The real estate industry rallied behind Eileen Higgins, who was elected to be Miami’s next mayor in last week’s runoff election.
Higgins’ win was a major upset for the Democrats. She is the first female mayor of Miami and the first Democrat in the position since 1997. The former Miami-Dade County commissioner was running against ex-City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, who scored President Donald Trump’s endorsement. Higgins is also taking over from Republican Francis Suarez, a longtime favorite among developers and brokers, who has been mayor of Miami since 2017 and who helped push through major projects, including the Miami Freedom Park mixed-use stadium development.
Higgins and Gonzalez both promised to fix the city’s ineffective permitting process, improve housing affordability and clean up corruption at City Hall.
But Higgins has a track record with developers. As a county commissioner, she approved projects with nearly 7,000 affordable and workforce housing units.
She also raised nearly 10 times more campaign donations from real estate professionals, corporations and land use attorneys than Gonzalez, according to finance reports for their campaigns released after the Nov. 4 election. The prominent land use law firm Bercow Radell Fernandez Larkin & Tapanes co-hosted a fundraiser for Higgins at Brightline Station in downtown Miami last month, where other hosts named on the invitation included Integra Investments developer Nelson Stabile, Adler Properties CEO Jonathan Raiffe and Florida East Coast Industries’ exec Jose Gonzalez.
Jeff Berkowitz and his wife Yolanda, zoning lawyers Iris Escarra and Melissa Tapanes Llahues, Cervera Real Estate’s Alicia Cervera Lamadrid, land use attorney Anthony De Yurre and more LLCs tied to Integra and Adler also contributed to her campaign.
It’s unknown yet if Higgins will accomplish her campaign promises of building more housing and fixing the permitting process, but developers, brokers, lenders and their attorneys will be watching.
What we’re thinking about: At the Sunny Isles condo association meeting last week, someone tried to block people from entering and then ripped up ballots. (We have the footage.) Have you witnessed anything like this at your condo building? Send me a note at [email protected].
CLOSING TIME
Residential: In Palm Beach, a trust sold the 8,400-square-foot mansion at 5 Via Sunny for $30 million to an LLC named after the address.
Commercial: Boston-based AEW Capital Management offloaded an office property at 169 Coral Way, known as the Ryder Colonnade, in Coral Gables for $70.4 million. The buyer was Crescent Real Estate, based in Fort Worth, Texas.
— Research by Mary Diduch
NEW TO THE MARKET
WeatherTech founder David MacNeil is looking to sell the 3.5-acre waterfront property at 1120 South Ocean Boulevard in Manalapan. Margit Brandt of Premier Estate Properties is the listing agent. The site, asking $125 million, has 342 feet of ocean frontage. MacNeil’s Whiskey Tango 1120 LLC paid $38.5 million for a portion of the property in 2024, and $55.5 million for the rest earlier this year.
A couple of things we’ve learned, resi deals edition…
These deals didn’t make it into our coverage this week, but they involved some interesting players. If you know of any that should be featured, send me an email.
- Trial lawyer Stephen Zack sold his eight-bedroom, nine-bathroom and two-half bathroom unit on the 54th floor of the Four Seasons condo-hotel at 1425 and 1435 Brickell Avenue to a land trust. The trust is owned by Santo Politi, co-founder of Spark Capital, and Eleanor Gray. The trust paid $9 million for the unit, in a deal brokered by Compass’ Audrey Ross and Douglas Elliman’s Devin Kay.
- Fund manager Peter Hochfelder, president of the La Gorce Country Club, paid $9 million for the non-waterfront home at 450 West 62nd Street in Miami Beach. Nelson Gonzalez with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty represented the seller, Priority Payments Local CEO Sal Didonato, while Compass’ Chad Carroll brought the buyer. Hochfelder is moving from his Park Grove condo in Coconut Grove.
Elsewhere in Florida
- Florida cut nearly 20 percent of its environmental protection jobs and reduced environmental spending by 7 percent over the past 15 years, the most of any state, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The cuts, enacted under governors Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis, come as climate threats intensify.
- Florida health officials moved to drop four school vaccine requirements without legislative or gubernatorial approval, the Miami Herald reports. It advances Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo’s push to end vaccine mandates.
Most Citizens Property Insurance customers could see lower premiums next year. South Florida homeowners would see the biggest drops, with more than three-quarters of policyholders in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties facing proposed cuts of roughly 12 to 13 percent, according to the Sun Sentinel.
