A key Miami Beach board approved a glassy condo near the Art Deco-style Raleigh Hotel in Miami Beach after the New York developer agreed to trim the height from 200 feet to 175 feet. The Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board voted to approve plans to restore and renovate the Raleigh and neighboring Richmond and South Seas hotels, in the 1700 block of Collins Avenue. The project is expected to cost $750 million.
(source: miamiherald.com)
by Riccardo Ravasini 
Anticipated population growth has multifamily investors spending more on apartment buildings despite sales volume dropping by 50% for the first half of 2020, compared to the year-ago period, in Miami-Dade and Broward, according to a sales report.
Price per square foot for multifamily units slumped by 29% in Broward year-over-year, but Miami-Dade saw a 25% increase in price per square foot, according to the Cushman & Wakefield South Florida 2020 midyear forecast. The report compared sales data for the first …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
Society Las Olas, a new residential-mixed use building in Fort Lauderdale, has filled 44% of its retail space. The draw? Outdoor seating.
Health-conscious eatery Pura Vida Miami recently leased 1,600 square feet. Virginia-based Thompson Hospitality signed a 6,000-square-foot lease, dividing 4,500 square feet for Matchbox Restaurants and about 1,500 square feet to Big Buns Damn Good Burger. All are expected to open during the first quarter 2021.
“They all liked the high energy and outdoor seating along the river,” said …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
Hiring rose for the fourth straight month, though at the slowest pace since the U.S. economy began to spring back from April shutdowns.
Nonfarm payrolls increased 1.4 million in August, the Labor Department said Friday, matching economists’ expectations and following gains of 2.7 million, 4.8 million, and 1.8 million in May, June and July, respectively. The temporary hiring of 238,000 Census 2020 workers helped boost payrolls.
The U-3 unemployment rate, meanwhile, dropped to 8.4% from 10.2% in July. The decline …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped .07 percentage points for the week ending Sept. 10, reaching 2.86 percent — anew low since Freddie Mac began conducting the survey in 1971. This time last year, the mortgage rates averaged 3.56 percent. Fifteen-year mortgages declined, too, to an average of 2.37, while five-year mortgages were up 18 percentage points to 3.11.
Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said a late summer slowdown in the economic recovery was to thank …
by Riccardo Ravasini 
Manhattan’s vacancy rate climbed to 5.1 percent in August, according to Douglas Elliman’s monthly rental report produced by Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers & Consultants.
It’s the first time Manhattan vacancy has reached this level in the 14 years that Miller Samuel has tracked its rental market, and the fourth consecutive month that the number of uninhabited rentals have set a new record.
The number of deals with concessions or owners paying the broker fee jumped to 59 percent last …
by Riccardo Ravasini