Becker & Poliakoff
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Attorneys
Bernie Friedman
Chair

Perry M. Adair
Alan S. Becker
Edgar O. Castro**
William J. Cea
Nelson D. Diaz
Carlos J. Gimenez
Yolanda Cash Jackson
Alan B. Koslow
Steven B. Lesser
Gary A. Poliakoff
Keith M. Poliakoff
Miguel Diaz de la Portilla
Cedric A. McMinn**
Neil M. Schiller


Articles
PDF Hollywood: Law Firm is King in City Hall Miami Herald
   
Notable Client Accomplishments
Government Law & Lobbying


Becker & Poliakoff is proud of its many accomplishments on behalf of its clients in the areas of:

Local Government
Procurement Litigation and Bid Protests
State Legislative Lobbying
2009 Notable State Legislative Accomplishments
2008 Notable State Legislative Accomplishments


Local Government Accomplishments:

  • Devised the winning strategies for concessions and contracts at Miami and Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airports for Duty Free Americas, Secure Wrap, Smart Carte, Paradies Shops, Delaware North Food and Hospitality, Inc., Fuel Facility Management, Travelex Financial and Business Services, Go Airport Shuttle, Supershuttle, SH&E-Concession Consulting, Limousines of South Florida, Sunshine cleaning Services, and Air-IT. Won on a 7-0 vote on extension for the Palm Beach Airport Hilton Hotel lease with Palm Beach County.

  • Won dozens of land use and zoning battles for various telecommunication providers, such as Nextel-Sprint, and T-Mobile on antenna siting issues in Miami Dade County , Broward County Palm Beach County and Collier County.

  • Quarterbacked a coalition lead by the Florida Retail Federation and hundreds of national and local retailers and shopping center owners in opposition to an Ordinance that would have required mandatory security cameras in all retail parking lots in Broward County.

  • Helped clients win various hotly contested engineering and design projects at Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport such as: Exit Roadway Design Criteria Package, High Speed Taxiway/Airfield Modification and General on-call aviation Engineering for Reynolds Smith Hill, the award winning design for the Rental Car Garage - Spillis Candella-DMJM-AECOM and the design of new $600M South Runway for PBSJ-RSH.

  • Successfully entitled with land use and zoning one of the first Transit Oriented Developments, Sheridan Stationside Village for developers Pinnacle Housing and RAM Development. The $500 million project includes over 1050 residential units, 599,000 square feet of commercial/office/hotel/retail space.

  • Successfully represented U.S. Legal on the award for legal insurance services for Broward County employees, Equaterra on the Third Party Assurance Contract for the County's ERP computer procurement, Bergeron Emergency Services for the County's hurricane debris removal contract, Crowe Horwath for the County and Enterprise Audits, DeRose Design Consultants for the on-call parking consultant, First Broward Auto Tag and Deerfield Auto Tag for the private tag agencies.

  • Represented Florida Stevedore and Hallmark Stevedore before the Broward County Commission in opposition to waiving or changing the rules and Code regarding new Stevedore franchises at Port Everglades.

  • Led one of the largest wine and spirit distributors, Premier Beverage, through the land use, zoning, and site planning process in Tampa and won approval to turn vacant agricultural property into a 1,575,000 square foot distribution facility and industrial park. Secured over $250,000 in economic incentives from Hillsborough County Commission.

  • Obtained various real estate development entitlements ( zoning, site plan, architectural review, signage, construction permits, variances, special exceptions, and certificate of occupancy) for TD Bank retail stores (branches) in Miami Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties. Involved in over 39 TD Bank store sites. Won RLI in city of Tamarac for TD Bank to provide the City with banking services.

  • Successfully rezoned a residential parcel to industrial/commercial for the expansion of LEXUS of Kendall. Won a precedent setting appeal of the Miami Dade County road impact fees for client.

  • Modified on an 11-1 vote the Comprehensive Development Master Plan of Miami-Dade County from residential to office/residential for developer client Alfredo Garcia Menocal.

  • The Firm represented WSG Development in obtaining the necessary zoning entitlements and incentives (90% return of TIFF) for a mixed use development in downtown Hollywood. The approvals which spanned a 15 month period included 10 public hearings for rezoning, master plan approval , design approval, development agreement approval, and significant financial incentives from various city of Hollywood boards including the CRA Board and City Commission. The Firm also successfully entitled a 41 story ocean-side hotel - Beach One Resort for Fortune Development in a unanimous vote.

  • Worked to secure tens of millions of dollars in economic incentives and other development rights, entitlements and special exceptions for height, setbacks, density, variances and land use amendments, for various residential, office and mixed use developers such as WSG ($24 million); JPI (City land and parking garage); Firm Realty/Lane Development ($14 million and a City parking garage; Southern Facilities ($15 million). Developer clients include Coscan, Trump Hollywood, Pinnacle/RAM (Sheridan Stationside Transit Oriented Development), Fortune, Cornerstone (Hollywood Stations), Triad (various affordable housing and tax credit projects and DUO in Hallandale Beach), MCZ/Centrum (Sian, Tides, Satori, Crowne Plaza Hotel); Diplomat Hotel ; J.W. Harris (Pompano Beach); Plaza Group (Ocean Palms double density); U.S. Capital (Broward Fashion Mall), Sunshine Gasoline (various service stations)., Ocean Properties (Taft Street Marriott Hotel).

  • Led the winning team of Seawood Builders- H.J. Russell for the hard fought right to design and build Broward County's new $50 million Central Broward Regional Park and Cricket Stadium in Lauderhill. Negotiated significant change orders, code interpretations, and design criteria issues with County and City officials. Led the winning team of James A. Cummings on the Broward County Courthouse addition (project cancelled and will be re-advertised). We also represented Spillis-DMJM Heery-Cartaya JV, the winning design professional for the new Courthouse. We also lead Seawood Builders on the successful award of the $20 million Mills Center design-build project an $10 million CM at Risk renovation of TY Park.

  • Quarterbacked the hotly debated and precedent setting long term lease extension for Embraer Aircraft, Inc. 's Aircraft maintenance, and parts distribution center adjacent to the North Runway at Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

  • Represented Advanced Auto Parts before City of Miami Code Enforcement Board and successfully reduced a code lien of over $290,000 to $2,500.

  • Rezoned from RV3M (town homes) to BU-1-A (commercial) for client Ferro Development to allow for Publix and Walgreens in western Miami Dade County.

Procurement Litigation and Bid Protests:

  • Defended two multi-million dollars contract awards for clients, Air-IT and Limousines of South Florida at the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Bid protests challenging the awards were denied, and Becker & Poliakoff intervened in each protest.

  • Won a bid protest in City of Doral for our client, American Traffic Solutions for the installation of ten cameras. The City of Doral had initially intended to award the contract to a competitor, however, based upon the protest, the decision was reversed in favor of American Traffic Solutions.

  • Successfully intervened and defended an FDOT award for a towing company, which was protested by a competitor. The towing contract involves servicing a portion of the Florida Turnpike.

  • Won bid protests for Palm Beach Convention Center hotel client, where the County intended to negotiate a development contract with a competitor.

State Legislative Lobbying

  • Secured tens of millions of dollars in line item State Appropriations for human service agencies and nursing homes affiliated with the Florida Association of Jewish Federations during 23 years of representation. Passed substantive legislation to mandate the teaching of the Holocaust in public schools and other legislation related to Hate Crimes and the divestiture of State pension funds from certain countries, such as Iran and Sudan.

  • Secured tens of millions of dollars for the City of Hollywood for senior center programs, beach nourishment, park improvements, museums, and public safety during 18 years of representation. Passed substantive legislation regarding Home Rule Power, Annexation, Community Re-Development Agencies (CRA), Municipal Elections, and coastal construction and development.

  • Supervised the $20 million successful Statewide Political Campaign of Amendment Four (Local Option Slot Machine Gaming) and the local Referendum on behalf of Isle of Capri Casinos and The Isle Casino and Racing at Pompano Park. Passed enabling legislation and Agency Rules to govern slot machine gaming and cardrooms. Worked on hundreds of permit approvals in the design, construction and operation of the new $200 million Isle Casino and Racing at Pompano Park. Have been involved in all major Legislative, Administrative, Executive and local gaming issues in Florida.

  • Passed State legislation on behalf of the Baltimore Orioles and the Florida Grapefruit League that provides tens of millions of dollars in State of Florida funding for the renovation and construction of Major League Baseball Spring Training Stadiums in Florida.

  • Secured the passage of State legislation for Access Health Solutions that created a special role for minority physician networks in the delivery of health care to underserved communities in Florida. Worked extensively in Tallahassee with various agencies, including Agency for Health Care Administration and the Medicaid Program Office, to ensure the promulgation of appropriate agency rules.

  • Worked on behalf of Ocean Harbor Insurance Company during a Special Session of the Florida Legislature to successfully re-enact PIP (Personal Injury Insurance) as a mandatory insurance in Florida. Worked with the Governors Office, House and Senate leaders, the Insurance Commissioner, and many others to reform and re-enact no fault insurance.

2009 Notable State Legislative Accomplishments
2008 Notable State Legislative Accomplishments

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