Miami city commissioners unanimously approved a plan that tentatively saves three historic University of Miami buildings, the Miami Herald reported. The Rehearsal Center, Arnold Volpe Music Building and Bertha Foster Memorial Music Building had been scheduled for demolition until the University of Miami’s University Campus District Master Plan was changed to include two additional buildings, which preserve the historic structures. [more]

Equity Group Chairman Sam Zell

The key to a strong real estate market in Miami going forward is not predicated on sifting through foreclosures or limiting over development, but instead, it is dependent on creating a well-educated, highly skilled workforce, Equity Group Chairman Sam Zell said as the keynote speaker at the University of Miami’s Real Estate Impact Conference, the Miami Herald reported. [more]

The UMLSTP

Developer Wexford, which built the recently-opened University of Miami Life Science and Technology Park in downtown Miami, has won approval from the Miami-Dade County Commission to build a hotel near the University of Miami’s medical school campus. The hotel would have 225 rooms and 18 stories, along with a 184,000-square-foot conference center. The hotel was among the potential developments predicted last year by Bill Hunter, leasing manager for Wexford at the UMLSTP in the burgeoning Health District. The commission has approved a $90 million bond for the hotel project. [SFBJ] [more]

UM President Donna Shalala

Donna Shalala is in her 10th year as president of the University of Miami, following eight years as United States Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton. In recent months, she has had to deal with a high-profile improper benefits scandal involving the school’s football team, which is still without resolution (and indeed had an indirect connection to real estate. Shalala was on hand last week to open the UM Life Science and Technology Park, developer Wexford’s biotech hub in downtown Miami in which UM is the single-largest tenant. The Real Deal talked to Shalala about the opening of the park, the role the university plays in developing Miami and the performance of new football coach Al Golden. [more]

Above: the University of Miami Life Science and Technology Park

The University of Miami Life Science and Technology Park opened officially at a ceremony this morning, marking the centerpiece of what could be a major biotech center in South Florida. Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado and University of Miami President Donna Shalala were on hand to officially open the building. The completed first phase has a total of 252,000 square feet and is part of a five-building project that could be the largest building of its kind in South Florida at 2 million square feet. [more]

UM Life Science & Technology Park and Jones Lang LaSalle’s Richard SchuchtsThe University of Miami’s Life Science & Technology Park signed Advanced Pharma CR to a 20,000 square foot lease, bringing the complex past 60 percent occupancy.

Advanced Pharma does clinical research and testing and handles studies for various medical firms. The company plans to have 50 to 100 employees operating out of the park.

A Jones Lang LaSalle team led by Richard Schuchts represented the developer, Wexford Science & Technology, while Advanced Pharma was represented by Jorge Morales and Jeff Sharmat, also of Jones Lang LaSalle. [more]

The University of Miami scandal that has shocked the football world began with the Miami real estate bust. Booster Nevin Shapiro, who testified that he had broke NCAA violations by providing unlawful benefits to athletes for nearly 10 years, pleaded guilty in 2010 to running a Ponzi scheme. Shapiro turned to fraud when his real estate business collapsed. The scandal could cost UM its football program. “I was the fastest guy in the fastest town,” Shapiro told Yahoo! Sports. [Yahoo! Sports]
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Eater Miami has confirmed that Shake Shack will be heading to a Coral Gables location across US-1 from the University of Miami at 1450 South Dixie Highway. It is set to open in 2012. The restaurant currently houses barbecue restaurant Smoke’t. “Here the clientele would be undergrades,” said David Swinghamer, partner of Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer. “You’d want something that said something about ice cold beer.” [NYT via Eater]
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[Updated at 4.40 p.m.] Howard Lorber, CEO of South Florida-based Vector Group and chairman of New York brokerage Prudential Douglas Elliman, has been ranked South Florida’s highest paid CEO, with a yearly salary of $6 million plus bonuses, according to research carried out by the South Florida Business Journal.

Vector Group is famous in the tobacco industry for producing the Ligget brand of cigarettes, but is also involved in real estate through its New Valley subsidiary. New Valley has a 50 percent ownership interest in Douglas Elliman Realty, which operates the largest residential real estate brokerage company in the New York metropolitan area. New Valley also has real estate holdings in California, according to Vector’s website. [more]

The mayor of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea is looking to change the face of the city, and has asked a group of University of Miami design students to offer proposals for bringing new life to the town’s main thoroughfares. “The next step is really putting some solid numbers on this and putting it into our capital improvement budget,” said Mayor Roseann Minnet. “I would hope we could implement some of these things within the next 12 to 18 months.” See more in the video above. [Sun Sentinel] [more]