The Wells Fargo Center’s builder MDM Development made news last week
when it broke up a street median to create road access to its high-rise
office tower, doing so without a permit. Next, it poured asphalt to
smooth the way. Now, the city may cite the company for working without a
permit. Akerman Senterfitt attorney Javier Fernandez, who represents
nearby Wachovia Financial Center in the matter, said he was trying to
determine whether the city had cited MDM for the work. MDM had yet to
respond to a request for comment. [SFBJ]

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From left: Eric Rapkin of Akerman Senterfitt and Michael Silver of CB Richard Ellis, who will serve as the president and president elect of NAOI’s South Florida Chapter

The South Florida Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, commonly known as NAOIP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, has announced its 2010 officers and directors. Eric Rapkin, a shareholder at the law firm Akerman Senterfitt, will serve as president; Michael Silver of CB Richard Ellis will serve as president elect. Click here for the full list of 2010 leaders. TRD [more]

South Florida expert panel from left: Ron Kriss of Akerman Senterfitt;
Bill Yahn from the Corcoran Group; Cynthia Shelton, president of
Florida Realtors; Jack McCabe, CEO of McCabe Research and Consulting;
Jay Massirman of Rivergate Companies

Most of South Florida’s real estate industry won’t be sorry to say goodbye to 2009 tonight. Once-ambitious developers saw their empty condos sold in bulk at deep discounts and unloaded incomplete projects in foreclosure auctions or deeds in lieu of foreclosure. Caving under the weight of their troubled commercial real estate portfolios, regional banks failed by the dozens. The indefatigable flood of residential foreclosures bestowed the courts with an unmanageable case load, clogging the system. For homeowners who managed to stay current on their mortgage payments, toxic Chinese drywall rendered many of their properties both dangerous and worthless.

But as the handful of hours left in this tumultuous year for real estate wind down, many are wondering whether 2010 will be any better. The Real Deal turned to a panel of South Florida real estate experts to find out what they’re predicting for 2010. [more]

The Miami city commission’s decision last week to put on hold a major overhaul of the city’s zoning code called Miami 21 has some in the development community scratching their heads.

It’s unclear what the extra 90 days called for to review a plan that was in the making for years could achieve. But most agree it adds another level of uncertainty to an already distressed building market.

Even so, Ashley Bosch, a developer and managing director of the Blok Group, thinks delaying the implementation of the new code to ensure it works in the “real world” makes sense. He owns a parcel he’s waiting to develop, in part, because of the uncertainty with Miami 21.

“We need to merge the practical and reasonable while trying to keep the integrity of what they’re trying to do,” Bosch said.

At last week’s city commission meeting, Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado requested the delay for implementing Miami 21 to get added public input. The rezoning plan was set to go into effect Feb. 19. He said publicly he doesn’t plan to scrap the new code that he opposed as a Miami commissioner before he was elected mayor in November.

But some proponents of the plan, which was approved in October, fear the mayor is behind the delay. [more]

Jorge Perez’s crown jewel development, the three-tower Icon Brickell luxury condominium and hotel complex in Miami that has floundered financially amid South Florida’s market collapse, will be turned over to its lenders. Perez, head of prominent development firm the Related Group, is nearing the end of negotiations with a lending consortium led by HSBC Holdings and Bank of America, making the project perhaps the highest profile foreclosure in the area. Perez is angling to retain the job of managing the complex, but neither party offered more details. Ron Kriss, chairman of the distressed-property group at the Akerman Senterfitt law firm in Miami, said 2010 will have plenty of prominent and sizable foreclosures as developers and lenders struggle with the glut of 22,000 unoccupied condos in the city. [WSJ]