TELECOM CARRIERS COMING 
GROUP OF 41 VOTE TO OCCUPY CENTER
Saturday, August 5, 2000
By Barbara De Lollis

Miami real estate developer Manny Medina won a huge coup Friday when a group of telecommunications carriers voted to move equipment into his high-tech warehouse, but one of his competitors questioned the integrity of the deal.
"This is great for our project, for our company and for the community,'' said Medina, chairman of Terremark Worldwide, which recently entered the high-tech development business. ``Our building is specifically designed only to house telecom companies. We were overwhelmingly selected.''
The Terremark subsidiary, T-Rex, started planning the ``Technology Center of the Americas,'' a 700,000-square-foot building near the Miami Arena, months ago. But when a group of 41 telecom carriers voted Friday to house a network access point on the site, it gave the project newfound prestige. There are only four NAPs in the nation, and the fifth - the so-called ``NAP of the Americas'' - is supposed to lure more high-tech development to the area.
A NAP is a high-speed data switching station that would facilitate local Internet traffic and provide a more efficient, reliable network. It also would serve as a gateway for data, voice and video flowing to and from Latin America, where Internet usage and e-commerce are expected to grow substantially in the next few years.

The NAP of the Americas is not the only NAP in town. BellSouth will announce Monday its plan to launch the ``Hemispheric Internet Exchange.'' The regional telephone company is portraying its plan as endorsed by the InternetCoast and Beacon Council.

The InternetCoast, a regional group of technology and telecom executives where the idea of setting up a NAP in South Florida first took root, has said it will support both initiatives.

Miami developer Brian Friedman, whose partnership pitched a different site in downtown Miami for the NAP of the Americas project, said he's concerned about Friday's deal because it sprung from public sector efforts to lure the nation's fifth NAP. He questions who is running the initiative.

"People can do what they want to do, but they can't take what was promoted as an effort on behalf of the public as this was, under the guise of the InternetCoast and Beacon Council, and expect to commandeer that effort for very specific personal gain,'' he said.

Medina defended the process. ``If the implication is that this group is not credible, why did they bid then?,'' Medina asked. ``From what I understand, [Friedman's group] was ranked last.''

Medina's team was one of four groups interested in luring the NAP. The others:
* ABR LLC, a Miami-based partnership consisting of Alex Brown Realty, Telesource and Sealander. Proposed putting the NAP on a city block next to the Bank of America building on a block bordered by South Miami Avenue, Northeast First, Southeast First and Southeast Second Street.

* Argent Ventures, a New York developer. Proposed putting the NAP inside the Omni International Mall, which Argent shuttered and is renovating into a telecom hotel and high-tech incubator.

* Target WPB LLC, a Miami-based partnership consisting of David and Morris Berger and Beers Construction Co. Proposed housing the NAP in a newly built building in Hialeah at 5600-5700 NW 37th Ave.