fbpx

Agenda

Concrete results for Brightline

A fleet of 100 trucks spent 18 hours pouring 5,500 cubic yards of concrete at Brightline’s MiamiCentral station; the pour was for the foundation of the six-block station, which will start going vertical now. Service is expected to launch in the second quarter of 2017.

A fleet of concrete trucks pours the foundation for Brightline’s MiamiCentral
A fleet of concrete trucks pours the foundation for Brightline’s MiamiCentral

By the end of the year, the first trains will arrive and testing will start in Broward County, All Aboard Florida President Mike Reininger said at a Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce Downtown Council meeting. The stations will be completed in the first quarter of 2017 and marketing will ramp up with concepts such as, “You’ve Sat in Traffic Long Enough,” “A Smarter Way from A to Z” and “Your Neighborhood Just Got Bigger.”

The last slogan has to do with increased mobility in the region since trips on the two Brightline segments –
Miami/Fort Lauderdale and Fort Lauderdale/West Palm Beach – will take only 30 minutes.

The South Florida segments are fully funded, while Brightline is currently looking at alternatives for financing the rest of the project to Orlando International Airport. Market turmoil at the end of 2015 hindered efforts to issue tax-exempt private bonds.

Reininger didn’t announce ticket prices, but said service to Orlando will be significantly cheaper than flying. Given the cost of parking and express lane tolls on I-95, Brightline will be very competitively priced for service within South Florida. However, a lot of the allure will be about amenities, including Wi-Fi on the trains and in the stations, reserved seating and facing seats for business meetings. Seats also will have places to set cellphones and hang purses.

Trains will be compliant with the American Disabilities Act with retractable walkways to bridge the gap between train cars and platforms.

The stations will stand out with LED lighting that can change colors when a train comes into the station or celebrate special occasions, like when a sports team is playing in a championship.

All of the stations will offer car and bike share programs, rentals cars, tie-ins to mass transit systems and shuttles to key destinations not served by public transit. Fort Lauderdale will also have a shuttle to the Water Taxi along the New River.

SFBWmag.com has a two-part series about rail mass transit and related developments from the January and February issues of SFBW.

Super-yachts in Miami

The 253-foot Silver Fast by Burgess takes center stage at Island Gardens Deep Harbour.
The 253-foot Silver Fast by Burgess takes center stage at Island Gardens Deep Harbour.

A collection of 24 super-yachts up to 250 feet long and valued in excess of $800 million sailed into Island Gardens Deep Harbour for the Yachts Miami show.

Among them were the 253-foot Silver Fast by Burgess and the 206-foot 11/11 by Benetti.

The super-yacht marina held a “berth-day” celebration with food and drinks on the marina’s expansive deck, which drew dignitaries, including Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, Miami Commissioners Willy Gort and Francis Suarez and Miami Beach Commissioner Ricky Arriola.

SFBWmag.com has a profile of Mehmet Bayraktar, chairman and CEO of marina developer Flagstone Property Group, from the February issue of SFBW.

Precision cancer treatments emerge

The human genome project is having a major impact on developing precision cancer treatments, says Dr. George Daneker, chief medical officer of Cancer Treatment Centers of America, which is headquartered in Boca Raton.

Mark Ketcham and Michael Myers at CTCA event.
Mark Ketcham and Michael Myers at CTCA event.
Gary Press, Steve Mackin, Bonnie Daneker and Dr. George Daneker.
Gary Press, Steve Mackin, Bonnie Daneker and Dr. George Daneker.

During a presentation at Gilda’s Club in Fort Lauderdale, Daneker used easily understandable concepts to help the audience get a quick lesson in the relationship between genetics and cancer treatment.

One analogy is that the millions of base pairs that form the building blocks of the DNA double helix are like words in a sentence. Small changes, like inserting the word not, can create a major difference in the meaning of the sentence. In the body, “You can accumulate changes which can drive abnormalities,” he says.

The discovery of a mutated gene involved with melanoma allowed treatment with positive outcomes to go from 15 percent with traditional treatment to 80 percent, Daneker says.

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) looks at thousands of genes like they were an instruction book, Daneker says. Doctors can see maps of how genes and proteins relate.

CTCA has 3,000 patients that have undergone NGS tests, which Daneker says is the largest group in the U.S., if not the world. Until recently, CTCA wasn’t reimbursed for the tests, but it was important to help develop better treatment options. When patients have NGS, 73 percent of them are able to get an actionable treatment.

The targeted therapies result in a 52 percent improvement in quality of life and a 74 percent improvement in outcomes, Daneker says.

There was also $604 million in savings. Daneker says relating outcomes to cost will be a key factor in the future of health care given the cost of many new treatments.

SFBW was a sponsor of the event at Gilda’s.

EY Entrepreneur of the Year judges set

The nominations are in and South Florida will have three of the nine judges for the 30th-annual Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in Florida:

• Susan Amat, Ph.D., founder of Venture Hive in Miami

• Mark Volchek, director and co-founder of Higher One Holdings Inc. and the founder of Las Olas Venture Capital in Fort Lauderdale

• Naomi Whittel, CEO and founder of Reserveage Organics in Boca Raton

“The independent judging panel of accomplished individuals is what makes this award one of the most prestigious awards in business,” says Greg Rosica, EY’s Florida program partner.

South Florida finalists will be recognized at a May 25 reception and the statewide award recipients will be revealed on June 9 in Tampa.

South Floridians have had some major success in EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year program, most notably, H. Wayne Huizenga of Fort Lauderdale being named World Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005. Huizenga is the only person to be involved in founding three Fortune 500 companies: Waste Management, Blockbuster and AutoNation. 

Past Winners

These South Floridians were recognized by EY at the state level in the past three years:

• Naomi Whittel, Reserveage Organics (2013 – emerging)

• John Kunkel, 50 Eggs Inc. (2013 – hospitality)

• Philip Anson Jr., STS Holdings Inc. (2013 – services)

• Amin Rahman Ramjee, DiscountMugs.com (2014 – distribution and manufacturing)

• John Kanas, BankUnited (2014 – financial services)

• Stuart Miller, Lennar Corporation (2014 – lifetime achievement)

• Joseph Incandela, Cross Country Home Services (2014 – services)

• Marcelo Young, Transnational Foods (2015 – distribution and manufacturing)

• Daniel Cane, Modernizing Medicine (2015 – emerging)

• Ron Antevy, e-Builder Inc. (2015 – real estate and construction)

• Jamarlin Martin, Moguldom Media Group (2015 – services)

• Sam Zietz, TouchSuite (2015 – technology)

You May Also Like

2023 Prestigious Women Awards Honoree: Marbet Lewis

Marbet Lewis focuses her practice on the laws governing the alcohol industry and the production, importation, and sale of alcoholic beverage products. She represents clients in all aspects of alcohol and business licensing and regulatory compliance. Lewis represents domestic and foreign alcohol manufacturers and retailers wholistically in all alcohol licensing and regulatory permitting needs. A

2023 Prestigious Women Awards Honoree: Elvira Freire-Santamaria

Elvira Freire-Santamaria, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, is a principal at Stantec in Miami with over 25 of experience. She has served the Miami design studio as a tenured leader, architect, and senior project manager. She plays a pivotal role in fostering a collaborative culture amongst staff. Her exemplary attention to detail ensures that projects are

2023 Prestigious Women Awards Honoree: Traci Miller

Traci Miller started at Miller Construction in 1993 and became a shareholder in 2011. As part of the firm’s leadership team and SVP of Corporate Communications, she oversees business development and marketing, and community relations and is a champion of company culture. Miller is also a motivational speaker on the topics of Overcoming Doubt, Community

2023 Prestigious Women Awards Honoree: Jennifer Saint Louis

Dr. Jennifer Saint Louis serves as the Associate Vice President for Strategic Partnerships & Innovation at Broward College. In this role, she provides leadership for community-wide relationships aligning with the college’s Social Enterprise Plan. Providing operational oversight for municipal, agency, and employer partnerships, using a data-driven approach, her division expands and strengthens county-wide collaboration following

Other Posts

2023 Prestigious Women Awards Honoree: Julie Williamson-Bresset

Julie Williamson-Bresset has been blessed to have a 25+ year career in Finance/ Wealth Managment, all in the South Florida market. As a fifth-generation Floridian, Williamson-Bresset cares deeply about the community and uses both time and resources to invest in helping in every area. As a mother of four incredible kiddos, four cats, three dogs,

2023 Prestigious Women Awards Honoree: Denise Rubin

In a notoriously competitive South Florida real estate market, Denise Rubin stands out as a top producer in history and has amassed a room full of awards, including 32 “BEST” awards from the Builders Association of South Florida and seven-time Best Real Estate Professional of the Year. Rubin breaks records in the real estate industry,

2023 Prestigious Women Awards Honoree: Laurie Spector

A top-ranked real estate advisor affiliated with COMPASS in South Florida, Laurie Spector has been recognized as a RealTrends America’s Best Real Estate Professional. She is a member of the invitation-only Master Brokers Forum, the COMPASS Club, the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, as well as the Neighborhood Choice Realtor in Rio Vista. Laurie is

2023 Prestigious Women Awards Honoree: Susan Colton

Susan Colton taught in public school classrooms and served as a highly respected, nationally recognized principal for thirty-two years. She is a speaker, trainer, and facilitator specializing in building positive relationships with diverse communities and putting students “at the top of the organizational chart.” She also served as Director of Leadership Development for Broward County