And the Bob Enzyte Big Idea Award Goes To The Carlisle Development Group and Carrfour Supportive Housing!

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Last night the Carlisle Development Group and Carrfour Supportive Housing received MVB's most prestigious award for their innovative solutions to building and managing affordable housing. Its most recent endeavor will create lodging for the homeless and bring affordable housing to downtown Miami. The groups will transform the 80-year-old Royalton Hotel at 131 SE First Street into 100 apartments for people making less than $22,740 a year. 80 apartments will be reserved for those who were homeless. The groups bought the hotel for $3.5 million and the county and state arranged $15.8 million in financing. The fact that they even bothered to attempt to wade through the county and state's bureaucratic maze is worth an award in itself. That they have been successfully doing this for years is amazing. So, it's with a great big "Tip of Our Backward Wearing Kangols" that we happily salute them with a wish that there were more companies like them.


As an aside for those two readers wondering about Bob's attempt to stop self-medicating well, we are happy to report that during last night's award ceremony at Churchill's Pub in Little Haiti, Bob was able to keep his pants on throughout the entire affair. Things seem to be looking up for him...well, maybe not everything is looking up like it use to, but at least Bobby is keeping his pants on and for all of us here at MVB, that's something to be thankful for.

Previous MVB Big Idea Awards: Shaya Boymelgreen, Jorge Perez, Bob Rubin.