FYI Miami: January 16, 2025

Below are some of the FYIs in this week’s edition. The entire content of this week’s FYIs and Insider sections is available by subscription only. To subscribe click here.

AIRPORT BOND BORROWING: As Miami International Airport continues with a $7.4 billion capital improvement program, county commissioners are to look next week at approving the issuance of $575 million in facility bonds to help pay for the work. The bonds would be paid off with aviation revenues. A public hearing on the bond issuance is to be held at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 22 Aviation Director Ralph

Cutié told Miami Today in October that in addition to the $7.4 billion in capital improvements, his department is spending $1.7 billion on modernizations, combining for more than 150 capital projects. Among the big ones moving ahead are a $700 million South Terminal expansion, a $370 million Central Terminal upgrade, a new $136 million parking garage, a $101 million bathroom renovation project, and all new glass passenger bridges for boarding planes.

NEW AIRPORT ENTRYWAY: A contractor will spend nearly two years on a $8.7 million contract to build a new gateway into Miami International Airport with the main purpose of access to construction work during the airport’s multi-year, multi-billion-dollar capital improvement program. Two county committees this week are to consider awarding the contract to build the new gate to Allied Contractors Inc. The gate will be where McLaughlin Drive intersects with the commercial vehicle entrance into the airport from southbound LeJeune Road. The gate will also be used by all the vehicles and trucks to access the airport and perform regular daily activities, reducing the traffic and lanes of the other airside operating area gates. To build the new gate, two airport buildings will be demolished.

BEST JOBS GAIN: Miami-Dade County’s year-over-year employment gain of 1.9% was highest in the nation in November among the 38 metropolitan divisions that make up the 11 largest metropolitan areas. At the same time, Miami-Dade had the lowest unemployment rate, 2.4%, among those 38 divisions, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. 

COCOPLUM CLEANUP: Miami-Dade would spend $40,000 to clean up 14 acres of Biscayne Bay mangrove forest in Coral Gables owned by the state that the state isn’t adequately caring for under legislation going before the county’s Port and Resilience Committee this week. The aim is to remove and dispose of a large quantity of marine debris, eradicate invasive exotic vegetation, and plant native coastal vegetation in the 77-acre Cocoplum Mangrove Preserve that was set aside when the Cocoplum residential area was developed in the city. More than $18,000 of the cost would be paid from an environmental enforcement fine levied on a neighboring property. The rest of the money would come from the Biscayne Bay Environmental Enhancement Trust Fund, which now totals more than $19 million.

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