FIRM NEWS: Meet Miami-Dade’s go-to lobbyists for real estate developers
September 4, 2024They add skyscrapers to Miami’s skyline and bring new single-family home communities into existence in southwest Miami-Dade.
But they’re not the developers.
No, they’re the developers’ hired guns: the lobbyists, land use lawyers and consultants who get projects off the ground and across the finish line.
They know the ins and outs of municipal and county government and have tight-knit relationships with politicians and bureaucrats. They’ve mastered the art of cutting through red tape and diffusing controversies. Miami’s developers can’t build without them.
“Hiring lobbyists is a necessary evil, but I happen to like my lobbyists very much,” Coconut Grove-based developer Michael Swerdlow said. “I think they serve an important function in getting things done with the government on a more timely basis.”
In the Miami market, Swerdlow and other major developers often rely on a small cadre who’ve made names for themselves as the go-to operatives for nabbing deals for government-owned land primed for redevelopment, securing zoning changes, approving site plans and obtaining building permits.
Because certain lobbyists have relationships with specific politicians or public employees, developers will hire a handful at once, creating superteams to push a project through.
Michael Larkin
Partner with Bercow Radell Fernandez Larkin & Tapanes law firm
For developers planning a project in Miami Beach, the odds are high that Larkin is their primary lobbyist. A land use lawyer for more than a quarter century, Larkin frequently makes the case for his clients in front of the City Commission and various boards that provide input on zoning changes and site plan approvals. He’s represented Miami Beach developer and Crescent Heights principal Russell Galbut on various projects in the city, as well as hoteliers Ronny Finvarb and Jeffrey Soffer.
Developers who have relocated to South Florida in recent years have also turned to Larkin for their Miami Beach projects. He represents Robert Rivani, president of Black Lion Investment Group, which moved from Los Angeles to Miami last year. Black Lion recently bought a Miami Beach mixed-use building for $63 million and is renovating it into a luxury office building.
Larkin also represented Witkoff, the New York-based and Miami Beach-based firm led by Steve Witkoff, in securing city approvals for the redevelopment of the Shore Club, an Art Deco hotel in South Beach. Witkoff and partner Monroe Capital are reimagining the property as the Shore Club Private Collection, an Auberge Resorts Collection-branded condo and hotel project with 49 units.
Melissa Tapanes Llahues, Partner with Bercow Radell
Fernandez Larkin & Tapanes law firm
A defining moment in Tapanes Llahues’ land use lawyering career occurred in 2015 when she successfully sought approval for River District, a $1 billion mixed-use project by New York-based Chetrit Group. The project stalled for a few years, but Chetrit revived it in 2022 and is currently building the first phase, which entails a 54-story apartment tower with two retail buildings. When fully completed, River District will have 1,600 residential units, a marina and 30,000 square feet of offices and retail on a 6.2-acre site along the Miami River.
“That was one of the first really big ʻwin-win’ situations that I worked on,” Tapanes said. “It was a project that really made my career take off.”
Today, Tapanes represents more than a dozen real estate developers and investors in the city of Miami, including Miami-based Coral Rock Development Group, New York-based ASG Equities and Moishe Mana, the largest commercial property owner in downtown Miami and Wynwood. She also represents developers in Coral Gables, Doral, Hialeah, Homestead and Pinecrest.
“It’s not always good to drink out of the same well,” Tapanes Llahues said. “If you are just working in one jurisdiction, sometimes it becomes difficult to work outside of it.”
