Blanca: South Florida, and Miami in particular within the region, has established a strong international trade business space that will continue to expand through the next decade. Miami has infrastructure with Miami International Airport. The Port of Miami’s expansion and planned dredging to accommodate the post-Panamax vessels will continue to support the expansion of international trade.

LeClaire: Where does South America fit into all of this?

Blanca: Brazil is our number one trading partner and Brazil’s GDP is expected to continue to grow at a very rapid pace. Wealth creation in Brazil is now starting to look for cross-border opportunities and Miami certainly is a natural. We’ve had a strong connection to Europe and Asia in addition to Latin America. There are tremendous opportunities for Miami to capture the expansion of those economies.

LeClaire: What is attracting that investment, specifically?

Blanca: We have not only our geography but also the cost of doing business here is affordable. We have a diverse population and a diverse business space. Certainly our weather and cultural activities and arts and so on have attracted CEOs from all over the world. We haven’t seen the kind of large corporate relocations that other cities around the country historically have seen. But we are seeing tremendous interest and transactions being signed in the last few months with global companies coming back to Miami as preferred location for an executive team to relocate and lead expansion into the region.

I am very optimistic that Miami will continue to grow internationally and that foreign investment in business infrastructure, as well as our financial services and international trade and technology and telecommunications industries and health care industries, will flourish as a result.

LeClaire: How is this specifically playing out in commercial real estate right now?

Blanca: If you look at the ownership behind assets in Coral Gables or on Brickell Avenue, you will see that we’ve got a diverse space of foreign investors that range from European-and German- based capital to Mexican investment to Spanish investment and Asian investment. We are now being identified and recognized by other foreign capital as a place to explore if they’re going to invest in the US, including investors from London, India, and other parts of the world that perhaps are a little newer to Miami but not new to investment in the US.

LeClaire: What are the potential challenges of attracting more foreign investment?

Blanca: If we are held back and our government does not focus on the kinds of infrastructure investment that we need in high-speed rail and transportation solutions and continue the expansion of dredging the port so that we can play in the big leagues, as we say, we are going to have challenges. But I think our local and state leadership, and certainly the leaders in the business community, understand that. They are continuing to push towards making the right investments to make sure that over the next 20 years, Miami is going to evolve into a place where if you want to be in the US.