Would-be convention center developers make pitches to Miami Beach residents

Developers on Wednesday presented Miami Beach residents with competing ideas for what the city’s Convention Center could look like after an overhaul.

It was the public’s first glimpse of what could become of the 52-acre site. Two heavy-hitting teams are competing for the project, which could cost up to $1 billion.

Both teams – Portman-CMC and South Beach ACE – stressed that the concepts presented Wednesday were only preliminary ideas.

Both teams’ proposals focus on creating lush greenscapes and ways to connect the enormous convention center with abutting neighborhoods – things that residents at a prior public meeting asked of the developers.

To do that, Portman-CMC, the team led by Portman Holdings, proposed several scenarios. In one, a diagonal plaza would grace the corner of the current convention center property, creating a string of parks to connect the center to the existing Miami Beach Botanical Garden and SoundScape Park.

The design focused on creating shade through both the buildings and landscaping, which is basically nonexistent now.

“This place is a black hole in terms of green, in terms of trees. We aim to change that," said Jamie Maslyn Larson, a Partner of West 8, the company partnering with Portman to landscape the project.

West 8 also worked on Miami Beach’s SoundScape Park, which features free outdoor movies and audio and video feeds of performances at the adjoining New World Symphony.

South Beach ACE, the team led by Tishman Hotel and Realty, proposed an underground parking area to hide idling trucks and buses – an issue that residents have complained about. Above the parking lot would be a rolling greenspace, and views of the now-ignored Collins Canal would be incorporated.

World-renowned architect Rem Koolhaas, part of the South Beach ACE team, called the current convention center a "serious problem" in the middle of the "idyllic" Miami Beach. His team’s design aims to correct that.

Tishman’s proposal also preserves the current Jackie Gleason Theater. Residents have debated whether the theater, which is not deemed historic, deserves to be preserved. The Tishman proposal would essentially remove a back wall of the theater to create a two-stage amphitheater.

Portman-CMC has not made a decision about whether the theater itself would stay, but spoke to preserving the legacy of Gleason himself. The team launched a website to get more resident feedback about its proposal: www.portmancmcmiamibeach.com.

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Little Havana condo owners get little help as units collapse

When a group of Little Havana condominium owners realized in 2009 that there were serious structural problems in the properties they had just bought, they sought help from several local officials.

They called Miami building inspectors. They wrote letters to the directors of the city and county programs that helped finance their purchases with nearly $1 million in public funds. And they contacted their elected officials to complain about the developers who had sold them the condos.

In November 2010, County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, whose district the complex is in, offered to try to help convert the zero-to-low-interest loans that eight of the condo owners had received as first-time homebuyers into grants.

But they rejected the offer because it would have required them to stay in their homes for 30 years and they didn’t think they would last that long.

A month ago, the floor in one of the units collapsed. Other owners are having similar problems. The owners want somebody to take responsibility for what happened.

“Who could the county go after? The engineering firms? All the appraisers sent by the banks?” asked Barreiro.

It’s unclear when the floors in the five buildings that make up the Havana Palms complex, 960 SW Second St., began to deteriorate.

Public records show that Montara Land V, LLC — owned by Anibal Duarte-Viera and Gabriel de la Campa — bought the 1946 apartment complex for $2.5 million in 2005. The developers converted the units into condominiums the following year, investing about $120,000 to repair the electric and plumbing systems, as well as installing central air conditioning, according to city permits.

Between December 2006 and March 2009, Montara Land sold 18 of the units to buyers, 14 of whom qualified for government aid for low- to moderate-income first-time homebuyers. The prices of the condominiums dropped as Miami’s real estate bubble burst, but the sales varied from $119,000 for a one-bedroom to $184,000 for two. By 2010, when the real estate market had collapsed, they sold one last condo for $44,000.

Unable to sell the remaining 13 units, Montara Land began to rent some of them out, according to the residents. The developers finally sold the remaining stock to investor Constantino Cicchelli in March 2011 for $475,000, or less than $37,000 per unit. Duarte-Viera and De la Campa shut down their company that September.

The condo owners say that the floors showed signs of deterioration shortly after they moved in. After a 2009 city inspection confirmed problems with the floor joists, Montaramade some repairs, but the work was never completed, according to city records.

Duarte-Viera told El Nuevo Herald said that he remembers that some repairs were made in the complex but said he was unfamiliar with the details.

The owners say they asked the developers to take responsibility for repairing structural damages. When the work didn’t take place, they reached out to government officials for help.

In October 2011, the county offered another solution: It gave the condo owners the option to sell or rent their units before the loans expired. “This waiver has been approved due to the unsafe structural condition of the property and the developer’s non compliance with the city of Miami building codes,” wrote Rubén Arias, the county’s public affairs director.

But the owners also turned down that offer. By then their properties had lost so much value that, even if someone wanted to buy them, the money from the sales would not have been enough to pay off their mortgages. The condos currently have assessed values of between $41,770 and $48,450, according to the county’s property appraiser.

At the city level, the deputy director of Miami’s Community Development Department told the condo owners in November 2011 that he would recommend total or partial pardon of the debts to a committee with authority on such matters. Nine owners received aid from the city government. However, the city could not allow the property owners to participate once again in the first-buyers program as they had requested.

For now, many of the condo owners at Havana Palms say their only recourse is a civil suit. They are unsure who to sue because Montara Land no longer exists. They are considering a suit against the private appraisers sent by the banks or the private engineering firm that conducted a 40-year certified inspection of the complex in 2009 that found the complex structurally sound.

Juana Blandón, one of the few owners who did not receive government aid to buy her condo, is among those in talks with a pro bono attorney. Blandón’s bathroom floor has broken in two and the floors in the rest of the unit feel spongy.

“Maybe we will have to sue the banks, the inspector and all those responsible in order for this to get resolved,” Blandón said. “We have no other choice.”

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Carpet Countdown: Oscar After-Parties

George Clooney, Jennifer Lawrence and Hugh Jackman were just some of the stars that ET caught up with on their way into the hottest Oscar after-parties on Sunday night. Watch the video to see how they felt about the show.

PICS: Inside Vanity Fair's Oscar Party

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Top view

Forget the Top of the Rock. You can have a view of NYC just as ridiculously awesome from a much more acrophobic-friendly height at the Walker Tower condo conversion, where units range from $4.2 million to $55 million. The 24-story fun-size Chelsea skyscraper — located at 212 W. 18th St. — is the 1929 Art Deco brick-y brainchild of architect Ralph Walker.Because this building was built in 1929, before pesky zoning regulations kicked in, the tower’s able to stick way, way out above its poor, overshadowed neighbors below. The result: fab views for denizens of each and every one of its 50 condos. To the north, the colorful Empire State Building and the rest of Midtown. To the south, the spankin’-new One World Trade Center. Some get one or the other, others get both. Walker makes sure there’s more than enough view to go around. Contact: 212-335-1800

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Don’t get too personal on LinkedIn

Have you ever received a request to connect on LinkedIn from someone you didn’t know or couldn’t remember?

A few weeks ago, Josh Turner encountered this situation. The online request to connect came from a businessman on the opposite coast of the United States. It came with a short introduction that ended with “Let’s go Blues!” a reference to Turner’s favorite hockey team in St. Louis that he had mentioned in his profile. “It was a personal connection … that’s building rapport.”

LinkedIn is known for being the professional social network where members expect you to keep buttoned-down behavior and network online like you would at a business event. With more than 200 million registered users, the site facilitates interaction as a way to boost your stature, gain a potential customer or rub elbows with a future boss.

But unlike most other social networking sites, LinkedIn is all about business — and you need to take special care that you act accordingly. As in any workplace, the right amount of personal information sharing could be the foot in the door, say experts. The wrong amount could slam it closed.

“Anyone in business needs a professional online presence,’’ says Vanessa McGovern, the VP of Business Development for the Global Institute for Travel Entrepreneurs and a consultant to business owners on how to use LinkedIn. But they should also heed LinkedIn etiquette or risk sending the wrong messages.

One of the biggest mistakes, McGovern says is getting too personal — or not personal enough.

Sending a request to connect blindly equates to cold calling and likely will lead nowhere. Instead, it should come with a personal note, an explanation of who you are, where you met, or how the connection can benefit both parties, McGovern explains.

Your profile should get a little personal, too, she says. “Talk about yourself in the first person and add a personal flair — your goals, your passion … make yourself seem human.”

Beyond that, keep your LinkedIn posts, invitations, comments and photos professional, McGovern says.

If you had a hard day at the office or your child just won an award, you may want to share it with your personal network elsewhere — but not on LinkedIn.

“This is not Facebook. Only share what you would share at a professional networking event,” she says.

Another etiquette pitfall on LinkedIn is the hit and run — making a connection and not following up.

At least once a week, Ari Rollnick, a principal in kabookaboo, an integrated marketing agency in Coral Gables, gets a request to connect with someone on LinkedIn that he has never met or heard of before. The person will have no connections in common and share no information about why they want to build a rapport.

“I won’t accept. That’s a lost opportunity for them,” Rollnick says.

He approaches it differently. When Rollnick graduated from Emory with an MBA in 2001, he had a good idea that his classmates would excel in the business world. Now, Rollnick wanted to find out just where they went and reestablish a connection.

With a few clicks, he tracked down dozens of them on LinkedIn, requested a connection, and was back on their radar. Then came the follow-up — letting them know through emails, phone calls and posts that he was creating a two-way street for business exchange. “Rather than make that connection and disappearing , I let them know I wanted to open the door to conversation.”

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Miami Marlins hold ballpark organist tryouts

For the first time since the team's inception in 1993, the Miami Marlins held open auditions for an organist Monday night at their new stadium.

Several local musicians showed up to vie for the special gig.

The chosen organist will be responsible for performing songs such as Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Let's Go Fish and Clap and Stomp at all 81 home games next season.

Among the requirements for the job were a good knowledge of all genres of music, knowledge of the Miami Marlins and creativity for all types of situations and spontaneous moments during a Major League Game.

Organs have been a standard feature at most baseball parks ever since the Chicago Cubs introduced them at Wrigley Field in 1941. The Marlins have had only two organists — Lowery Ballew and Dick Jans — but had never held an open tryout for the position.

It’s unknown how much the job pays.

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NCIS Star Pauley Perrette Visits Drew Carey on The Price is Right

NCIS star Pauley Perrette enjoys a small break from her gothic Abby Sciuto persona to take a swing at being a model for The Price is Right in tomorrow's episode.

PICS: Candid Celeb Sightings

Pauley is well-acquainted with the show's host Drew Carey, as they worked together before the popular actress became one of TV's biggest stars. In 1998, Pauley played one of the comedian's girlfriends on The Drew Carey Show.

Considering her profession, Pauley presents the perfect prize towards the top of the show -- a 55-inch 3D television and NCIS DVD box set.

Later on in the program, Pauley makes one contestant's dreams come true with a trip to the NCIS set.

Watch Pauley on an all-new Price is Right Tuesday. Check your local listings. NCIS also airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on CBS.

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Cops 'n' robbers gunfight and car chase was a real life action movie

Testimony in a Queens trial sounded like it came from an action movie script today as witnesses described a wild police chase complete with guns blazing.

Cops described the terrifying moments when they heard gunfire ring out during a high-speed chase along Sutphin Boulevard.

“We were in a shooting together we could have died together,” said Officer Shawn Phillips who was the passenger in a patrol car chasing alleged robbery suspects, Urban Fermin and Darius Lowery on Feb 2, 2010.

The mayhem began at 7:40 a.m. when the men stole a car near 150th Avenue after a driver left it running while he went into a store, cops said.

About 40 minutes later, they pushed their way into a home on 133rd Avenue and stole a TV set, police sources said.

They then allegedly robbed a woman at gunpoint near a bus stop before cops gave chase.

Phillips’ partner Steven Betts said the cops were on their routine shift when they received a call for a robbery in progress on 150th Avenue where a white Ford Focus was stolen.

The cops were on their way to the location when they saw a vehicle that matched the description of the stolen car.

The officers turned on their lights and siren and gave chase.

“I saw a black handgun waving out the passenger’s window,” Betts said . The chase ended on a residential block on 153rd Street, where the officers were face to face with the alleged suspects and opened fire -- after Lowery allegedly “reached for his waistband,” they said.

Both suspects ran away in the hail of bullets from the officers who continued the hunt within a four block radius.

Lowery was apprehended at the scene by other officers moments later and Fermin was arrested within the same day.

ccarega@nypost.com

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Miami medicine goes digital

About 10 years ago, Dr. Fleur Sack quit her practice as a family physician to become a hospital department head. Spurring her decision was the need to switch from paper records to electronic ones to keep her private practice profitable. “At that time, it would have cost about $50,000,” Dr. Sack recalled. “It was too expensive and it was too overwhelming.”

But times and technologies changed, and last year, Dr. Sack left her hospital job to restart her medical practice with an affordable system for managing electronic patient records. She agreed to a $5,000 setup fee and a subscription fee of $500 per month for the system. Her investment also qualified her for subsidy money, which the federal government pays in installments, and to date, her subsidy income has paid for the setup fee and about two years of monthly fees. “So far, I’ve got my check for $18,000,” she said. “There’s a total of $44,000 that I can get.”

That kind of cash flow is one reason why so-called EHR software systems for electronic health records have been among the hottest-selling commercial products in the world of information technology. EHR system development is a growth industry in South Florida, too. Life sciences and biotechnology are among the high growth-potential sectors identified by the Beacon Council-led One Community One Goal economic development initiative unveiled in 2012; already, the University of Miami has opened a Health Science Technology Park while Florida International University has launched a healthcare informatics and management systems program in its graduate school of business.

For many young businesses in the area’s IT industry, government incentives are paving the way. The federal government is pushing doctors and hospitals to use electronic health records to cut wasteful spending and improve patient care while protecting patient privacy — sending digital information via encrypted systems, for example, rather than regular email.

Under a 2009 federal law known as the HITECH Act, maximum incentive payments for buying such systems range up to $44,000 for doctors with Medicare patients and up to $63,750 for doctors with Medicaid patients. Hospitals are eligible for larger incentive payments for becoming more paperless. The subsidy program isn’t permanent; eligible professionals must begin receiving payments by 2016. But by then, the federal government will be penalizing doctors and hospitals that take Medicare or Medicaid money without making meaningful use of electronic health records.

“What the government did is, they incentivized, and now they’re going to penalize,” said Andrew Carricarte, president and CEO of IOS Health Systems in Miami, one of the largest South Florida-based vendors of online software service for physician practices. He said insurance companies also may start penalizing physicians for failing to adopt electronic health records because “the commercial payers always follow Medicare and Medicaid.”

It’s all part of the growth story at IOS Health Systems, which has more than 2,000 physicians across the nation using its online EHR system. Carricarte said many of the company’s customers buy their second EHR system from IOS after their first one flopped. “Almost 40 percent of our sales come from customers who had systems and are now switching over to something else,” he said.

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Miami group lauds immigration reform efforts

Each year, the Miami-based Americans for Immigrant Justice generally honors immigrants who succeed in winning asylum or a green card against all odds.

Things will be a little different this time.

The organization will be celebrating bipartisanship at its 17th annual gala on March 7, as Republicans and Democrats begin working toward immigration reform.

“Fixing our broken immigration system ought to be a national priority,” said San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, who will be the event’s keynote speaker at the Hotel Intercontinental in downtown Miami. He’ll be introduced by Al Cardenas, former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida and current chairman of the American Conservative Union.

“For the first time in a long time we have a chance to get this right,” said Cardenas, referring to Congress’ fledgling efforts on immigration reform. “It’s a narrow window of opportunity and all of us need to do our part to see comprehensive immigration reform succeed.”

South Florida’s push comes as the White House and Congress step up efforts to offer some form of immigration reform legislation later this year that would legalize undocumented immigrants, officially estimated at 11.5 million.

Last week, the White House acknowledged it has prepared its own immigration reform bill that would grant undocumented immigrants – without any criminal convictions – temporary legal status.

In eight years, they would receive a green card after paying fines, fees and back taxes.

Last month, eight senators announced a bipartisan immigration reform proposal that would allow undocumented immigrants to get temporary status, but would receive green cards only after immigration controls are further tightened, and they learn English.

SIMILARITIES

While the two proposals appear similar, some Republican lawmakers have criticized the White House proposal, without offering specifics. Some lawmakers indicated that President Barack Obama’s plan interferes with efforts by the eight senators to draft their own plan.

Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press recently, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Obama’s proposal would fail if the White House persisted in going forward. He encouraged the White House to give senators a chance to continue their bipartisan work.

It is that effort that Americans for Immigrant Justice plans to celebrate at its dinner next week.

The bipartisan push makes immigration reform more possible than before, said Cheryl Little, the group’s executive director. That makes it more likely that Congress will pass a bill to legalize undocumented immigrants – long a key goal of immigration activists.

“We opened our doors to see this day,” Little said. “We have been fighting for comprehensive immigration reform since we started our organization.”

Americans for Immigrant Justice was founded in 1996 under the name Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. The group changed its name two years ago.

Since its inception, the group has helped thousands of immigrants – Cubans, Central Americans, Haitians, Mexicans and many others – secure asylum, green cards, temporary legal status or refugee benefits.

Its mission is to protect and promote the basic human rights of immigrants through free legal services, policy reform and public education.

Reform more likely

Little said immigration reform seems more likely this year because of the last presidential election in which Hispanic voters overwhelmingly voted for Obama, even though he did not fulfill his first-term promise of enacting immigration reform. Since Obama’s reelection, many Republicans have softened their opposition to immigration reform.

“The Democrats have a debt to pay, and the Republicans a party to save,” Little said. “That gives me hope.”

The group also will honor Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, for her longtime support for immigration reform.

“I’m humbled to be recognized for any small contribution I might have made toward the noble goal of helping so many freedom and opportunity-seeking individuals,” she said. “Americans for Immigrant Justice has been working nonstop on comprehensive immigration reform, and the hard work of the members of this important organization is bearing fruit.”

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