Can South Florida's construction boom weather Wilma?

Publication: The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News)

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COPYRIGHT 2005 The Miami Herald

Byline: Matthew Haggman

Oct. 31--First came worries of overbuilding and fears speculators were fueling a real-estate bubble in South Florida. Then came soaring construction costs, a shortage of skilled workers and rising insurance costs. Then bankers pulled back on lending.

Those mounting pressures already have killed a few high-rise condominium projects before they got out of the ground. Many developers and public officials -- though upbeat about the region long-term -- now predict many of the planned projects will never materialize.

But now the pressure has ratcheted up. The culprit: Hurricane Wilma.

The storm's fierce winds whipsawed work sites -- toppling a crane in Hallandale Beach -- and punched gaping holes in gleaming towers along Miami's Brickell Avenue and in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Some 35 percent of Fort Lauderdale's downtown office space was initially left "not functional for use," according to the Broward County Economic Development agency, and a several offices on Miami's Brickell Avenue remained off-limits behind yellow police tape. Glass panes -- and, in the case of the Wachovia Financial Center in downtown Miami, granite tiles -- were still falling from high-rise towers two days after Wilma...

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