Eileen Higgins has been elected as Miami’s next mayor, marking a significant shift in the city’s political landscape. Higgins, a former Miami-Dade County commissioner, is the first woman and the first Democrat to hold the office since 1997. She won last week’s runoff election against Emilio Gonzalez, who had received an endorsement from former President Donald Trump.
Higgins succeeds Francis Suarez, a Republican who served as mayor since 2017 and was known for supporting major development projects such as the Miami Freedom Park mixed-use stadium. Both Higgins and Gonzalez campaigned on promises to reform the city’s permitting process, address housing affordability, and tackle corruption at City Hall.
As a county commissioner, Higgins approved projects that created nearly 7,000 affordable and workforce housing units. Her campaign also attracted significant financial support from real estate professionals, corporations, and land use attorneys—raising almost ten times more in donations from these groups than her opponent. A fundraiser for Higgins at Brightline Station in downtown Miami was co-hosted by Bercow Radell Fernandez Larkin & Tapanes and included other industry figures such as Integra Investments developer Nelson Stabile, Adler Properties CEO Jonathan Raiffe, and Florida East Coast Industries executive Jose Gonzalez.
Other contributors to her campaign included Jeff Berkowitz and his wife Yolanda, zoning lawyers Iris Escarra and Melissa Tapanes Llahues, Cervera Real Estate’s Alicia Cervera Lamadrid, land use attorney Anthony De Yurre, along with LLCs linked to Integra and Adler.
It remains to be seen whether Higgins will fulfill her campaign promises regarding housing development and improvements to the permitting process. The real estate sector—including developers, brokers, lenders, and attorneys—will be monitoring her administration closely.
In related residential news from Palm Beach, a trust sold an 8,400-square-foot mansion at 5 Via Sunny for $30 million to an LLC named after the property. On the commercial side, AEW Capital Management sold an office property at 169 Coral Way (Ryder Colonnade) in Coral Gables for $70.4 million to Crescent Real Estate of Fort Worth.
WeatherTech founder David MacNeil has listed his waterfront property at 1120 South Ocean Boulevard in Manalapan for $125 million. The property covers 3.5 acres with 342 feet of ocean frontage; MacNeil acquired it through two purchases totaling $94 million over the past two years.
Elsewhere in Florida, most customers of Citizens Property Insurance are expected to see lower premiums next year. Homeowners in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties could experience premium reductions of about 12 to 13 percent according to reporting by the Sun Sentinel.
For questions or story tips about condo association meetings or notable real estate deals not covered this week, readers are encouraged to contact kk@therealdeal.com.
