addressing each defect and the cost.  

AIRPORT AS OFFICE LANDLORD: Miami-Dade has agreed to buy an office building in Airport Corporate Center near Miami International Airport, become landlord to its 11 tenants, and move aviation department workers into the building’s vacant majority, freeing the old Eastern Airlines headquarters at the airport for redevelopment. The county plans to spend $26.31 million on the six-story building, with the county anticipating $894,155 annual rent and a positive cash flow of over $208 million over 30 years. The commission voted 10-1 last week to make the deal; Micky Steinberg did not explain her ‘no’ vote. The airport has few ways to acquire land for expansions and will get 5.12 acres to relieve pressures on current spaces, making them available to lease to outsiders who need to be near the airport terminal rather than the airport’s workers. 

FLORIDA POPULATION BOOMS: Florida had slightly more than 23 million residents as of April 1, the first time the state has hit that mark in its annual estimates. A new report by the state Demographic Estimating Conference estimates the population at 23,002,597, up from 22,634,867 a year earlier. The report projects more than 25 million in 2031. It said that from April 1, 2024, to April 1, 2028, the state is projected to average 319,109 net new residents a year, or 874 a day. “These increases are analogous to adding a city slightly smaller than Orlando, but larger than St. Petersburg, every year,” the report said.

GAS DOWN 15 CENTS: Average gasoline prices in Miami fell 15.1 cents per gallon last week to $3.35, according to GasBuddy. That’s 3.5 cents lower than a month ago and 10.4 cents below a year ago. The national average price fell 1.9 cents to $3.47, up 3.5 cents from a month ago.