More than three decades after Hurricane Andrew blasted its way across southern Miami-Dade County in 1992, a Texas-based homebuilding firm called Onx has set up a factory in Pompano Beach to produce key components of homes that it says can withstand Category 5 hurricanes and winds of up to 175 mph.
Investors that swooped in on South Florida’s multifamily boom now face elevated interest rates, high insurance costs and plateauing rents. Compounding the problems are inflation, which has prompted rent delinquencies, and a hefty development pipeline that’s slightly tempered demand, prompted concessions and led rents to plateau or slightly decline in some submarkets.
Senate Bill 1526 strips local municipalities of their authority to ban, restrict or prevent the demolition of “nonconforming” and unsafe structures. The exceptions are for buildings individually placed on the National Register of Historic Places, contributing structures within a historic district listed in the National Register before 2000, and single-family homes.
