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mh88 BEACH REHAB INVESTMENT QUADRUPLES 10/09/1988
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1988, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, October 9, 1988 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 3 LENGTH: 66 lines
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: LIZETTE ALVAREZ Herald Staff Writer
BEACH REHAB INVESTMENT QUADRUPLES
The amount of money spent on commercial rehabilitation in Miami Beach more
than quadrupled in the past 12 months, with two-thirds of the improvements
taking place on South Beach, according to a report by the city building
department.
In the 12-month period ending in September, $41,578,000 was spent on
rehabilitating small commercial buildings. The figure for the previous 12
months was $9,742,000.
"It shows tremendous amount of growth in the area, " said Paul Gioia,
director of the building department. "South Beach is coming back. People are
realizing that our island is the single most valuable piece of property in the
world. "
Three years ago, investors considered it foolhardy to renovate hotels or
open stores and restaurants on South Beach, Gioia said. But in the past year,
a number of restaurants have opened their doors, including McDonald's on
Lincoln Road.
Other new clubs and restaurants include Lucky's at the Park Central
Hotel, Scratch at Fifth Street and Jefferson Avenue, Woody's On The Beach on
Ocean Drive and DiPietro's on Lincoln Road.
The commercial figures do not include projects costing more than $4
million. These include the Cobb Partners' plan to construct townhouses at
South Pointe and the ANA project, a $30 million hotel on the 3300 block of
Collins Avenue.
Gioia said they were left out of the statistics because
dollars brought in by such large-scale projects tend to skew the numbers. The
amount of money spent on small commercial buildings is a truer indication of
turnaround, he said.
At the same time, money spent on rehabilitating residential buildings has
decreased by 10 percent since last year, from $8.7 million to $7.9 million.
Money spent on multifamily buildings decreased by 30 percent, from $14.8
million to $10.3 million.
Gioia said the decrease indicates that there are fewer properties
available to renovate.
"When it decreases to the point where we do nothing, we've completed the
task, " he said.
Real estate analyst Tom Powers, executive vice president of Goodkin
Research Corp. , a real estate consulting firm, said the commercial increase
comes as no surprise.
"You ain't seen nothing yet. This is only the tip of the iceberg," Powers
said. "More players will move in to take advantage now. You'll see not only
more and more in terms of value, but in creativity as well."
Powers said that once the big investors, such as Cobb, expressed interest
in the area, the smaller investors were sure to follow.