Marriott skyscraper coming to old Miami Arena site?

Is a massive new skyscraper coming to the site of the old Miami Arena?

Two of the city’s top real estate blogs caused a stir Tuesday when they shared an architect’s video rendering of a huge tower called the Marriott at MWC. The video posted on YouTube by Nichols Brosch’s Igor Reyes was a computer-generated aerial shot of a potential mixed-use complex superimposed on the site. The land is owned by the developers of the proposed Miami World Center, a stretch of lots last recently positioned as a possible home to a Las Vegas Sands casino.

ExMiami .org posted the video first, followed by Curbed Miami, at miami.curbed.com. “If this is an actual thing, and not just an architect's dream, then this is biiiiig news,” Curbed wrote. Shortly after the posts, the Reyes video was made private. Nichols Brosch did not immediately respond to an interview request.

Representatives of the Miami World Center group, which includes Art Falcone and Nitin Mitwani, declined to comment, a spokeswoman said. The old arena site was turned into a park and then sold to the Miami World Center group last year. Marriott spokesman John Wolf said Tuesday: “We are always interested in development opportunities. It would be premature to comment any further.”

DOUGLAS HANKS

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Woman to be sentenced in Rilya Wilson foster child abuse case

To be sentenced Tuesday: the Kendall woman convicted of abusing and kidnapping missing foster child Rilya Wilson over a decade ago.

Geralyn Graham, 67, was convicted by jury last month in a case that roiled Florida’s child welfare agency, which was supposed to monitor the child. The body of Rilya, who was 4 years old when she vanished, has never been found.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez could sentence Graham to as much as life in prison.

Prosecutors believe Graham smothered Rilya with a pillow, disposed of her body near water in South Miami-Dade, then spent years telling conflicting versions of what happened to the child. Jurors, by an 11-1 vote, deadlocked on a count of first-degree murder.

The jury convicted her of kidnapping, two counts of aggravated child abuse and one of child abuse.

The case was significant for the Florida Department of Children & Families, which did not notice the girl was missing for 15 months. Graham told investigators that a mystery DCF worker whisked the child away for mental health treatment.

Graham was later arrested for and convicted of fraud. Based on incriminating statements from her domestic partner, Graham was then charged with aggravated child abuse of Rilya.

Her partner, Pamela Graham, no relation, agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of child neglect.

Pamela Graham, a meek shell of a woman, testified at trial that Geralyn Graham would bind the child’s hands to the bed railing with plastic “flex cuffs” and confine Rilya in a laundry room for hours.

A friend of the pair told police that Graham borrowed a dog cage to put Rilya in when she misbehaved, although no could say they saw the child in there as punishment.

Acquaintances also testified that Graham gave conflicting stories about what happened to the girl — to some, she claimed the girl was on a road trip with a “Spanish lady” friend.

A grand jury indicted Geralyn Graham in 2005 after she allegedly confessed in detail to inmate Robin Lunceford, who testified at trial over four days. Two other inmates also testified that Graham, while behind bars, suggested she killed the child.

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Obama to stress jobs in State of the Union speech; audience's message is guns

WASHINGTON — The American public will get a competing mix of rhetoric and imagery in President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday, a speech that offers a heavy dose on the economy even as it plays out against a visual backdrop dominated by the current national debate over guns.

With the economy still trying to find its footing and with millions still out of work, Obama will make a case for measures and proposals that he says will boost job creation and put the economy on a more upward trajectory. Obama's emphasis underscores a White House recognition that while the president seeks to expand his agenda and build a second-term legacy, the economy remains a major public preoccupation.

AP

President Obama during last year's State of the Union address.

But in the galleries above the rostrum of the House of Representatives where Obama will speak, many of the faces looking down on him will be those of Americans thrust into the politics of gun violence.

First lady Michelle Obama will sit with the parents of a Chicago teenager shot and killed just days after she performed at the president's inauguration. Twenty-two House members have invited people affected by gun violence, according to Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., who pushed the effort. And Republican Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas says he's invited rocker Ted Nugent, a long-time gun control opponent who last year said he would end up "dead or in jail" if Obama won re-election.

That confluence of message and symbolism illustrates where Obama is in his presidency following his re-election.

The economic blueprint he will discuss will have many of the elements Americans have heard before, with its embrace of manufacturing, energy development and education. And in that sense it is a reminder of what was unfulfilled at the end of Obama's first term. But the tragic murders of 26 people at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school in December altered the president's agenda, pushing guns onto a to-do list that already included a new push for an overhaul of immigration law.

As the president addresses gun violence, the cameras are sure to pan the faces in the crowd inside the House chamber, each with a story meant to influence the debate. Obama has proposed a ban on certain weapons and on high-capacity ammunition magazines. He has also called for broader, universal background checks on gun purchasers, a proposal that stands a better chance politically.

Domestic policy will be front and center, but ongoing challenges abroad won't go without mention. On North Korea, which said it successfully detonated a nuclear device Tuesday in defiance of UN warnings, the White House said Obama would make the case that the nuclear program had only further isolated the impoverished nation.

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U.S. Century to OK details of new deal

U.S. Century Bank is expected to sign off on Monday on its letter of intent — the framework for a plan to recapitalize the bank.

Under the deal, a local group of investors, led by Jimmy Tate of Tate Capital and Sergio Rok of Rok Enterprises, will bring in fresh capital and wipe out the Doral bank’s bad loans, while allowing it to operate independently.

The investor group is expected to inject $50 million in capital into the bank, becoming majority owners. In addition, the group will pay about $90 million to buy certain loans, including all $98 million of U.S. Century’s non-performing loans, said U.S. Century President and Chief Executive Carlos J. Dávila. The deal would also provide for a negotiated amount to be paid to the federal government to repay U.S. Century’s $50.2 million in TARP funds.

A definitive agreement, based on the letter of intent, is expected next month. Pending shareholder and regulatory approval, the deal could be completed by mid-year, Dávila said.

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A Super Bowl may be required for Sun Life Stadium fix-up taxes

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said Monday he may require South Florida hosting a Super Bowl first as a condition for using county hotel taxes to fund part of a $400 million renovation of Sun Life Stadium.

At Monday morning news conference announcing a referendum requirement for the taxes, Gimenez also said he would like to have voters give the county the option to withhold the money if the NFL snubs Miami-Dade in its Super Bowl bid.

"I don't want to be eligible for anything," Gimenez said. "I want to be awarded."

Over the weekend, the Dolphins dropped objections to a countywide referendum on their stadium plan and now are pushing for a vote in time for the May 22 meeting of NFL owners to decide between Miami Gardens and the San Francisco area for the 2016 Super Bowl. The loser will take on Houston for the 2017 Super Bowl, but the '16 game is considered the big prize since it is the 50th game.

Gimenez said he would not call for a referendum until he has approved a financing deal with the Dolphins. "We haven't started negotiations. It doesn't mean a deal is going to be done," Gimenez said.

Dee said the Dolphins welcome the referendum, and did not realize it could be held between the team's January unveiling of their financing proposal and the May 22 decision on Super Bowl.

The team has been pushing for tax dollars for Sun Life since 2010, and has not proposed a referendum before. Dee said Monday the Dolphins are confident the public will support the plan.

"We believe a decision by the voters will go our way," Dee said.

The county needs 60 days' notice for a referendum, meaning the language must be approved by commissioners in March.

The Dolphins proposed increasing mainland hotel taxes in Miami-Dade to 7 percent from 6 percent. The increase would require a change in state law, and Dee said the referendum will increase chances of the team's bill passing in Tallahassee.

Gimenez said a special election would cost between $3 million and $4 million, and that state law bars a private company from reimbursing taxpayers for an election. Dee said he would defer to Gimenez on the reimbursement question.

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1 dead after blaze rips through Harlem apartment building

A deadly fire swept through a Harlem housing project -- killing one, authorities said.

The blaze broke out on the second floor of a building in the Taft Houses on Fifth Avenue and West 115th Street at 4:15 a.m., the FDNY said.

Rescue workers pulled a 30-year-old man from the apartment in cardiac arrest, police said. The victim was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Firefighters extinguished the flames and placed the fire under control at 4:45 a.m., the FDNY said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Fire Marshal, police said.

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Green cards for sale at a South Beach hotel: Competition is on for EB5 investment visas

If David Hart gets his way, South Beach’s 42-room Astor Hotel will be on a hiring spree this year as it adds concierge service, a roof-top pool, an all-night diner, spa and private-car service available 24 hours a day.

New hires will be crucial to Hart’s business plan, since foreign investors have agreed to pay about $50,000 for each job created by the Art Deco boutique.

The Miami immigration lawyer specializes in arranging visas for wealthy foreign citizens under a special program that trades green cards for investment dollars. Businesses get the money and must use it to boost payroll. The minimum investment is $500,000 to add at least 10 jobs to the economy. That puts the pressure on Hart and his partners at the Astor to beef up payroll dramatically, with plans to take a hotel with roughly 20 employees to one with as many as 100 workers.

“My primary responsibility is to make something happen here over the next two years that will create the jobs we need,’’ Hart said a few steps away from a nearly empty restaurant on a recent weekday morning. “It’s all going to be transformed.”

Though established in the 1990s, the “EB5” visas soared in popularity during the recession as developers sought foreign cash to replace dried-up credit markets in the United States.

Chinese investors dominate the transactions, accounting for about 65 percent of the nearly 9,000 EB5 visas granted since 2006. South Korea finishes a distant second at 12 percent and the United Kingdom holds the third-place slot at 3 percent. If Latin America and the Caribbean were one country, they would rank No. 4 on the list, with 231 EB5 visas granted, or about 3 percent of the total.

Competition has gotten stiffer for the deep-pocketed foreign investors willing to pay for green cards. The University of Miami’s bio-science research park near the Jackson hospital system raised $20 million from 40 foreign investors under the EB5 program, most of them from Asia. The money went into the park’s first building; visa brokers are waiting to see if the second building will proceed so they can offer a new pool of potential green-card sales.

In Hollywood, the stalled $131 million Margaritaville resort had hoped to raise about $75 million from EB5 investors before ditching that plan last year to pursue more traditional financing. A retail complex by developer Jeff Berkowitz in Coral Gables also launched a program to raise $50 million in EB5 money for the project, Gables Station. Hart worked with other EB5 investors to back pizza restaurants in Miami and South Beach. A limestone mine in Martin County also was backed by EB5 dollars.

This year, the city of Miami itself is expected to get into the business by setting up an EB5 program to raise foreign cash for a range of city businesses and developments. The first would be the tallest building in the city — developer Tibor Hollo’s planned 85-story apartment tower, the Panorama, in downtown Miami.

With a construction cost of about $700 million, Miami’s debut EB5 venture hopes to raise about $100 million from foreign investors, said Laura Reiff, the Greenberg Traurig lawyer in Virginia working with Miami on the EB5 effort. “This is a marquis project,’’ she said.

The arrangement is a novel one for Miami, with the city planning to help a private developer raise funds overseas for a new high-rise. And it would allow Hollo and future participants to tout the city of Miami’s endorsement when competing with other Miami-area projects for EB5 dollars. “We will have the benefit of the brand of the city of Miami,’’ said Mikki Canton, the $6,000-a-month city consultant heading Miami’s EB5 effort. “A lot of these others are privately owned and they won’t have that brand.”

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Miami-Dade mayor disappointed at Major League Baseball over All-Star Game

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez was swept into office in part because of his opposition to the public financing for the Marlins’ new baseball stadium.

But that doesn’t mean he was happy when Major League Baseball awarded the 2015 All-Star Game to Cincinnati. Marlins President David Samson said last year he hoped to host the game, continuing a streak of All-Star games at new ballparks. That was before the team decimated its roster and chopped its payroll after last season.

After MLB Commissioner Bud Selig made the Cincinnati announcement last month, Gimenez sent him a letter expressing his disappointment. And the mayor phoned Selig last week, according to Gimenez’s calendar.

“[N]ow that the facility is built and operating, it is my responsibility to ensure its greatest benefit to our residents,” Gimenez wrote.

“Public sentiment regarding the Stadium is at an all-time low, and now we are further disappointed by the recent announcement...[I]t is clear that Miami has been benched once again, this time by Major League Baseball.”

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Joe Paterno's family issues report challenging FBI findings

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — A new report commissioned by Joe Paterno's family challenges the conclusion by former FBI director Louis Freeh that the late Penn State coach conspired to conceal child sex abuse allegations against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

An executive summary of the critique, released Sunday, said the "observations" of Paterno by Freeh in July were unfounded. Former US Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, one of the experts assembled by the family's lawyer to review the report Freeh compiled for Penn State, called that document fundamentally flawed and incomplete.

AFP/Getty Images

Joe Paterno

A lack of factual support for the Freeh report's "inaccurate and unfounded findings related to Mr. Paterno and its numerous process-oriented deficiencies was a rush to injustice and calls into question" the report's credibility, Thornburgh was quoted as saying in the report.

The family released what it billed as an exhaustive response to Freeh's work, based on independent analyses, on the website paterno.com.

"We conclude that the observations as to Joe Paterno in the Freeh report are unfounded, and have done a disservice not only to Joe Paterno and the university community," the family's report said, "but also to the victims of Jerry Sandusky and the critical mission of educating the public on the dangers of child sexual victimization."

Freeh's findings also implicated former administrators including university president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and retired vice president Gary Schultz. Less than two weeks after the Freeh report was released in July, the NCAA acted with uncharacteristic speed in levying massive sanctions against the football program for the scandal.

"Taking into account the available witness statements and evidence, it is more reasonable to conclude that, in order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at Penn State University — Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley — repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse" from authorities, trustees and the university community, Freeh wrote in releasing the report.

The former administrators have vehemently denied the allegations. So, too, has Paterno's family, though it reserved more extensive comment until its own report was complete.

The counter-offensive began in earnest this weekend. The family's findings said that Paterno:

— Never asked or told anyone not to investigate an allegation against Sandusky 12 years ago Saturday, Feb. 9, 2001.

— Never asked or told former administrators not to report the 2001 allegation.

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Mega mansion frenzy: Buyer snaps up Pat Riley’s $16M home to level it, rebuild

Miami Heat President Pat Riley sold his spectacular bayfront mansion in gated Gables Estates for $16.8 million last March.

The 12,856-square-foot Mediterranean-style dream house at 180 Arvida Parkway has a theater, wine cellar, library, and a sprawling pool with waterfalls and an aqua bar.

But that’s all coming down.

Turns out the lure was the lot: a rare fingertip of prime land, nearly two acres, jutting into the turquoise waters of Biscayne Bay.

In December, the buyer — listed as 180 Arvida LLC represented by Miami attorney Mark Hasner — presented the city of Coral Gables with plans to tear down the home, built in 1991, and erect an even grander estate along the 900 linear feet of bayfront.

“Most people would move in and be perfectly happy, but clients are looking for perfection — really good stuff,” said Jorge Uribe, a senior vice president at One Sotheby’s International Realty, who wasn’t involved but sold an even bigger trophy property last year: a $39.4 million estate at 14 Indian Creek Dr., on Indian Creek Island in Indian Creek Village, dubbed “Miami’s Billionaire Bunker” by Forbes magazine.

“The trend in the last several years is a demand for very high-quality product. People are looking for really good locations, really good materials, and they’re willing to pay for it,” Uribe said.

Miami’s ultra-luxury market is on fire. Prices for the fanciest single-family homes and condominiums have soared to levels never before seen in the area, fueled by strong foreign demand and renewed interest from New Yorkers and others in the Northeast.

With Miami’s global image burnished by Art Basel Miami Beach and the debut of other cultural and entertainment venues, the city is emerging as an even greater magnet for the world’s super-rich.

In January, a penthouse at the Setai Resort & Residences on Miami Beach fetched $27 million, a new high for a Miami-Dade condominium. “Every building we do business in is at its highest price of all time,” said Mark Zilbert, president of Zilbert International Realty, which represented the buyer in the Setai deal.

Last August, a sleek, new home, built on spec at 3 Indian Creek Dr., sold for $47 million, a record high for a Miami-Dade residence. The buyer, whose identity has not been revealed, is Russian.

“People are realizing how valuable the bay waterfront is,” said Oren Alexander, co-founder of the Alexander Group at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, who co-listed the 3 Indian Creek property with The Jills team at Coldwell Banker and represented the buyer for the home. His father, Shlomy Alexander, developed the property with partner Felix Cohen.

Shlomy Alexander is working on two more extravagant spec homes — one at 30 Indian Creek Dr. and a second that is set to break ground shortly at 252 Bal Bay Dr. in Bal Harbour, his son said. Plans envision a tropical modern-style project that fuses the indoors and outdoors — a concept popular in Brazil.

The elder Alexander recently traveled to Italy to shop for exclusive stone for the projects, said the son.

“It’s really trending to the ultra-luxury. All sorts of exotic materials — exotic woods, exotic marbles, exotic stones,” said Sean Murphy, an executive vice president at Coastal Construction, a major builder of luxury hotels and condominiums that also has erected some of the most extravagant mansions in the region. “Everything is so exotic.”

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