Urban Land
September 2008
Urban Land delves into the issues facing Southeast Florida and Latin America, in advance of the 2008 ULI Fall Meeting and Urban Land Expo and the Latin America Conference.
Feature Article
Southeast Florida: A Preview of America’s Future
by
Jean Scott
Consistent with its role as an international gateway, southeast Florida is becoming more diverse, and early signs indicate that its population might be getting younger as the region changes from a destination for seniors to one for families and young professionals from all points of the globe.
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In This Issue
- A Bioscience Boom
The opening of five major new research institutes in south Florida is unprecedented in state history. - A Cautionary Tale
Instead of incentives to promote the redevelopment of key commercial corridors, Miami Beach has approved an ever-expanding list of development restrictions, thus effectively preventing the revitalization of these areas. - An Urban Workout and Renewal, Powered by Design
Today, the Miami Design District has nearly 200 showrooms, art galleries, high-end retailers, and design and architectural firms. - At the Edge of the Everglades
The lessons learned in the south Florida ecosystem can be translated to other regions experiencing rapid growth, declines in natural habitat health, and conflicts among those depending on scarce natural resources. - Avoiding Trouble in Paradise
Although the island governments in the Caribbean are stable, each administration has its own laws and guidelines for a number of topics important to developers—ranging from purchase approval for foreigners to labor policies for developers. - Building Better in Latin America
Synergy among developers, designers, governmental agencies, and the private sector can result in communities that nurture the spirit, raise the standard of living, educate the public, and stabilize the economy of the country. - Carbon Offsets: A Real Estate Opportunity
Many in the real estate industry are taking steps to integrate green methods and materials into their developments as a means to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. For most, though, achieving true carbon neutrality is not yet possible. But given the pervasive nature of carbon emissions—regardless of where greenhouse gases are emitted, they have the same negative impact on the atmosphere—any enterprise unable to eliminate emissions from its own endeavors can purchase carbon offsets to help others cut their emissions by the desired amount. - Colombia’s Calling
Colombia, South America, has come a long way from its violent past to become an international player in the tourism market. - Corporate Attraction
A public/private partnership creates a three-pronged approach to encourage companies to relocate to a county in south Florida. - Creating the World’s Next Great Waterfront City
In the past decade, downtown Miami has been the site of more than $13 billion in private development as well as of an unprecedented flow of public investment in transportation projects, cultural venues, and parks. - Daniel Rose Provides $5 Million to Fund ULI Center for Public Leadership in Land Use
Real estate industry leader Daniel Rose has committed $5 million to the creation of the ULI Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership. The mission of the new center will be to empower leaders in the public sector to envision, build, and sustain successful 21st-century communities by providing access to information, best practices, peer networks, and other resources to foster creative, efficient, and sustainable land use practices. - Developers and Local Leaders Work Together to Provide Affordable Housing
In Boynton Beach, Florida, a growing coastal town of 65,000 people located between Boca Raton and Delray Beach in Palm Beach County, an aggressive campaign is being led by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) to make the American dream of owning a home a reality for local people. - Environmental Sensitivity is Key in Design of New Resort for the West Indies
For the first time in a century, West Caicos, an uninhabited, undeveloped island in the Turks and Caicos Islands in the West Indies, is allowing settlement on its shores. - Exploring the Power of the Ocean
The Gulf Stream’s unique features make it an exceptional national resource for research and testing of hydrokinetic power to determine whether this form of energy can be tapped for use while protecting the environment. - Green Protocol Signed by U.S. and Brazilian Designers
Representatives from a consortium of U.S. and Brazilian architecture and design organizations in June signed a protocol in Manaus, Brazil, calling for increased cooperation between professionals in each country in the area of green building design. Among those signing the document were Brazil-based professional architecture organizations CONFEA Brasil and CREA Amazonas; the Texas Society of Architects, a state component of the American Institute of Architects; and Orlando, Florida–based Morris Architects, which has offices in both the United States and Brazil. - In Search of New Models for Seniors’ Housing
A national dialogue among developers, designers, and regulators is needed to creatively reconfigure a stale building typology. - Infrastructure and Climate Change
Two new studies suggest that planners need to think more dynamically about the built environment and how to incorporate fuzzy data into their future projections. - Is Florida Over? Hardly
Those declaring Florida dead today should read their history books—the state has been one of the fastest growing in the nation for seven decades, through good times and bad. - Jorge Luis Borges
One of the 20th century’s greatest writers, Borges represented a multidisciplinary sensibility that continues to shape urban discourse in Latin America, showing that it occupies a unique cultural space. - Latin America’s First LEED Gold Building
Mexico, a nation of abundant natural resources and people, also has abundant environmental problems that include massive deforestation, desertification, water shortages, inadequate sewage treatment, and contaminated groundwater and rivers. Rapidly growing Mexico City, in particular, is known for its brown-skies air pollution. - Laying the Groundwork
Among many other initiatives, Miami-Dade County has developed a visionary plan for conserving green and open spaces while connecting communities. - Living at the Water’s Edge
Ten innovative residential developments respond to the unique challenges and opportunities of waterfront environments. - Magnetic South
Because of their size, the amount of available land, their proximity to the United States, and their well-served air corridors from many U.S. locations, the countries of Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic have become the “hot spots” of resort and retirement development in Latin America and the Caribbean. - Master Plan for Niteroi, Brazil
The birthplace of architect Oscar Niemeyer, the city seeks to broaden and strengthen its economic base through key public investments. - Miami Green
A mixed-use tower is designed with a white concrete exoskeleton so it can be more attuned to the climate of this southernmost large U.S. city. - MiMo: Miami’s Authentic DNA
Miami is not a particularly nostalgic city. Just blink and another old building has been demolished to make room for a skyscraper. The 1926 Everglades Building downtown, the 1916 Bliss House in Edgewater, and the 1954 Maule Building on Biscayne Boulevard are just a few of the structures that became memories for picture books over the past five years. - Minneapolis Skyway Displays Public Art as Part of the City’s 150th Anniversary Celebration
For the first time in Minneapolis history, one of the city’s famous skyways has become a site for public art. Artist Nancy Ann Coyne’s 150-foot- (46-m-) long photographic installation Speaking of Home is intended to inspire fresh appreciation for the ubiquitous urban bridges while focusing on the increasingly diverse mix of people who use them. - Neisen Kasdin
Neisen Kasdin is high on Miami Beach and its artistic and cultural venues, which he helped cultivate during his tenure as mayor. - New Directions in Florida Growth Management
The state must encourage and promote compact, mixed-use, higher-density developments in appropriate locations; urban infill and redevelopment; multimodal transportation plans, including more walkable and bikable community design; and transit-oriented development. - On the Edge
From the perspective of most U.S residents, Florida could be said to be on the edge. Extending farther southeast than any other state and largely surrounded by water, geographically, it juts out toward foreign territory. Historically, it has attracted people looking to escape the everyday in their lives—from the families who have flocked annually to its theme parks and beaches to the retirees who have sought a different milieu in their later years. - Repairing Pensacola’s Fragile Ecosystem
Landscaping work at the Pensacola Naval Air Station (NAS) in Pensacola, Florida, will involve not only addressing damage from Hurricane Ivan three years ago and planning for nature trails along protected wetlands, but also preserving a 16th-century shipwreck and constructing nesting platforms for ospreys. - R&R in Unlikely Places
Resort development has begun to take hold in new areas, including Nicaragua, South Korea, and China. - Rural Land Stewardship
An innovative planning protocol rewards landowners for conserving and managing environmentally important lands while enabling the creation of self-sustaining communities in appropriate locations. - Sheridan Station Designed as Transit Village for Broward County, Florida
It began in 2003 with a request for proposals from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to redevelop its Tri-Rail park-and-ride lot in Hollywood as a transit-oriented development (TOD). Miami’s Pinnacle Housing Group, a workforce housing developer, got the nod with a plan for 450 affordable apartments and a charter school. - South Florida’s Housing Woes
Housing will continue to suffer in the short term due to excessive supply, but over the long term, demographic forces will cause the empty homes to fill up. - Southeast Florida’s Long-Term Economic Global Investment Climate Remains Positive
The fundamentals of Florida’s economy are sound, and the business environment is regularly ranked by site selectors as among the top ten states in the nation. - The Aventura Story
In three decades, Don Soffer transformed 785 acres of swampland between Miami and Fort Lauderdale into an incorporated city that continues to reflect his tastes and values. - The Coming Regulatory Escalation
A review of potential regulatory escalation as well as a few basic investment lessons and challenges ahead. - The Escalating Cost of Coastal Home Insurance
Industry groups insist that modernized modeling methods—which factor in warming sea surfaces—indicate that premiums collected from catastrophe zones in many cases are not going to cover insurers’ expected wind damage exposure over the next few years. - The Green Quotient: Q&A with Thomas L. Friedman
Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times columnist, is the author of best-selling books like The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century. His newest book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America, explains how a green revolution can reinvent America in our age of climate change, global economic competition, and soaring worldwide population. A three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Friedman is outspoken and occasionally controversial, but he offers keen insights into today’s world and gives specific recommendations on how to create a more prosperous and satisfying future. - The Infrastructure Investment Opportunity
In this quadrennial time of political change, the real estate community has a unique opportunity to stake its metaphorical foot in the ground. As many of you know, ULI has for the last two years been making the case for increasing investment in infrastructure as one of its priorities, documenting the decline in maintenance and new construction, and examining the relationship between infrastructure improvements and sustainable communities. The lack of investment in the United States in infrastructure such as transportation and utilities, for example, has caused a substantial decline in the quality of life for its citizens and increasingly has created safety issues. This decline is particularly evident when infrastructure in the United States is compared with that of the global competition, potentially jeopardizing the country’s economic stature and ability to compete. However, surprisingly, given the typical disregard of the issue, the debate about infrastructure has surfaced in the Presidential race this year—presenting an unusual opportunity to make the case from the perspective of the real estate community. - The Power of Creativity
Cognizant of the research on community revitalization through the arts and seeing an example in their own backyard, three cities in Broward County have embraced the concept of culture as an economic stimulus. - The State of Florida’s Housing Market
A realignment of supply and demand will initiate a recovery, beginning in 2010. - Urban Land Cover September 2008
- Urban Land Table of Contents September 2008
- Vacation Ownership on the Rise
While the North American market is exhibiting some softness, the fractional development concept is rapidly spreading to other areas of the Americas. - Welcome to the Epicenter of the Americas
The 2008 ULI Fall Meeting and Urban Land Expo provides an opportunity for leaders from the public and private sectors to collaborate in addressing the exciting challenges of the world’s urban centers in an interactive and informal setting.