Ken Griffin, Orlando Bravo Join Developers, CEOs With Plan To Supercharge Miami
A group of South Florida’s heavy-hitting business leaders has banded together to put forward a plan they say will help Miami capitalize on pandemic-era momentum, overcome its growing infrastructure challenges and solidify its position as a global destination for business and talent.
The Partnership for Miami launched this week with a 118-page report outlining Miami’s shortcomings and how to fix them. The 23-member group includes a mix of recently arrived business titans like Citadel CEO Ken Griffin and Thoma Bravo founder Orlando Bravo, along with longtime Miami developers like Merrimac Ventures’ Nitin Motwani and Codina Partners CEO Ana-Marie Codina Barlick.
The group of executives spent more than a year working on the report, titled Miami 2035, A Miami That Works for All, creating a deep and data-backed look at what they say are the challenges holding Miami back and offering six key focus areas they believe will push the city forward.
“We wanted to help create an objective, independent fact base by which we can measure Miami's progress, particularly as it relates to quality of life,” Raul Moas, the president of the new Partnership for Miami, told Bisnow in an interview Wednesday. “Then we want to bring attention to the kinds of interventions or solutions or investments that could move the needle.”
The strategic goals include building more affordable housing, diversifying Miami’s economy and improving education opportunities from kindergarten through college. The report says Miami ranked last among 23 peer cities in science, technology, engineering and math college graduates and toward the bottom in teacher pay.
The report also calls on the county to improve Miami International Airport to promote global connectivity, streamline building permit procedures as part of a push to modernize government services, and commit to protecting the natural environment while promoting resiliency.
“The point of this group is to be part of the conversation, to help support great ideas and to hold ourselves accountable — both in the private sector as well as the public sector — so that we're advancing the Miami that we all want our kids and grandkids to grow up in,” said Motwani, who is also one of the master developers of the 25-acre Miami Worldcenter megaproject.
While the group has put forward an extensive list of proposed solutions, most of which involve suggestions for local and county government initiatives, none of its members have committed any capital as part of the organization's rollout.
The membership roster, which Moas and Motwani said would likely expand, includes the CEOs of Baptist Health, Jackson Health System, the Miami Dolphins and Royal Caribbean, along with executives at Related Group, McKinsey & Co. and the Miami Heat.
The organization launched with a report, created with the help of McKinsey, the partnership's “official knowledge partner,” to highlight where the group sees the need for investment and where its members would be interested in providing support, Motwani said. McKinsey's managing partner in Miami, André Dua, is a founding member of the partnership.
“We wanted to get the report out there to level-set where we all are and where we think we are,” Motwani said. “We want to continue to engage with the private sector and elected officials, get people aware that we're here, and then work with those people on actionable next steps on ways to help improve this incredible place we call home.”
Each prong of the Partnership for Miami’s playbook outlines a hurdle facing Miami and a path to overcome it.
The report calls out Miami as “one of the least-affordable urban centers in the country,” with the highest share of cost-burdened renters. The partnership suggests that local officials should cut red tape for new construction, leverage public land for development and unlock new financing mechanisms to “accelerate the construction of housing, particularly affordable and workforce units.”
The report’s commentary on creating a diverse economic base highlights that 48% of Miami’s GDP comes from real estate, information services, professional services and the finance sector.
To address the issue, the group put forward 10 recommendations across three major themes. The report suggests the city should double down as a hub for sports, arts and hospitality and deepen Miami's strengths in the industries that are overrepresented by attracting the tech firms that support them.
It suggests Miami focus on becoming “a true innovation and tech hub in a few key sectors,” fostering growth in the sustainable infrastructure, renewable energy and distributed computing industries.
This initiative is modeled after the Partnership for New York City, a group of more than 100 businesses, including Amazon, Citadel and Meta, promoting civic engagement and growth for the city.
Moas, who spent the past six years working for the Knight Foundation, is one of two full-time staff at the partnership. He said the nonprofit is more of a civic organization than a business lobbying group.
“The partnership is a group of business leaders acting in the civic interest of Miami, and specifically building towards the Miami that works for everyone,” he said. “That's different from a business interest group that's advocating for business-friendly policies.”
These are the members of the Partnership for Miami:
- Diane Bessette, vice president and chief financial officer at Lennar Corp.
- Bo Boulenger, president and CEO of Baptist Health
- Orlando Bravo, founder and managing partner of Thoma Bravo
- Ana-Marie Codina Barlick, CEO of Codina Partners
- Jaret Davis, global senior vice president at Greenberg Traurig
- Albert Dotson Jr., managing partner at Bilzin Sumberg
- André Dua, managing partner in Miami for McKinsey & Co.
- Tom Garfinkel, vice chairman, CEO and president of the Miami Dolphins
- Jessica Goldman Srebnick, co-chair at Goldman Properties
- Jorge Gonzalez, vice chairman and CEO of City National Bank
- Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel
- Manny Kadre, chairman and CEO of The Kollective
- Jason Liberty, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group
- Jose Mas, CEO of MasTec
- Eric Mendelson, co-president at Heico Corp.
- Carlos Migya, president and CEO of Jackson Health System
- Nitin Motwani, managing partner at Merrimac Ventures
- Jon Paul Pérez, president at Related Group
- Robert Sanchez, chairman and CEO of Ryder
- Dan Sundheim, founder and chief investment officer at D1 Capital Partners
- Maribel Pérez Wadsworth, president and CEO of the Knight Foundation
- Teri Williams, president and chief operating officer at OneUnited Bank
- Eric Woolworth, president for business operations of the Miami Heat
