A new nonprofit called Partnership for Miami intends said it intends to develop plans to capitalize on Miami’s ‘rapid ascent as an international center for business, sports and the arts in order to establish both a vision for the city’s future and sgtrategies to sustain its growth.
pportal@miamiherald.com
A group of prominent Miami business, sports and civic leaders, including billionaire newcomers Orlando Bravo and Ken Griffin, have announced the formation of a new nonprofit organization that will focus on promoting broad-based prosperity for residents while developing solutions for the city’s most pressing issues.
The nascent Partnership for Miami is led by a 22-member board that also includes MasTec CEO and Inter Miami soccer club co-owner Jorge Mas and Miami Dolphins President and CEO Tom Garfinkel. Each board member pledged a gift of undisclosed size to launch the organization, which its leaders say will be fully privately funded.
In a statement, the Partnership said it intends to capitalize on Miami’s “rapid ascent” as an international center for business, sports and the arts in order to establish both a vision for the city’s future and strategies to sustain its growth. That means identifying areas for improvement and devising solutions to problems in several critical areas, in particular housing affordability, public transportation and education, its leaders say.
“That growth is not a foregone conclusion,” said Partnership President Raul Moas in an interview. “Sustaining that growth requires intention and dedication. Miami is not yet fully formed. It’s not fully baked yet. It’s a young city. We have an opportunity to reflect on and decide what kind of city we want to be.”
Report focuses on half-dozen big issues
Along with the announcement, the Partnership released a 126-page “Miami 2035” report that evaluates the city’s status in six areas, outlines goals for improvement, and provides examples of successful solutions from other “peer cities” ranging from Atlanta to London. The six general areas are affordability and housing, economic diversification, education, the airport and seaport, environmental protection and modernization of local government services.
The report’s findings on the city’s housing crisis, economic disparities and low overall levels of education and teacher pay, among other areas where the city falls well short of its peers, will be familiar to most Miamians.
The goals, meanwhile, are broad and offer no specific solutions — such as calling generally for better and expanded public transportation. But Moas said the document, produced by business consultant McKinsey & Company, is intended as a factual and analytic baseline for the Partnership’s future work.
“The report calls out the good, the many things we’ve accomplished, and the challenges,” he said. “It’s intended to be broad.”
‘Bold civic agenda’
Because it’s early, Moas said, the group doesn’t yet have specific proposals or recommendations to offer, but promises what he described as a “long-term, bold civic agenda.”
The volunteer group will wield no special authority, but promises to work with elected officials and government administrations, civil society groups and other nonprofit organizations to develop and implement solutions, Moas said.
The hope is the Partnership will focus and coordinate the experience and expertise of the city’s business leadership in a systemic way that’s been missing for many years, he said, pointing to previous efforts to recover from 1992’s devastating Hurricane Andrew, the creation of the county’s widely praised homeless assistance system, and economic redevelopment initiatives following the Liberty City riots and Mariel boatlift in 1980.
Other peer cities like Atlanta have civic and business entities that serve a similar role, Moas said.
“That’s a role we haven’t seen the business community here serve in some time,” he noted. “We have done this before and it’s been successful.”
A new, more open ‘Non-Group’
Many of those initiatives arose from a secretive group of old-line, white non-Hispanic business leaders, including executives of the Miami Herald and its former Knight-Ridder parent, that was known informally as the Non-Group. The ad-hoc group effectively set the public agenda for the city for decades behind closed doors. After its existence was exposed by a Herald investigation in 1985, the Non-Group went public, diversified and formalized its membership but eventually disbanded.
The new Partnership “is committed about being public and transparent,” Moas said.
Moas, however, declined to specify the amounts board members have donated or the organization’s budget, though he acknowledged the latter figure will become public once the Partnership files its federal tax returns as a nonprofit. He described the donations as “multi-year commitments” at “a high threshold.”
He said all members have been actively engaged for 12 months in the group’s creation and will contribute further as specific initiatives are developed.
“This is a working group of business leaders who care deeply about Miami,” he said. “Folks are really committed to this moment. The opportunity before us is one that requires all hands on deck to make the most of. These are complex things that no one municipality, no one organization can solve on their own. It requires a variety of actors to come together.”
The Partnership board is comprised of top executives in Miami banking, law, finance and real estate development, among other areas.
It includes the CEOs of some of Miami-Dade County’s largest employers, including Baptist Health, Ryder and Royal Caribbean Group. Only one represents a public entity, Jackson Health System CEO Carlos Migoya. The board is co-chaired by developer Codina Partners CEO Ana-Marie Codina Barlick and McKinsey’s Miami managing partner, Andre Dua. Also on board is the newly appointed president of the Miami-based Knight Foundation, Maribel Perez Wadsworth.