Codina Partners Part 1 - Downtown Doral? Experience The Community Redefined By The Codinas
October 11, 2018
EisnerAmper Real Estate Services Group Ken Weissenberg discusses Downtown Doral and the rise of Codina Partners with Executive Chairman Armando Codina and CEO Ana-Marie Codina Barlick.
Transcript
Armando Codina:They quickly began to leave. The park went into complete disarray. Was unable to be used, a very distressed property in the middle of nowhere, and buildings that you couldn't reuse because they were really very poor quality buildings. They have asbestos, so that’s one. The other piece was in Miami. A phenomena which was incorporation. Most of Miami, many years ago, was unincorporated. It’s a very small piece. Unincorporated county was huge, it was Doral, it was Ken Doll it was where all the growth came. People were very unhappy with the quality of life of the unincorporated county because they were paying. Originally if you lived in Miami, or if you lived in Miami Beach, you paid county and city taxes. When people moved out to an unincorporated county they paid on incorporated county taxes, no city taxes, but the county because the growth needed funding. They created an unincorporated city tax so people were now paying even though they were not getting the service of the county and city. Long story short, there was a movement of incorporating. The first city to incorporate was Key Biscayne. There’ve been many others, Meadow Bay, Pine Crest. Doral incorporated in 2003. When many people looked at these parks in distress, as I sort of didn't think it much of a mission. Doral needed a downtown. If we incorporated a place like Dade County, I saw it was like my arm separating itself and saying I want to be a person, you can't be a person if you don't have heart and a soul. Doral needed a downtown, and that's what we gave it. First it was originally 120 acres to begin with, and now it is 250.
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