The metropolitan statistical area (MSA) of Miami is among the 10 largest MSAs in the United States, with a population that is today estimated at in excess of 6 million. 100 years ago, however, Miami was a much smaller city, and its skyline was but a few low buildings on or near Flagler Street. Today, the skyline consists of more than 300 high-rise buildings and skyscrapers. In this video from COMMERCIALCafé one can watch the Miami skyline, now the country’s third tallest, steadily grow over the years.
Video: See Miami’s Skyline Grow from 1925 to 2019
0 Comments
Chart: Miami-Dade Commercial Real Estate Sales Pull Back a Touch from Prior Months ~ November 2020 MLS
As readers can see in the chart above of the trailing two years of closed sales of Miami-Dade commercial property, both improved commercial property (with buildings) and vacant commercial land, recorded in the Miami MLS. November 2020 pulled back a bit from prior strong months to around an average for the year. The Miami Multiple Listing Service (MLS) does not record all commercial property sales and thus can’t be said to be fully or perfectly representative of the asset class. Nonetheless, it does record numbers of sales, and given that it is representative of commercial property sales that have been recorded in MLS in a prior period versus the current period, it should be reasonable reliable as a reasonably good metric for comparing activity between periods.
0 Comments
Virtual Public Meeting for Input on Underline Second Phase Scheduled for December 9th
This Wednesday, December 9th, at 6:30 PM the Miami-Dade County Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW) will soon be hosting a virtual public meeting seeking input on the preliminary design of the second phase of The Underline, a 10-mile linear park and urban trail under construction that will transform the land below Miami’s Metrorail. Phase 2 of the Underline runs approximately 2.14 miles (under the Metrorail) from SW 13th Street to SW 19th Avenue to the south.
Registration is required to participate in the meeting:
Register Now
0 Comments
Chart: Miami Commercial Real Estate Sales to List Price Ratio Edges Up to Highest Level Since Q1 ~ November 2020 MLS
The sales to list price ratio as reported by the Miami MLS for improved commercial real estate within Miami-Dade County from $1 million to $10 million edged up in November to 93%, the highest level since the 94.5% ration in March of the same year. after a dip in September. This puts this ratio in the upper part of the range so far in 2020. This ratio is in line with anecdotal evidence of pricing holding relatively firm, at least for the properties that are trading, in the face of COVID-19.
0 Comments
Sky Kennels: Mounting Sanitation and Noise Issues for Pet Friendly High-Rise Multifamily Properties
Downtown America is Becoming an Open Sewer as Dog Populations Multiply in Multifamily Towers
As Americans have been moving back to the central business districts of its cities, a situation has been developing that has gone largely unnoticed except by those affected; downtown America is becoming an open sewer. In downtown areas it has become common to be met by the sight of a dog’s arched back. That is generally internalized as innocuous, as we all grew up with dogs in neighborhoods, and dogs poop and pee outside. Right? Yes, that is true, but only up to a point. As the density becomes too great, the concentration of urine and feces in the little remaining green space of downtown America is increasingly unpleasant if not unhealthy. Feces, after all, is feces. Though I think most would quickly agree with this after only a moment of thought, for any that doubt this claim, Popular Science addressed it in an article about how dog feces is essentially the same as that of humans. Ditto urine; pee is pee.
This is happening all across America as downtown populations swell. We’ve lived in numbers downtown before, but that was long ago in an era when dog ownership was not as prevalent. Back then families with kids got dogs, really for the kids as much as anything. Today young adults get dogs seemingly in lieu of kids, and young people like to live downtown. In reality, the modern family is less the varying relationships in the popular sitcom of that name, but instead young couples with dogs as their children. In concentrated areas as is increasingly the case, it makes for one smelly, germ ridden situation.
To make this point, let’s consider our fair city, America’s most tropical, Miami, where the year around warmth exaggerates the aromatic effects of open sewage. The ever more numerous multifamily buildings in its downtown area are increasingly dog friendly, with the resultant open sewage numbers becoming mind boggling and nostril overwhelming in some parts. In a 2018 article, the population in Greater Downtown Miami was estimated to be approaching 210,000. Some buildings downtown – more on that later – appear to have as many as half as many dogs as people. For illustration purposes on a city-wide level, let’s guess that there are 20% as many dogs downtown as people. That equates to 42,000 dogs. If there aren’t that many now – I truly can’t say for sure – there will be, and then later more. With that assumption, here is what that adds up to in total excrement:
42,000 Dogs (assumed)
x 20 pound average weight
x 15 midpoint of 10 to 20 ml of urine for per pound of body weight per day
x 365 days per year
÷ 3,785 ml per gallon
________________
1,215,000 +/- gallons urine per year
To put this in perspective, this would fill 90 13,500 gallon typical home swimming pools.
Mind boggling, right? Walk around and notice the smell, particularly in any patch of green space near any dog friendly building in downtown. That smell, the one like that in stairwells in public transit stations, is the result.
Then there is the feces. Again, let’s pick on tropical Miami as an example:
42,000 dogs (assumed)
x 0.75 pounds of feces per day for the average dog
x 365 days per year
_____________________________
11.5 million +/- pounds of feces dropped per year
Yep.
In the above calculation, note that I use a daily feces per dog amount of 0.75 pounds. That comes from a document about clean water which further notes that a single average dog’s feces contains 7.82 billion bacterial coliforms each day. The article goes further – you know how those these silly clean water types can be – to note the general and significant health risks of dog feces. Thought I’d drop that in.
An astute reader, particularly if partial to dogs, will note that most feces is picked up by owners. That is generally true. Regardless, the residual feces smear left each time a dog defecates, visibly obvious to anyone that looks where dog has poop has just been removed, is significant enough to make the point. For the following, we’ll assume that a mere 1/4 of an ounce, a bit more than a teaspoon, of feces dropped remains, on average, per defecation, sometimes more for those with “digestive issues,” sometimes less.
42,000 Dogs (assumed)
x 0.25 oz. of residual feces per defecation
x 2 defecations per day
÷ 16 oz per pound
x 365 days peryear
__________________________
479,000 pounds +/- of residual feces left on downtown Miami greenspace per year
That aforementioned astute reader that loves dogs would perhaps point out that “insects and microorganisms consume it,” perhaps noting this as natural and good, Whole-Foods-like. I would not entirely disagree with the point, but I would note that there is a term for such: open sewer. If one deranged person poops at the bus stop, it is a clean up issue, but if everyone poops outside, it is an open sewer. The point? It is not the act that makes it an open sewer, it is the density. Ditto for dogs.
Also, and I think worse, dog owners sometimes allow their dogs to defecate and urinate on their balconies. This causes urine and feces to drip down not only on other units, but into the swimming pools, hot tubs, and other common facilities located below. “is that rain?” “Er, no.”
There is also the issue of the fecal and urination accidents in elevators and hallways, frequently left by entitled owner types “for the little people to clean up.” Again, do the math. Assume, in a building with 200 dogs, every 50th time a dog is taken out to relieve itself, there is an accident. Well, with 200 dogs going out 2 x per day, this would mean 8 accidents in elevators, per day, nearly 3,000 a year! Residents of dog friendly buildings will tell you that calculation matches their experience.
Then there is the incessant barking, like a giant kennel cage in the sky. Woof. Everywhere, always, woof. The sounds of the sky kennel.
Anyone considering visiting a dog friendly building with small children, anyone elderly, anyone undergoing chemotherapy, or anyone with a compromised immune system would be well served to look up campylobacter. People don’t realize that dogs are carriers of bacteria that can make people ill. Outbreaks attributable to dogs, like this one, likely go undetected all the time. Common sense would indicate that staying away from a place where dogs urinate and defecate several hundred times per day in a small area, aka an open sewer, might make sense for anyone with any immune deficiency, but people don’t think of this. Other wonderful things transmitted by dog feces, as noted by DoodyCalls (great name, right?), include whipworms, hookworms, roundworms, tapeworms, parvo, corona, giardiasis, salmonellosis, and cryptosporidiosis. Also, some of these can be found in swimming pools. Thus, if you find yourself ill in the days after swimming in the pool of a high rise, the culprit may have been above you in the buildings sh#tmist, the residue swept or washed off of the balconies of dog owners that have their mutts poop and pee on their balconies. Pleasant, right? Brings to mind the old expression “don’t eat where you sh#t.”
Americans criticize developing countries for open sewage ditches, for living among their feces. Are we not doing the same thing? Though open sewage and consequent hookworm epidemic is increasingly seen as an issue in America’s poorer areas, are we not inviting the same issues into our downtown areas at large? Why would we do that?
This is all seemingly a byproduct of zoning code or other laws that are not clearly applicable or perhaps are even ignored. It seems to not at all. Zoning or other rules tend to limit dogs per acre in residential areas unless you are a kennel, and high-rise residential buildings are not registered as kennels. In Miami-Dade, one cannot own more than four dogs on properties under an acre. The reason for such limits has to do with sanitation and noise, health and quality of life issues. What is to be done, however, for a property that has hundreds of dogs per acre, but spread over multiple floors.
What can you do?
Bring it up in local government meetings. Email, write, or fax your local government officials. This is a growing issue, but few at the moment are vocal about it. Your voice is needed. Here in Miami, those aggrieved or just with something to say about it might contact their local Miami commissioner Ken Russell, their mayor Francis Suarez, and the city of Miami’s zoning department to ask why they allow open sewage in downtown Miami.
Also, vote with your pocketbook by not moving into a dog friendly building. Let management know why you are not moving there. Post comments about all this issue on social media and in building reviews. You’ll be helping others avoid nuisance and inconvenience they’ll otherwise not notice until it is too late.
Note there are canine population assumptions in this post that are only that, assumptions. Though I’ve tried to use numbers that are reasonably representative of reality, I can’t be sure as to the exact population numbers.
Related Posts:
There are numbers of related posts linked to in this post. If you need more, check out some of these:
Zoonotic Diseases in Dogs
Is Pet Waste Harmful to Humans? Diseases From Dog Poop
Zoonoses: The Diseases Our Cats and Dogs Give Us
Exposure to Animal Feces and Human Health: A Systematic Review and Proposed Research Priorities
Dog droppings pose a health risk
11 Ways Your Beloved Pet May Make You Sick
Diseases From Animals: A Primer
Miami Is the Nation’s Best City for Dog Owners
Miami Ranked the Best City to Be a Dog in the U.S.
Solving The Pet Pee Needs In An Urban High-Rise Apartment
0 Comments
Chart: September Miami-Dade Unemployment Rate Approaches Prior Peak After Prior Month Respite Head Fake
As can be seen in the chart above of the unemployment rate in Miami-Dade for the year ending September 1, 2020, the unemployment rate as of September 1 went back up to 13.0%, not so far from its peak of 14.5% reached two months prior. This followed a welcome decline in the month between to 8.0%, the lowest since March 2020, that now seems to have been a statistical head fake given the benefit of hindsight.
Unemployment levels have remained elevated since COVID-19 reeared its head in March. In the months prior to this, the unemployment rate was two-ish in general, registering a tight 1.5% in February 2020. The effects of COVID-19 on employment and the economy in the Miami area and around the country continue.
Higher unemployment rates can have negative effects on commercial real estate, increasing vacancy rates and decreasing rent growth. Offsetting this is the associated low cost of money, and perhaps the prospect of inflation in the near future due to the ballooning of money supply with efforts to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus. On a good note, as we experience new surges in infections, we seem to be figuring out how to navigate them better, thus presumably future effects will at least be less pronounced. Even more positively, it is looking like a vaccine will be available within months.
Here’s hoping.
0 Comments
Chart: Miami Commercial Real Estate Sales to List Price Ratio Firms Back Up ~ October 2020 MLS
The sales to list price ratio as reported by the Miami MLS for improved commercial real estate within Miami-Dade County from $1 million to $10 million firmed back up in October to just over 90% after a dip in September. This put the ratio within but in the lower end of a 5% band it has been in for the past year or so.
It remains reasonable to assume there is a touch of COVID effect on this ratio, with the sales to list prior ratio seeming to now be a touch lower than before COVID. Nonetheless, this ratio continues to remain in the middle of where it has been in the past decade, as can also be clearly seen in the chart.
0 Comments
Chart: Miami-Dade Commercial Real Estate Sales Maintain Strength ~ October 2020 MLS
As can be seen in the chart above of the trailing two years of closed sales of Miami-Dade commercial property, both improved commercial property (with buildings) and vacant commercial land, recorded in the Miami MLS. October 2020 was again a strong month in line with recent, also strong, months. The Miami Multiple Listing Service (MLS) will not record all commercial property sales and thus cannot be said to be fully representative of the asset class. Nonetheless, it does record many, and given that it is representative of commercial property sales recorded in MLS in a prior period versus now, it should be reasonable reliable as a tool for comparing activity between periods.
0 Comments
Negotiating: Strategic Advantages of Backup Offers for Commercial Property Buyers
I regularly am in situations where a buyer is interested in some commercial property that is already under contract. It is the exception where I don’t recommend submitting a backup offer. There are two principal advantages to a buyer of submitting a backup offer in an effort to put a backup contract in place. Both are strategic advantages.
“This is the bottom line; win the game.”
~Joe Namath
First, if the current active contract buyer does not close, then a backup contract becomes the active contract, knocking out competitive buyers before they have a chance to get started. The more sought after a property is, the more significantly this benefit is, but it is always a benefit as it only takes one buyer to knock you out of the process. Oh, by the way, that could be a backup offer being submitting while you’re thinking about it. Just saying…
Second, and I think more powerfully, a backup contract in place increases the likelihood of a property again becoming available as it tends to make a seller less likely to grant consideration or additional due diligence time, if asked.
Think about it. Imagine a buyer has been under contract with plenty of time for due diligence. The buyer asks for an extension of due diligence. If the seller only has people saying they’re interested – talk is cheap – then he/she might or might not grant the extension. If a firm backup offer is in hand, that same seller is much less likely to grant the extension.
Allow me to go one better, strategically. A backup buyer that really wants a property can make a hard offer, i.e. an offer with a non-refundable deposit or at least with some portion non-refundable. Why? A seller in a due diligence period will consider that differently than an offer with a new due diligence period. If you want to play to win, this is your best shot.
0 Comments