The Miami mayor’s race is a muddled mess.
Early voting is in full swing for Miami’s Nov. 4 election, and 13 candidates are sprinting across the city to drum up support in one of the most wide-open races in more than decade.
The contenders feature seven relative newcomers to Miami’s political scene, and six veterans of the city’s cutthroat election cycles. Major players in the real estate industry are primarily lining up behind Miami city commissioner Joe Carollo and Miami-Dade County commissioner Eileen Higgins. But a few prominent developers and investors are throwing their support to ex-Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, ex-Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez and former city commissioners Ken Russell and Alex Diaz de la Portilla.
Yet, Carollo, Higgins, Gonzalez, Suarez, Russell and Diaz de la Portilla have not proffered any groundbreaking initiatives on the real estate front, aside from the usual promises to increase affordable and workforce housing in a city that ranks high in terms of home prices and rental rates.
Here’s a breakdown of each of their track records and positions on major real estate issues:
- Higgins, whose county commission district includes downtown Miami, Brickell and Little Havana, is resigning her seat to run for mayor. She enjoys support from a formidable swath of developers whose projects she’s championed in her district, taking credit for 7,000 completed or planned affordable and workforce housing units in her district. Projects Higgins has touted include Magnus Brickell, a 465-unit mixed-income apartment building developed by the Related Group. She successfully passed legislation to speed up construction of seawalls and bulkheads on private properties, by requiring permits to be reviewed and issued within 90 days, expanding administrative approvals and providing incentives for property owners and developers who use nature-based alternatives such as mangroves.
- Despite receiving financial support from prominent real estate developers and investors, Carollo has also had run-ins with the industry. In 2022, he supported a proposal to eliminate a city incentive for projects near transit stations and stops to reduce on-site parking requirements. At the time, Carollo told the Miami Herald that the parking breaks were only beneficial to developers looking to maximize their profits. The proposal ultimately went nowhere. A year later, a Miami federal jury hit Carollo with a $63 million verdict after finding him guilty of violating the civil rights of Little Havana developers Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla by orchestrating a code enforcement crackdown on their properties and businesses.
- Gonzalez, who was city manager from 2018 to 2020, successfully sued the city to restore the November election after the Miami City Commission voted to postpone it until next year. Gonzalez has built a formidable campaign war chest despite having little support from well-known real estate titans. Still, his Mission Miami political action committee scored $20,000 in contributions from entities tied to Little Havana developers Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla. A MAGA-aligned Republican who has won Gov. Ron DeSantis’ endorsement, Gonzalez is following the governor’s lead by promising to eliminate real estate property taxes on homesteaded properties.
- Russell resigned his District 2 Miami City Commission seat in 2022 after his second unsuccessful run for Congress. During his time in office, Russell was repeatedly the odd man out, as his colleagues often rejected his legislative initiatives, including his attempt to revamp Coconut Grove’s city code to curtail teardowns of old homes by developers.
- Suarez, whose last win for the mayor’s seat in 1997 was overturned due to voter fraud, is mounting a longshot comeback bid after a stint as county commissioner from 2011 to 2020. Aside from pointing to affordable housing projects built during his tenure at the county, Suarez backs a proposal to increase tax breaks for homesteaded properties in Miami. Suarez is also the father of the current mayor, Francis Suarez, who hasn’t formally endorsed any candidates, including his dad.
- Diaz de la Portilla has garnered almost no support from the real estate industry, except for a $100,000 donation to his political action committee by Miami Beach power couple and real estate investors David and Leila Centner. Diaz de la Portilla’s time on the city commission was cut short in 2023 when he was criminally charged for money laundering and bribery. The charges stemmed from contributions tied to the Centners, allegedly provided in exchange for his steering a no-bid deal for a city park to a trust managed by the couple. The Centners were not targets of the probe, and last year state prosecutors dropped the case against Diaz de la Portilla.
What we’re thinking about: Will 3-D printed homes become common in South Florida? Send me a note at [email protected].
CLOSING TIME
Residential: Investor Edmond Harbour purchased his neighbors’ teardown at 1821 West 27th Street on the Sunset Islands for $34 million. Dr. Mark Jaffe and Patricia Jaffe sold the Miami Beach property.
Commercial: Boston-based TA Realty paid $193 million for the garden-style, 476-unit apartment complex at 100 Portofino Drive in Palm Beach Gardens. New York-based Blackstone sold the property to TA Realty, which had owned the property before selling it to Blackstone in 2017 for $103.6 million.
— Research by Mary Diduch
NEW TO THE MARKET
The 4-acre waterfront property at 820 Jamaica Lane in Naples hit the market for nearly $90 million. The assemblage has 858 feet of contiguous water frontage along a deepwater canal and Naples Bay. It’s listed with Michael McCumber of Waterfront Realty Group.
A thing we’ve learned: Developers have proposed 143 projects with 43,400 units under the state’s Live Local Act workforce housing legislation since its inception, research from the nonprofit Florida Housing Coalition shows. Nearly 3,200 apartments have been completed.
Elsewhere in Florida
- A Palm Beach board approved plans for a new, larger helipad at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, replacing the one built during his presidency and later removed in 2021, the Palm Beach Daily News reports. The new 60-foot pad will include a walkway and recessed safety lighting.
- Lionel Messi signed a three-year contract with Inter Miami through 2028, as the club prepares to move into its new Miami Freedom Park stadium next year, according to NBC News.
- Gov. Ron DeSantis announced nearly $1 billion in rebates for Florida customers of Progressive Auto Insurance, averaging about $300 per policyholder. DeSantis did not specify when the rebates would be distributed, but he said he hopes to arrange similar rebates with other insurers, the Herald-Tribune reports.
— Katherine Kallergis
