Where to Be: Here at InTheLoop, we know there are always places to be and events to attend. Each Friday, we feature a special “where to be” post on our blog to make sure every day of the week has some sort of cultural event to check out. We hope that you all can come out into the community and learn and commemorate some influential people and events around Miami!

Blue Full Moon Party at The National Hotel Miami Beach 7/31/15

 

 

Miami turns down free art. A city known for art and for culture suffers the absence of a $30 million investment to improve the city’s reputation as a capital for art in the US.

Originally posted in the Miami Herald editorial section. Click here for the original article.

It’s baffling when an opportunity arises for taxpayers to benefit from the generosity of a wealthy investor and art patron – and the city of Miami acts like it doesn’t care.

That appears to be what happened to Miami resident and successful hedge-fund manager Bruce Berkowitz, founder of Fairholme Capital Management.

Mr. Berkowitz wanted to build an Arquitectonica-designed office building, but not just any building — an area-unique, anvil-shaped 10-story headquarters for his business and also his foundation on a lot on 26th Street and Biscayne Boulevard in Edgewater. The exterior of the nearly windowless building will be a new type of concrete embedded with glass fiber optics that renders it translucent. At night, the building should glow. Yes, grandiose plans, but all privately funded.

The perk for the public was that it was Mr. Berkowitz’s intention to install in two massive sculptural modern art masterpieces by art stars Richard Serra and James Turrell, which the investment manager purchased and are valued at $30 million, in the lobby. The pieces could only improve Miami’s art cred.

All Mr. Berkowitz needed from the city of Miami was zoning approval. He was willing to bend, and to amend his architectural plans to conform to the Miami 21 zoning code. No problem. But Mr. Berkowitz told the Miami Herald he got the bum’s rush from the city. After months of willingly trying and failing to get a clear-cut response from the city as to whether he could proceed, a frustrated Mr. Berkowitz has pulled the plug on the project. “All work has been suspended,” he told the Editorial Board Thursday.

Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, whose district includes Edgewater, is now taking a personal interest in rescuing the effort. “I don’t want to lose this project,” he said.

Mr. Sarnoff said the project’s cancellation would be a big loss. We agree. To miss out on being the city that displays these art pieces, especially during Art Basel, would be a mistake. Best of all, it would not cost local residents a penny.

“I think things will get back on track,” Mr. Sarnoff told the board. But Mr. Berkowitz vehemently disagrees. “There are no ongoing discussions and the only thing I’ve heard from the city is that I’ve been fined $300,000 for the way we cleared and secured the lot.”

If Miami wants to be a world-class city, it can’t commit a blunder like this. It should try to save this enhancement to the local art scene, not to mention beautification of Biscayne Boulevard.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article28475401.html#storylink=cpy

Obviously Miami is known for never fading sunshine, sandy beaches, and crystal blue water–but that’s certainly not enough to keep people in Miami. Miami has always been a gateway to Latin America, but now people from all over the US and Europe are coming, staying, and investing in Miami…and not for the beaches and sunshine. Miami boasts an environment ripe for entrepreneurship and opportunity, a one of a kind cultural melange, and a gateway to the globe. In his article featured in “Ocean Drive”, Jon Warech touches on the people who have decided to move to Miami and why.

The full article is below and can be found here.

When Dr. LaWrence Schiffman was an undergraduate at the University of Miami, he fell in love with this city for the same reason that most people do—the year-round sunshine, the glistening ocean waters, and the vibrant nightlife. A New Jersey native, Schiffman dreamed of returning and calling Miami his permanent home, but at the time, starting a successful dermatology practice in a vacation town seemed impossible. “I went back up north for all of my medical training, and when I finished my residency requirements, I looked into returning,” says Schiffman. “I knew that if I went to work for a group practice in New York or Philadelphia, I could make a lot more money, but I wanted more out of life.”

Schiffman’s thoughts might have been typical for professionals just a few years ago, but more and more people are deciding there’s no reason to wait to live in paradise. Schiffman himself headed south, worked for a group practice in Miami, and in July 2012, he broke out on his own and opened Miami Skin Doctor. “I set up shop in Doral, where there were very few dermatologists, and in three years the town has grown exponentially around me,” he says. “It’s expanding so much that I can’t even get into the office sometimes.”

Doral, which is home to corporate headquarters for Carnival Cruise Lines, Univision, the Miami Herald, and many other major companies, is just one area of Miami that is booming, and Schiffman’s success story of a practice that “is growing faster than I can keep up with” is one of many in a developing city where sun and fun are taking a backseat to entrepreneurship, big business, and a plethora of opportunities for people in all professions.

“No longer is Miami simply known as a place where the rich come to play,” says Alyce Robertson, executive director of Miami’s Downtown Development Authority, an independent public agency helping business boom downtown. “It has emerged as a sophisticated financial hub where real money is being put to work. Dozens of hedge funds and other financial firms are flocking to Miami’s urban core from New York, California, and parts of Latin America.”

Miami’s evolving design and culture scenes act as a magnet now more than ever. Santiago Smulevich’s family moved from Argentina to the Magic City more than a decade ago and opened AM Profile, a furniture and custom-closets store in the Design District. Smulevich moved back to Argentina after school, chasing what he thought was a better opportunity. But with the Design District morphing into one of the country’s top high-end shopping destinations over the past few years, he knew Miami was the place to be.

“I moved back here four years ago because Miami offered an opportunity to grow as a businessman in a way that Argentina did not,” says Smulevich, who now owns and operates AM Profile. “For South Americans, it’s a lot easier to be in Miami than anywhere else because of the language and the culture. We can be successful here without having to change too much of our daily lives.”

Though the Latin influence makes Miami an American city like no other, the growing cultural and intellectual landscape lends a gravitas that Miami lacked in decades past. The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, and the arrival of the Faena Forum, the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, and even smaller projects like the Wynwood Greenhouse put Miami on par with any major US city. “Specifically in the art world, everyone is watching Miami,” says Leann Standish, who came here from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 2011 to become the deputy director of external affairs at PAMM. “Everywhere I travel, people ask about the museum. Miami is in a very unique position in that it’s an important international city, yet it is also a young city that moves at an incredibly fast pace.”

While the quick advancements have more people planting roots in Miami, tourism is still going strong. New hotels continue to pop up all over town, and new restaurants are opening their doors on what feels like a daily basis, coming from Canada, Europe, South America, and, of course, New York. Celebrity chefs are either opening outposts of their famed eateries here or using the city as a launching pad for new establishments. Tourism is thriving, but now it’s no longer Miami’s only source of income. In fact, many of those tourists end up staying after their vacation. On average, 50,000 New Yorkers relocate to Florida every year. More than 537,000 people from all over the world moved here last year, according to 2014 Census figures, making Florida now the third-most-populated state in the country, behind California and Texas.

“People are shocked to learn that the tourism component of the Miami economy accounts for just 12 percent of employment—the third-largest sector of employment, behind professional and business services (16 percent) and education and health services (15 percent),” says Jordan Niefeld, a CPA, certified financial planner, and investment advisor at Raymond James in Aventura. “With companies like ExxonMobil, Sony, IBM, Cisco Systems, Caterpillar, and Johnson & Johnson locating their Latin American headquarters in Miami, that number will continue to shift.”

And, of course, there have been those rumors about Facebook setting up shop in Wynwood.

Miami’s development in recent years into a well-rounded city has attracted big spenders looking to get in on the action. The Knight Frank 2015 Wealth Report’s Global Cities Survey recently revealed that only two US cities ranked in the top 10 for global investment—New York and Miami, which, according to Jacob Roffman, principal of 13th Floor Investments, means that investment in Miami should remain. In fact, 28 of Florida’s total 42 billionaires list South Florida specifically as their primary residence, according to Forbes’s World’s Billionaires list of 2015. Billionaires tend to know something about where to live, invest, and work.

“Miami continues to mature as a city and is, today, far more than simply a gateway to Latin America—it is a gateway to the world, and a magnet for highimpact investment,” says Roffman. “Miami is a safe and secure place for foreign investors to put their money.”

On a small-business scale, though, Miami is a land of opportunity as well. Stacy Josloff, owner of Pure Therapy and designer of Inca Swimwear, opened a retail store in Miami Beach six years ago but planned to move back to New York after the first year. “One year passed. Two years passed. Now we’re on year seven,” she says. “I always thought that New York was the place that I’d live and die in, but in Manhattan, if your last name isn’t Rockefeller, it’s hard to be an entrepreneur. If you retain the work ethic and business mind that you had in New York and bring it down here, there is opportunity to grow and be successful.”

Dr. Schiffman echoes that sentiment. “In New York, you have 50 million dermatologists with their own skincare lines and TV shows,” he says. “You can be part of that, but you’re just one of many. Here, there is a sense that all goals can be achieved if you put your mind to it.”

In Miami, doctors, lawyers, artists, and businesspeople of all kinds are achieving career milestones that less than a decade ago seemed impossible. The idea of working where others vacation is no longer a pipe dream but instead a reality as Miami morphs into the city that Schiffman hoped it could be back when he was a college student. “My practice is growing at a phenomenal pace, I met the love of my life, and I’m on the water nearly every weekend,” he says. “It’s a pretty nice life.”

Which basically proves if you can make it here, you don’t need to make it anywhere else.

Happy Thursday All!

We wanted to just remind everyone that movement and dance are spaces that allow us to not only express ourselves but come together to create space between one another and create joy within that space! Be sure to applaud and celebrate the organizations and individuals who are holding this spaces.

The article below was shared from the Miami New Times.

THE 14TH-ANNUAL MIAMI SALSA CONGRESS PROVES “SALSA IS STILL KICKING BUTT”

As founder of one of Miami’s most popular Latin dance studios, Rene Gueits just might be the Magic City’s number-one salsa lover. But in 2001, Gueits took his pasión del ritmo and his dance company Salsa Lovers to another level by kicking off the Miami Salsa Congress.

“I attended the first congress in Puerto Rico in 1997,” Gueits recalls. “I was invited to teach Miami-style casino/Miami-style rueda around the world. I was in Holland with Albert Torres [coproducer of the global salsa congresses]. I told him I wanted to do the first Miami congress, and I asked him to help me out.”

One year into the new millennium, Gueits, Torres, and like-minded dancers from el mundo entero congaed their way to the 305 for the inaugural Miami Salsa Congress. Fourteen years later, MSC is still rumbiando its way through the city.

And for 2015, the five-day pachanga will take over the Deauville Beach Resort from July 29 to August 2 with 120 hours of nonstop rueda y son action, including dance workshops, tribute concerts to Cheo Feliciano and other salsa giants, a Club Mystique reunion, and a performance by legendary salsero Willie Rosario y Su Orquesta.

Salsa may be one of the first things that come to mind when people think of Miami, but as Gueits points out, with the number of salsa congresses that go down around the world, it’s obvious that el baile is a global phenomenon.

“There are [salsa congresses] in Bulgaria, South Africa, Sweden, Rome, Norway, Japan — it’s huge in India, Dubai, and Turkey,” he explains. “It has grown. After the salsa congress in Puerto Rico [in 1997], they started moving them around. Let’s say someone from Israel came to the conference; they would bring it to their city.”

Gueits credits the globalization of salsa (aside from its catchy beats and mesmerizing hip action) to Cuba’s Communist regime and the thousands of citizens who fled the island in search of political asylum: “There are a lot of Cubans who live in Europe. Since then, salsa started growing. It’s an explosion.”

The aforementioned Willie Rosario, who turned a sprightly 85 years old last month and will celebrate a half-century of música at this year’s MSC, has a different take on salsa’s expansion.

“The word ‘salsa’ is like an umbrella,” the timbales maestro explains. “It carries many rhythms. For instance, I used to play [different variations of salsa like] guaguancó, guaracha — those were classified individually, but they all originated in Cuba and fall under salsa. It’s one of those rhythms that are known all over the world.

“The question of change,” he continues, “there hasn’t been much. In [the mid- to late-’80s], there was romantic salsa — those, like Gilberto Santa Rosa and Rey Ruiz, who emerged from an orchestra as a soloist — but there isn’t much of a difference because the rhythm and percussion is the same.”

While Rosario believes salsa’s permanence has a lot to do with its commitment to el ritmo, he looks at the past to really understand its international reach.

“The Fania All-Stars helped a lot,” he says, “but in the era of mambo — which falls under that umbrella of salsa — Americans knew a lot about it. There was a famous club in New York, the Palladium. A lot of movie stars, like Marlon Brando, would all go there to see mambo,” thus turning it into a global trend, one that has never gone out of style.

But Gueits’ mission isn’t to find a textbook explanation for salsa’s global influence. Instead, his purpose is to keep salsa alive in the Magic City para la gente.

“People like ourselves who live in Miami, we take being Latin for granted,” he admits. “In Europe, they all wanna be Latino. At the congress, you’ll see a lot of Europeans wearing their guayaberas. We take salsa for granted. But salsa is very big. It’s a multibillion-dollar business.”

More than about el dinero, though, the MSC “is so much about keeping a culture alive,” Gueits says.

“Salsa is still kicking butt,” he laughs. “When I was a little kid, I used to dance at my family’s parties. They would put on Celia Cruz, El Gran Combo [de Puerto Rico], Willy Chirino — that’s always stayed in my blood. I have a passion for it. I’m keeping it alive.”

The 14th-Annual Miami Salsa Congress. Produced by Salsa Lovers. Wednesday through Sunday, July 29 through August 2, at the Deauville Beach Resort, 6701 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; 305-865-8511;deauvillebeachresortmiami.com. Weekend party, workshop, and full-day passes cost $85 to $320 plus fees. Visit miamisalsacongress.com.

Hi Everyone, We love to create awareness around art that creates a platform for us to both celebrate the diversity in our community and the history and those that create new options and places & spaces for us all to come together

 

This article is Shared from Miami New Times:

Cuba Out of Cuba: Through the lens of Alexis Rodriguez-Duarte in collaboration with Tico Torres

Few cities embody the American dream like Miami. For decades, Cubans seeking refuge have made Miami their own, leaving a lasting legacy enriched with culture from their homeland. A new exhibit at MDC Museum of Art + Design celebrates the nostalgia, success, and triumph of this singular immigrant experience. “Cuba Out of Cuba: Through the Lens of Alexis Rodriguez-Duarte in Collaboration With Tico Torres” inaugurates the new Cultural Legacy Gallery, a permanent space dedicated to the impact of Cuban culture on South Florida and throughout the world, housed at the National Historic Landmark Freedom Tower at Miami Dade College (600 Biscayne Blvd., Miami). The exhibit features iconic photographs of Cuban figures living away from the island, from performers and designers to writers and artists. “Cuba Out of Cuba” was shot over the past 20 years in Miami, New York, London, Paris, Florence, Venice, and Los Angeles. The photos and keepsakes highlight the legacies of Celia Cruz, Bebo Valdés, Gloria Estefan, Cristina Saralegui, Andy Garcia, Cundo Bermudez, Nilo Cruz, and Paquito D’Rivera, among other Cubans who have culturally influenced generations. “Cuba Out of Cuba” will be on display through August 30, 2015.

 

Museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free, but donations are accepted. Call 305-237-7700 or visit mdcmoad.org.

Where to Be: Here at InTheLoop, we know there are always places to be and events to attend. Each Friday, we feature a special “where to be” post on our blog to make sure every day of the week has some sort of cultural event to check out. We hope that you all can come out into the community and learn and commemorate some influential people and events around Miami!

Swashbucklin Swing Dance 7/17/15

 

National Ice Cream Day at Concrete Beach Brewery 7/19/15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trivial Poursuit at Concrete Beach Brewery 7/23/15

There is an indelible struggle between city developers trying to develop, modernize, and raise the value of property and residents of these areas seek to maintain reasonable housing prices. The new Miami Worldcenter has received approval for a prelimenary funding of $1.7 billion. However there is a lot of negative response by residents–including jobs going to workers outside the neighborhood and city and rising property values. In an article by Ben Kennedy, more is explained about the benefits and negatives in the proposed Worldcenter.

Overtown residents voice concern over Miami Worldcenter

The Miami Worldcenter is one step closer to becoming a reality after Miami-Dade County commissioners gave the $1.7 billion project preliminary approval.

Overtown residents packed the Miami-Dade County government center Tuesday morning to voice their concerns with the project.

The nearly $2 billion project will transform the Magic City and connect Museum Park to the proposed downtown train station, 1 million square feet of retail space, new hotels and condominiums.

“It’s hard for people in the communities where these developments are happening to have more of a say,” said Phillip Agnew.

The commission will vote Tuesday on the community development district.

“It means that we are allowing the developer to charge the people that are going to be part of the development, whoever is renting it, etc. to have an extra fee so that they can pay for infrastructure,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez. “Today, Miami-Dade County is not giving any tax dollars to this developer.”

The project is set to create 20,000 construction jobs and thousands of full-time work.

Some residents want developers to lock down competitive wages that can sustain people in their community.

“What we want is in the contract that the permanent jobs will have quality wages and that they will be able to unionize,” said Agnew.

Jay Massirman has been in real estate for 30 years.

Starting in 1986, Massirman worked as a commercial broker at CBRE. Then, in 2008, when he saw a market ripe with opportunity, he became an investor and developer. His first focus was on fractured condo and single-family projects that went belly-up during the financial crisis.

His development firm, Rivergate Companies, today focuses on multifamily projects and building urban infill self-storage facilities. With partners Stephen Garchik and Steve McBride, Massirman runs Miami City Self Storage. The company has snapped up six plots of land across Miami-Dade County in the last two years for about $12 million.

Massirman has also formed a partnership with KW Property Management and Consulting to manage multifamily and commercial properties in Florida and North Carolina.

A big believer in the promise of technology to enhance real-estate development, Massirman has experimented with crowdfunding a rental project in Orlando. He answered questions from the Miami Herald on the future of his companies and South Florida’s real-estate market via email. Here is an interview by the Miami Herald’s Nicholas Nehamas. Article here. 

Q: What trends led you to believe that self-storage would be a good investment in Miami? What are your future plans for that area?

A: Having developed storage in the previous cycle, the timing felt right. My partners Steve Garchik and Steve McBride, veteran storage developers from D.C. and NYC, got together in early 2013 to form a joint venture to build urban infill, high-end self-storage facilities. We found that little self-storage building had taken place in the last 10 years. With the continued growth and expansion of South Florida, it was the opportune time to ramp up our self-storage effort. Currently, we have five deals under construction and 13 deals in process. Our plans are to build out the South Florida market with the best sites we can acquire. Our leading-edge designs have been favorably accepted by most municipalities we have targeted. We are in active discussions to scale our footprint beyond South Florida.

Q: You’ve expressed interest in crowdfunding real-estate developments. How successful has that innovation been?

A: We crowdfunded an apartment community in Orlando with EarlyShares and got a very strong reception from investors. I believe crowdfunding will continue to gain market acceptance for raising capital from both accredited and non-accredited investors. We will continue to explore this emerging marketplace.

Q: Genting has been extremely quiet about its plans for the old Miami Herald site. What do you think is the best use for that land?

A: The Genting land is located in the epicenter of Miami at the confluence of downtown, Edgewater and Miami Beach. The original plan was oriented toward gambling, but its timeline regarding legalization is unknown. I am sure they are working on the strategic plan for their holdings, which could encompass a resort, office, hospitality, condos, retail and beyond. The challenge will be how to integrate this into the competitive landscape with Worldcenter, Midtown, Design District, Brickell City Centre, to name a few.

Q: Where do you think we are in the current real-estate cycle?

A: The South Florida market has been at full tilt since the market reignited in 2010. First, it was the distress wave, which lasted a couple of years morphing into a robust development market for condominiums and luxury rental communities, which is reaching peak levels. Acquisitions are getting pretty tight due to cap rate compression. Current trends in development include mixed-use, urban infill development and high-street retail. It feels like we are in mid-cycle, and the fear of a rise in interest rates is looming. That said, we are truly a unique economy driven by international focus, the emerging tech industry, port expansion, convention center expansion and airport expansion, to name a few major infrastructure projects. Include the arts, professional sports, gentrifying urban markets, and it all spells a very exciting time to be a part of the globalization of Miami.

Q: What under-exposed neighborhoods should developers be targeting next? What kind of developments does Miami need more of?

A: We have seen frantic activity in Wynwood, Little River, downtown Miami, Miami River and Edgewater. I think sticking to these markets and looking for second-generation and backfill opportunities will be a viable strategy. We are in the process of rolling out a platform to explore these opportunities.

Q: Miami is one of the most expensive cities in the country for renters. Why are rents so high compared to incomes? And what can be done to help address this problem?

A: The main factors involved here are high land values, availability of prime sites for rental and construction costs. Couple that with the fact the condo developers have paid a premium on a per-unit basis for land and that we have seen a “land rush” in the last few years — it complicates matters. This makes building affordable rentals virtually out of reach. The affordable housing developers in town just can’t get enough tax credits allocated to meet the rising demand. Affordability is a significant issue in Miami-Dade County. There is a growing need for affordable, clean, safe housing for the people that make our economy function, including teachers, firefighters, police, restaurant, clerical, government, hospitality, retail and domestic workers as an example. These individuals make up the fabric of our economy, and it is a struggle for them to build savings when over half of their earnings goes to rent. Solutions include creating more workforce housing just outside the urban core on less expensive land. These projects will need subsidies to get the numbers to work inclusive of: tax-exempt bond financing, increased allocation of tax credits to urban Miami-Dade County, streamlining of the HUD 221-d4 program, and tax-increment financing, for instance.

Q: Why did you see an opportunity in property management, and where have you directed your resources? How pleased are you with the new venture?

A: Rivergate Management started as a multifamily acquisition platform for its own assets, as well as third-party industry relationships in 2008. In early 2013, I was introduced to Robert White and Paul Kaplan, both CPAs and the founders of KW Property Management & Consulting. In just 10 years, they have built their condo-management business to 60,000 + units and are one of the leading service providers in that industry. They laid out their vision to duplicate their success on the rental side of the business, and Rivergate | KW Management was conceived as a separate entity. Currently, Rivergate | KW Management has close to 10,000 units in the management pipeline, including 2 million square feet of commercial. Our resources are focused on hiring the best people in the business to grow this company into an industry leader. I am very fortunate to have great partners in all of my entities.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/biz-monday/article26934190.html#storylink=cpy

Where to Be: Here at InTheLoop, we know there are always places to be and events to attend. Each Friday, we feature a special “where to be” post on our blog to make sure every day of the week has some sort of cultural event to check out. We hope that you all can come out into the community and learn and commemorate some influential people and events around Miami!

Friday, July 10th

Environmental Impact Film Festival at Colony1 Wynwood 

Saturday, July 11th

Learn about nutrition with Short Chef 

11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Sunday, July 12th

8th Annual Miami Takeover 2015

Monday, July 14th

MAMP Labs Workshop

Tuesday, July 15th

A Taste of Haiti at NSU Art Museum Cafe 7/15/15

Wednesday, July 16th

“Starry Nights” at NSU Art Museum 

Thursday, July 17th

U.S. Brazil Chamber of Commerce Business Breakfast

Date/Time: 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay Hotel
1633 N. Bayshore Drive
Miami, FL 33132

Contact Person: info@multiculturaltourism.com

Phone Number: 954-792-2579

http://www.multiculturaltourismsummit.com/