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Miami-Dade Roundup
Rappers help promote Miami snack company Rap Snacks
INNOVATION
Hip Hop Snacks
Rap Snacks uses rappers and other recording artists to promote its treats — often prominently featuring them on its packaging. The $5-million-a-year company, which CEO James Lindsay founded in 1994, bills its foods as the official “Snack of Hip Hop.”
Lindsay regularly teams with hip hop artists to create new flavors, which include Cardi B Honey Drip Butter Popcorn, Migos Sour Cream and Ranch chips and a line of vegan snacks in partnership with Atlanta restaurant Slutty Vegan.
Lindsay pulled back on Rap Snacks for several years and concentrated on work as a brand manager for rapper Meek Mill. He relaunched the line in 2016 and recently inked a deal that put the company’s snacks in 4,200 Walmarts.
To complement his growing snack empire, Lindsay recently launched The Boss Up Initiative, which teaches young people how to start and run distribution companies.
BANKING
- Professional Bank’s parent company, Coral Gables-based Professional Holding, filed the preliminary registration to hold an initial public offering in which it hopes to raise $62 million.
EDUCATION
- Herbert and Nicole Wertheim donated $10 million to support music and theater programs at Florida International University’s School of Music, which is part of its College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts. The school will be renamed for them.
GOVERNMENT
- New predictions say the sea level could rise by between one foot and 2½ feet by 2060, which is faster than earlier predictions, according to the Southeast Florida Climate Compact.
REAL ESTATE
- The Miami metro area is No. 3 among U.S. cities most at risk of a housing downturn brought on by a recession, according to online brokerage Redfin. The company looked at the ratio of household income to median home sales price, average loan-to-value ratio of homes sold during 2018, the standard deviation of home prices from year to year, the share of homes that sold twice within 12 months for different prices, diversity of local employment and portion of the local economy dependent on exports. Tampa was the second most-at-risk city in Florida and No. 6 in the nation. Orlando was No. 10.
- Lennar has proposed rezoning 98 acres of agricultural land in the southern part of the county so that it can build 982 single-family homes.
TOURISM
- The adults-only, all-inclusive Bungalows Key Largo resort has reopened. A fire destroyed the 11-acre property about seven months ago, just a few months after it opened.
- Cuba was Miami International Airport’s No. 4 international market in 2018, but as of December, the U.S. government banned commercial flights to all cities outside of Havana. It recently added to that the suspension of charter flights to all Cuban cities except for Havana and limited the number of flights between the U.S. and Havana. Cuba trips accounted for about 2.8% of MIA’s passenger traffic in 2018.
- Low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines will make Miami one of its hubs, with 22 direct flights from Miami International Airport, as well as 100 flight attendants and 30 pilots based at the airport. The owner of the Sterling Building on Lincoln Road has initial approval for the first major hotel on the pedestrian mall in Miami Beach’s South Beach. The building is currently home to retailers, including Books & Books.
Read more in Florida Trend's March issue.
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