FYI Miami: June 13, 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.

BIG DEAL AID: As Miami-Dade seeks a master developer to plan, finance and develop 27 acres as a MetroCenter to turn Government Center into a 24-hour community, the county is paying a Washington, DC, advisor more to help pick and manage the developer. Last week commissioners voted 11-0 to increase IMG Rebel Advisory Inc.’s current contract from $1 million to $2.56 million through July 31, 2027. Part of the advisor’s job is to ensure that lease revenues will cover all that’s due from the county as it shuffles assets to new sites. The contact, says the resolution, “includes all services needed to assist the county throughout the project phases to include planning, soliciting, negotiating, award and administering the master development agreement.” The county calls the project “the first of its kind at the county to competitively select a master developer for such a large real estate deal involving multiple parcels,” including a downtown intermodal transit terminal.     

CUSTOMS STAFF GAIN SOUGHT: With Miami International Airport facing some of the longest immigration and customs processing waits for international passengers – up to six hours – a county commission resolution calls on Customs and Border Protection and the US Department of Homeland Security to appropriate funds for a 20% staffing increase at the airport. The resolution by Commission Juan Carlos Bermudez that passed last week 11-0 says that Customs and Border Protection informed airport officials that it had staffed its operations there to the maximum possible based on current funding “and that a 20% staffing level increase would help alleviate MIA’s long immigration and customs processing wait times,” which often cause arriving international passengers to miss connecting flights throughout the nation. The airport is first in the US in international freight handled and second in international passenger travel.  

CONNECTING IN WATERFORD: A new county-state funding agreement will provide MetroConnect on-demand transit in the Waterford area through June 30, 2025. The county and the state will pay $345,600 apiece to River North Transit LLC to run the service, which is to have two to three minivans during peak hours and two in off-peak times driving flexible routes with rides provided within 15 minutes of the call and operating primarily as a feeder to other modes of transportation. MetroConnect now has 11 such service zones producing more than 1,000 total rides per weekday. The on-demand transit is to serve a 5-square-mile area, and while other service is possible, links to transit are prioritized, with the aim of linking to the Miami Intermodal Center and the Flagler Corridor. MetroConnect launched in the county in October 2020.