12.10.2011

Miami Marlins’ Makeover Mind-Boggling — and The Dealing’s Not Yet Done


 

Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, right, and Jose Reyes share a laugh after a news conference at the Major League Baseball 2011 Winter Meetings in Dallas,  Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011.  The Marlins unveiled the newly signed free-agent shortstop Reyes.
Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, right, and Jose Reyes share a laugh after a news conference at the Major League Baseball 2011 Winter Meetings in Dallas, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011. The Marlins unveiled the newly signed free-agent shortstop Reyes.
What a remarkable time for South Florida’s major professional sports teams. It is Christmas season, and everywhere you look: Gifts!

The Heat is favored to win the NBA championship in Year 2 of the Big 3. The long-downtrodden Panthers are in first place in the NHL’s Southeast Division. The surging Dolphins have won four of their past five games. And yet all anybody can seem to talk about is the Marlins.

Our baseball club is redefining “extreme makeover” with one of the most astounding metamorphoses in the history of pro sports, and the name change from Florida to Miami, the new ballpark, new manager, new colors, new uniforms and new logo — those are just the window dressing.

It is the new spending, the voracious aggressiveness of it, that has made this club the talk of South Florida, and of baseball.

The Marlins’ Jeffrey Loria inside of two years has gone from being a notoriously penurious owner publicly scolded by Major League Baseball for egregiously under-spending on player payrolls to being an owner figuratively standing on a couch in a nightclub tossing fistfuls of money into the air.

Making it rain.

Millions.

The pursuit of superstar Albert Pujols that ended Wednesday without getting him?

No problem.

Miami is the biggest player in baseball free agency even without him. And the Marlins are showing no signs of ending their shopping spree.

Fans beleaguered by years of shoestring payrolls surely must feel the swoon of lottery winners. So must new manager Ozzie Guillen. Turns out that multicolored ‘M’ in the new logo mustn’t stand for Miami, after all. Must stand for Money.

The week’s chronology has been stunning:

On Monday the club formally introduced newly signed closer Heath Bell, the pitcher with more saves than anybody in the sport over the past three years. On Tuesday the club introduced its new $106 million man, Jose Reyes, the free-agent star shortstop from the New York Mets. Wednesday, Miami agreed to terms with veteran starting pitcher Mark Buerhle, reuniting him with Guillen, his longtime former Chicago White Six manager. Any of those three signings, in a normal year, would have legitimately topped the marquee on this team’s offseason shopping. The idea of Loria increasing the payroll sufficient to land all three of them is mind-boggling.

But not so much as the notion more big moves might be ahead.

Won’t the alarm clock go off any second and we’ll all awaken to find out the best available players have gone to Yankees or Red Sox as usual? And that the Marlins are shopping the customary bargain bins?

No more.

The Marlins’ run at Pujols, the future Hall of Fame slugger still in his prime at 31 and THE prize in free agency, was proof of Miami’s new mindset. The Marlins’ reported 10-year offer worth more than $200 million was commensurate with Pujols’ talent. The offer was legitimately competitive.
The offer to Pujols was withdrawn Wednesday after the deal with Buerhle was struck, but the very notion of the Marlins bidding for the biggest prize in baseball was a statement in itself.

Landing Pujols would have been comparable to the baseball equivalent of the Heat getting LeBron James. Adding Pujols to Reyes would have been roughly as astounding as the Heat adding James and Chris Bosh. It would have put the Marlins squarely in the fight with the star-studded Heat and historically entrenched Dolphins over who “owns” this town in terms of broad interest and excitement. Again, though, the dealing isn’t done. Like the Heat, the Marlins’ intentions are plain. As president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest puts it, “The vision here is: Win the World Series.”
That’s why the Marlins move on undeterred from not getting Pujols. There is reported interest in perhaps turning sights now to power-hitting first baseman Prince Fielder, the free agent from Milwaukee. Miami also has made a firm offer and is a finalist to sign lefthanded starting pitcher C.J. Wilson, another prized free agent.

Then there is the Hanley Ramirez situation.

ESPN Deportes reported that the Marlins’ incumbent star shortstop wants to remain at that position and would balk at moving to third base to accommodate Reyes. Ramirez’s agent now represents that his client seeks a “restructured” contract — agent-speak for a sizable raise — to go peaceably to third base.

Doesn’t it stretch credulity to think the Marlins would not have OK’d such a move with the high-maintenance Ramirez prior to acquiring Reyes? And yet the pique of Ramirez is now in play.
The Marlins are understandably upset with Ramirez trying to ply leverage for more money and reportedly are exploring trade options.

Enticing possibilities — such as Ramirez to the Washington Nationals for all-star third baseman Ryan Zimmerman — have been floated.

Ramirez is blowing an opportunity here to remake his image with Marlins fans and be seen as magnanimous, a team-first guy willing to switch positions for the better of the club. Instead his reputation for petulance and a me-first attitude is underlined.

Brokering peace and keeping him is ideal, but Ramirez would bring enough in trade that the alternative is not altogether bad, either.

This massive Marlins’ makeover will not be without its yeah-buts and complications. Not everything can be neat or tranquil on all fronts.

Even if Miami HAD signed Pujols debate would have raged over the fiscal sanity of the contract. A 10-year deal to a player 31 would have been seen as lunacy to some.

Mollifying Ramirez and making him co-exist with Reyes always loomed as a potential headache.
You also wonder how the personal and managerial style of the brash, outspoken Guillen will jibe with an ownership that has shown impatience with managers. Even the new stadium itself is the focal point of a Security and Exchange Commission probe into the club’s financing deal with the city and county. And, of course, this being sports, the Marlins assembling what they hope some might end up calling a super-team would come with zero guarantees. The Heat learned last season that championships as a foregone conclusion are risky things.

Ah, but enough with reality!

Dream big, Miami. It feels good. Let Marlins fans frustrated by years of owner frugality look up at the money suddenly falling from the sky and simply enjoy the view.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/08/v-fullstory/2536522/miami-marlins-makeover-mind-boggling.html#ixzz1gBibgr6F

12.08.2011


Miami's Latest Face Lift: Foreign-Backed Projects Set to Break Ground in 2012
Resorts World Miami
Genting's Resorts World Miami calls for four hotels, 1,000 condos and a pool more than three football fields long.

» Resorts World Miami
Genting Group has paid more than $400 million for real estate in downtown Miami for its Resorts World Miami.

» Brickell CitiCentre
Swire Properties of Hong Kong's multiblock Brickell CitiCentre will include a stop for Miami's mass transit Metromover and will be the first project built under the new Miami 21 building code. CitiCentre will have an ecological roof that ties the three-block project together, providing shade and collecting water. Swire's $700-million project will hold half a million square feet of retail and restaurants along with office towers, a 290-room hotel and 270-unit residential tower. Groundbreaking is scheduled for the second quarter of 2012. Nearly all of the project will be built in a single phase. Attorney Neisen Kasdin says Swire sees a market in downtown's 70,000 population, double the population 10 years ago. Swire has a long track record in Miami, including as developer of Brickell Key, the 44-acre development on the triangular island at the mouth of the Miami River.

Swire's Brickell CitiCentre
Swire's Brickell CitiCentre will include half a million square feet of retail and restaurant space, office towers, a hotel and a residential tower.

» Mixed-use project
Espacio USA, part of Spain's Grupo Vilar Mir, reportedly spent $34.8 million to acquire two office buildings, including the 1400 Biscayne Center, on three acres west of what's become the Genting site. Espacio is leasing space in the buildings while making plans to replace them with an I.M. Pei-designed mixed-use project.

23 Biscayne Bay
95% of the condo units at 23 Biscayne Bay (left), have been sold.

Brickell House
Construction on the 46-story Brickell House is set to begin in the second quarter of 2012
» 23 Biscayne Bay
Melo Group, an Argentina family business, is self-funding its construction of 23 Biscayne Bay, an 18-story, 98-unit condo tower on Northeast 23rd Street, its seventh Miami project since 2001. As of October, Melo has sold 95% of the units, says broker Linette Guerra of La Playa Properties, which is marketing the project. "We launched in March. We went to Argentina to launch the first marketing campaign," Guerra says. Most buyers have been from Argentina and Brazil.
» Brickell House
Developer Harvey Hernandez, a native of Venezuela, plans to break ground on Brickell House, a $170-million, 46-story, 374-unit condo tower in the second quarter. The project is funded by foreign and domestic investors.

» Oceanfront condos
Consultatio, a Buenos Aires firm, will build luxury condo buildings totaling 154 units on 10 oceanfront acres on Key Biscayne. Eduardo Costantini, principal, is self-financing his first U.S. project.

» 396 Alhambra
An offshoot of the Mexican family behind Jose Cuervo Group, Agave joined with a group led by longtime Miami developer Eduardo "Eddie" Avila to build the 273,000-sq.-ft. class A 396 Alhambra office building opening in 2012 in Coral Gables. Agave also spent $30.6 million to buy nearly six acres of the Old Spanish Village project in Coral Gables but is still working on its plans for the site.

» Saxony Hotel redevelopment/condo tower
Buenos Aires developer Alan Faena, working with Russian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik, is redeveloping the Saxony Hotel on Miami Beach and building a companion condo tower.
Also ...

Miami Art Museum
                 Work has already begun on the $220-million Miami Art Museum.

» Miami Art Museum/ Miami Science Museum
Construction began in January on the $220-million Miami Art Museum, opening in 2013. The museum home is Museum Park, the new name for 29-acre Bicentennial Park, which also will house the Miami Science Museum, a $275-million project also being developed with public money and private donations, led by a $35-million gift from medical entrepreneur Phillip Frost and his wife, Patricia.

Published 12/5/2011 in Florida Trend