Even before the next campaign report is due next week, Miami Beach Commissioner 
Michael Grieco passed the half million dollar mark in his quest to become the city’s next mayor. Last month’s campaign finance report shows $41,575 brought in April for a total warchest of $500,942.
But almost 10 percent of that comes from a real estate investor who supported higher zoning in North Beach and may want to gentrify several blocks of South Beach around Flamingo Park.
Adam Walker, who has given Grieco at least $40,400 bundled through his company, Boardwalk Properties, and 40 other related firms, bought 15 aging, low- and moderate-rent Art Deco apartment buildings in South Beach for $59 million last year and immediately raised rents 50 percent to force working people out and cater to a more affluent clientele.
Read related story: Dan Gelber raises mayoral money fast, and spends it fast
“It’s true that instead of having taxi drivers and sous chefs, you’ll end up with younger attorneys, people who work in the Design District, people who work downtown,” Walker told the Miami Herald . “These are people
who drive Porsches and are drawn to Miami Beach but don’t want to live in high rises.”
In a February, 2016, letter to the editor of the Miami Herald, Grieco — who is running for mayor against former Sen. Den Gelber, who has raised $361,519 and much of it from outside the city — defended workforce housing, saying that he and Commissioner Joy Malakoff had made efforts to preserve and increase it. But he told Ladra recently that what Walker did was invest in improvements to restore, even save Art Deco buildings that have long been neglected.
Meanwhile, Walker has been known to neglect his own properties. State records show that buildings his mulitple companies owns have, collectively, received dozens of violations since 2012 for such things as holes in the ceiling, holes in the wall, discarded appliances outside, cockroaches, and a failure to display balcony inpsections more than once, just for starters.
Miami-Dade Court records also show he’s filed paperwork to evict tenants 112 times since 2014. Grieco better hope they’re not still city voters.
“He supports me for the same reason anybody else 
supports me, because he likes what I am doing for Miami Beach,” Grieco told Ladra, questioning why I would even bring this up (because it’s the biggest case of bundling by far).
“He’s doing a good thing saving those buildings. He’s making a big investment,” Grieco said about Walker.
Yes, and the $40,000 given to the mayoral campaign can also be seen as an investment. In what?
“Good government,” Grieco said.
Michael Grieco hits $500K, with help from real estate investor added by Ladra on
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i like Dan…he shouldn’t be running for mayor though; he’s too important to be wasted on a job like this.
i can’t stand grieco; just shaking his hands makes me cringe. and yet somehow, he’s perfect for miami beach and miami beach is perfect for him (incompetent, dishonest, narcissist).
what a screwed up world. i guess the issue is assuming grieco wins, will he serve out his full term or do something so crooked that will lead to him getting indicted by the feds? could be an even money bet.
Didn’t Grieco deny to you that he didn’t know anything about the PAC and the people behind it (some guy named Brian Abraham)? Then why is he know saying he knows the guy and they have pictures together? Did he lie to you or did you mislead your readers?
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article154513549.html
Thanks for your reply. The underlying premise of what the developer did to raise rents seems flawed. He paid $59 million for the properties. I am sure the seller was happy. He didn’t knock them down and look to build a high rise which is what everyone fears. If he was able to “immediately” raise rents 50% then the rents were either drastically sub-market and where being subsidized by the current owner for some reason, or he more than likely renovated them before raising the rents. Unfortunately when housing in Miami Beach is in high demand and development is restricted through zoning and preservation this is going to continually happen. Once the sale happened a re-assessment was triggered and the properties taxes most likely went up 100% as well. But that is a problem bigger than one developer. I am sure the people who move into the renovated apartments feel that they are getting a good deal as well but they just happen to be higher up the economic ladder. But it is easy to label the guy a “greedy developer” – meanwhile he is caught in the same gentrification system as everyone else. Of course, the restaurants and hotels could pay the workers more so they could afford to live where they work but that would just speed up the merry-go-round. But who exactly do you expect a politician to raise money from- it is either unions or rich people. Pick your poison.
What a hack job. So, Gelber gets most of his money from outside of Miami Beach and has not be seen in public life in the city until he announced for Mayor, and you write a hit piece on Grieco for taking money from a local developer who plans to preserve and renovate 15 historic properties? This type of development, preserving and renovating historic properties and not building new out of place hi-rises, is exactly the type of development most locals are in favor of and what the city needs more of- updating substandard properties to modern properties while preserving their architectural significance. Whereas Gelber gets almost all his money from outside interests who are looking for someone to represent the big money when they want to come in and change everything and ruin what is left of the beach.
This is not the only story on this blog about this mayoral race. Ladra already wrote about Gelber’s significant out of city support weeks ago. And it will likely come up again. And again. As long as he keeps getting more checks from Chatanooga or Charlotte or wherever. But I hope you don’t think that means I have to ignore a half mil campaign warchest of which 10% comes from the same source. If you expect that, then you are at the wrong blog.
Also, there is nothing wrong with renovating historic properties and restoring them. But that does not mean you have to raise rents by 50% or more to force the waiters and line cooks of Miami Beach out so that only attorneys and chefs can live there. There should be a way to renovate and save these buildings without gentrifying all of South Beach, because you cannot deny that has already happened a lot.
Political Cortadito will continue to cover this race, looking at both candidates a little sideways because neither one is perfect or even truly inspires much confidence for their own reasons. I actually lean toward Mike, believe it or not. If I lived on the Beach and the election were today, he’d have my vote. But it’s too bad we don’t have a better third candidate.
Love, Ladra
I agree about the need for a third candidate, Ladra. I like Gelber, but I would love to have seen Gongora (who lost to Phil Levine in 2013) run again this year, for mayor instead of commissioner.
gongora? no effing way. good riddance to that dude.
Seems like Greico should have more money on hand by now. He truly has the mayoral je me sais quoi – young, handsome, progressive yet reasonable. Gelber seems kinda rusty. What kind of public service has he been up to recently? I think you have to stay active to be relevant. I think he is going to try to rest on his past career and father’s work too much…
When Are WE Going to Call “Donations and Contributions ” for IT’S Real NAME ?
Every Were They are an INVESTMENT !
Yet another reason to dislike the idea of Grieco for mayor. That he would espouse all that hogwash about preserving housing for working people, all the while stuffing contributions down his drawers from a sleaze-meister with slumlord morals such as Adam Walker, shows just how much a talking-out-of-both-sides-of-his-mouth hypocrite he really is.