How the Southeast Overtown/ Park West Community Redevelopment Agency (SEOPW CRA) is making the city a better place to live
Keon Hardemon – Chairman, Miami City Commission – Chairman, SEOPW CRA
What are Overtown’s current major needs and how is the CRA and the board overall addressing them?
The needs of the Overtown community varies – affordable housing, infrastructure, and job training are the foundation. The CRA has invested millions into enhancing the quality-of-life. The agency is responsible for the creation of several new affordable housing developments, such as Island Living, Courtside Apartments and Plaza at the Lyric. In addition to creating new housing stock, the agency works to preserve existing structures. Town Park North, South and Village are housing communities that are recipients of the CRA’s rehabilitation grants that will restore and enhance the homes. This effort is intended to preserve homeownership within the community. In addition to housing, the CRA has also made investments in improving businesses. The restoration of Overtown’s historic Josephine and Dunn Hotel is an example of this effort. The formerly dilapidated structure will now operate as a bed and breakfast. We are taking community assets that were in disrepair, repairing them and providing destinations for visitors to come and experience Overtown. The development of the Overtown community also encompasses the development of its people. Here in the CRA, we have made a substantial amount of investment into job training for our residents. Programs such as Hospitality Employees Advancement and Training Inc. provide a curriculum for Food and Beverage, Culinary and Hotel Operations. This initiative will help to enhance resident’s ability to secure employment opportunities in South Florida’s growing industries.
What are Overtown’s plans for the workforce housing segment?
To me, workforce housing should be affordable housing because affordability is relative. Individuals such as our young attorneys, government employees, and educators struggle to pay market rate for housing. People who work, need an affordable place to live, that’s safe and appears in the same light as market-rate units. The CRA has plans to develop these types of properties. We have issued bonds that will generate funds to go towards developments. We also have financing that we are capturing money from through the development that’s happening with Moishe Mana in Wynwood. That will result in contributions upwards of $7 million. In the CRA, we are always looking at ways to involve new partners. Anytime we do a new development, we want to increase the number of housing units. The affordability part of the development, for the market and for the workforce is important to that mix.
How Florida Power & Light is investing in infrastructure to increase efficiency
Eric Silagy President & CEO – Florida Power & Light Company
Eric Silagy in Juno Beach on March 10, 2008.
What have been the most important milestones for Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) in 2016?
This past year, in Miami, we invested more than $50 million in transmission and distribution in the Downtown area. The Miami construction boom has been tremendous, but it has also created a lot of challenges. A lot of planning needs to be done in advance to be able to meet the needs of the new developments. That’s why we try and work really closely with the developers, the city and the county to be able to understand what is going to be happening in the next six to 12 months – and even beyond– so we can anticipate and execute the proper investments in an orderly and efficient way. We have to find the right balance so we can have growth that is done in a way that is the least impactful to residents as possible, but also provides future opportunities for those who live and work in Miami. Another factor that we need to take into account is being prepared for hurricanes. It is very important that we continue to be able to respond quickly because otherwise, the economic damages could be far worse than the physical ones. For example, electric cranes operate PortMiami, meaning they need electricity to operate reliably. If the power goes out due to a storm, the port stops operating, which is why we made important investments to strengthen the infrastructure of the port.
What has been the impact of the smart grid technology in Florida’s electric grid?
We have one of the smartest grid systems in America. Smart grid technology has completely changed the way we see and operate the electric grid. All customers have smart meters, except a small handful that specifically requested not to have them. We have invested a significant amount of resources in technology that now allows us to anticipate possible problems with the grid. The electric grid sends us signals about how it’s operating in real time, showing us what possible failures we could experience so that we can correct them before a problem occurs. We are also using mini-drones to identify certain problems that arise. Once the drone shows us what exactly the problem is, we are able to go in with the correct resources to fix it. This allows us to approach day to day issues proactively instead of reactively, saving a lot of time and money, which helps to keep the electricity bills low. On average, we have been investing in Florida around $3 billion per year over the last six years; in 2016, we invested more than $3.5 billion, and in 2017 we plan to invest more than $5 billion. Yet, in the last 10 years, our bills to customers have gone down 14 percent – primarily because the efficiency gained through technology and process improvements provides greater benefits than the cost to invest in it.
Capital Analytics speaks to Jorge Gonzalez, President & CEO, City National Bank
July 2017 — The last 12 months has been a story of increasing success for South Florida as the area has seen the growth of sectors outside of traditional areas of strength such as tourism and trade. Technology and healthcare are two areas among others that signal just how exciting Miami is becoming as an investment destination.
Underpinning this growth is a robust banking center, which is one of the healthiest in the U.S., buoyed by a strong economy featuring a robust real estate sector and favorable regulations from the State of Florida. Miami-Dade follows the area’s positive trend in the banking sector and its top five banks all experienced an increase in assets in 2016. Among them is City National Bank of Florida, which recorded a $24.3 million net income in the first quarter of 2017, an 83 percent increase year-on-year. Capital Analytics spoke with President & CEO Jorge Gonzalez about growth in the region, changing demographics and the road ahead for South Florida.
In which area of business do you expect to see the most growth for South Florida?
Small business will continue to be the main economic driver in South Florida, and this is an underserved segment when it comes 
to banking. Our value proposition is particularly attractive to small and midsized businesses that really want a partner, not just a bank. There are various growing sectors in South Florida, including distribution, technology, healthcare and professional services. We see great opportunity there. Small businesses will continue to grow and expand as the economy continues to strengthen and we’ll see job growth and innovation across various of these sectors.
What are the expectations of market performance for 2017?
All signs so far in 2017 indicate that we are continuing to see a strengthening economy and low unemployment, and that is good for everyone. South Florida and Miami in particular continue to be the beneficiaries of international investment and while that has waned some with the strengthening dollar, we are still a highly desired destination for capital and investment.
What regulatory frameworks do you want to see addressed?
I wholeheartedly believe that banks need to be closely regulated, but that regulation should focus on the areas where there is risk and exposure. There has to be a prioritization of of regulation to focus on areas with the most risk. Technology is one area that I think we’ll see more regulation and that makes sense, because of the risks associated with electronic fraud. Information security and cyber security are emerging areas that banks and regulators need to be focused on. It is a new and quickly growing threat that needs to be managed very carefully.
South Florida has a young population. How will this affect long-term products and services?
Ultimately what we are building here is a global community bank, that is, a community bank that is focused on serving the marketplace it operates in, with a global perspective. We have a $40-billion Chilean parent company, Bci, and City National Bank is based in South Florida, which is home to people and companies from throughout the world. We are building a unique platform to serve them. Regardless of age, consumers are looking for the same things: relationships, excellent service and a diverse product offering. We are what I call and old-fashioned bank, with a modern twist, committed to those traditional values of building relationships and delivering an exceptional client experience and at the same time investing in technology so that our clients can interact with us in the way that they choose. We are also willing to build tailor made solutions for our clients. These are things that most banks are not built to do. Either they are too big to be personal or too small to invest in the systems and solutions clients need. The expectations of all clients are very high and we are constantly raising the bar for ourselves and working to anticipate client needs and wants.
What challenges need to be overcome?
I am very bullish on South Florida. We’ve seen tremendous growth in the last 10-15 years and I expect the next decade will dwarf that. Miami is a brand that has tremendous national and international appeal, and it has emerged as one of the most important places for business in the world. But that growth comes with challenges and I think we all know what they are. Our infrastructure needs to be properly developed to support long-term growth. This is best illustrated by the traffic situation. Affordable housing is another area that we need to find innovative ways to increase the inventory. Companies want to ensure their employees have a certain quality of life and that includes being able to live closer to work. Education is also an area that we need to continue focusing on. Our public schools have made great strides, but more work is needed, particularly in the area of ensuring we provide opportunities for individuals to be productive members of our community. This is an area that City National Bank invests in with our community dollars, because we believe that educational opportunity and access has the biggest impact on the long-term economic development of our community. Our community has also seen a lot of investment in culture, from new museums to international art fairs, and this is something we need to foster more of, if we are going to continue to develop Miami into a cosmopolitan and global city.
To learn more about City National Bank of Florida, visit their website at: https://www.citynational.com/
Consumer demand is an important driver of infrastructure development and what MasTec undertakes as a company. Telecommunications is a good example because it is not highly regulated like energy or water, and there is a lot of competition. Municipalities want their residents and businesses to have the best services and best internet speeds, so it is not difficult to get permission to build infrastructure. Local governments are also open as to how they deal with telecommunications companies. This is one of the main areas of infrastructure improvement. While the continued roll out of 4G has been a big driver of growth, there has also been a lot of activity in fiber-to-the-home infrastructure. The desire for increased internet speeds means fiber lines are an important product for us. More and more is being doing over the internet, so consumers are demanding higher speed at home. This is driving our business. Companies such as AT&T have been providing normal internet speeds of up to 50 Mbps. However, in the past year, a new product has come on the market, Gigabit Speed, which is 1,000 Mbps. AT&T already has significant infrastructure in the state because it has provided telephone lines for more than 100 years. Over time it has improved lines, eventually building internet infrastructure which has the main backbone of optical fiber lines, with the lateral, coaxial cables connecting homes and business. The next move is improving this with fiber lines to homes and businesses replacing coaxial cables. A lot of money is spent doing this work in Florida. New fiber infrastructure, called fiber-to-home, provides substantial speed improvements. The same demands are transferring over to the wireless space with mobile technology. This is where 5G will come into play, which is being discussed by all the major telecoms providers. It could be starting as early as 2018. This is a huge driver for our business and the infrastructure sector in general.
