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The year in business: my top picks among many for best local stories in 2016

South Florida was spared Hurricane Matthew’s wrath, but Zika season never seemed to end. Meanwhile, another year in South Florida business brought other sea changes, including international cooperation (Cuba) and corruption (Panama Papers), booms, busts and a few surprises.

The Miami Herald business staff rounded up our picks for the best business stories of 2016 in real estate, tourism, international business, media and tech for this week’s Business Monday. Rather than stories that dominated the headlines of the day, we looked for stories that told the bigger picture of trends that could continue into 2017.

Here are my top picks from the tech/entreprneurship/startup beat.

Uber and Lyft are legally yours: Miami-Dade commissioners finally made ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft legal in May, after a nearly three-year fight that pitted the tech-enabled services against the county’s taxi drivers. Uber and Lyft followed an approach that brought it success in other markets: launch in defiance of local regulations, then build a following of drivers and passengers so large that political pressure builds on elected officials to sanction the operation. It worked. Broward and Palm Beach counties have approved the services, too. Both Uber and Lyft have introduced carpool-like services this year for multiple riders going the same way. And while ride-sharing was speeding along, an on-demand war heated up for restaurant delivery. Once UberEATS and Amazon Restaurants entered the fray, bye-bye services Caviar and Favor.

Manny Medina’s (nearly) instant tech company: South Florida leaders have been trying to develop a tech hub here, but one of the missing elements has been a critical mass of large tech employers. What will likely help the cause: Tech pioneer Manny Medina will lead a new multinational data center and cybersecurity company based in Miami. Medina Capital, his Miami-based private equity firm, and global private equity firm BC Partners formed the new venture in a $2.8 billion transaction announced in November. The new company, not yet named, will combine a worldwide network of 57 CenturyLink data centers with cybersecurity and data analytics companies, including Doral-based Easy Solutions, a cyber-fraud fighting company. Calling it “Terremark on steroids,” Medina said the new company will have more than 1,000 employees. While it hasn’t been determind" determined how many of them will be in South Florida, it will be a strong presence, said Medina, who founded and led Terremark until its $2 billion sale to Verizon in 2011 and more recently founded eMerge Americas, a homegrown technology conference that returns June 12-13. As for his new venture, “I’m back and I can’t wait,” said" Medina said. “I feel like I have been rehearsing for this my entire life.”

A Magic Leap for venture capital — and negative press: Venture capital in Florida is on track for its best year since the frothy days of 2000, but don’t break out the champagne. While Florida companies have pulled in more than $1 billion so far, without Q4 tallied, the mysterious Magic Leap alone pulled in nearly $800,000 from Alibaba and other investors in Q1, bringing its total funding to $1.4 billion. Pull out that one mega-round, and the total would likely trail most of the years since 2001, according to PwC’s Moneytree Report. Still, one big success story can lift a region, drawing more investors and startups, as well as creating jobs. Will it be Magic Leap, said to be developing a “mixed-reality” technology that brings the virtual and real world together? Magic Leap, now in its new 260,000-square-foot campus in Plantation, hasn’t released product details or timelines but hit major media turbulence this month when tech publication The Information reported that some former employees say its development is behind schedule and that some technology the company invented couldn’t be applied to a consumer product, apparently spectacles. The exclusive article also said that a demo of an earlier prototype (it was hands-off for the current prototype) was less than awesome and that at least one of its promotional videos was created by a studio but presented as real. “Magic Leap may have oversold what it can do,” wrote Information reporter Reed Albergotti. Tech publications piled on with negative press. Management changes swiftly followed, and new CMO Brenda Freeman recently responded in Recode that Magic Leap “is absolutely on track” and “racing toward launch,” without giving specifics. Still, we really don’t know much more than a year ago. Founder and CEO Rony Abovitz has said that Magic Leap’s technology will be worth the wait. Stay tuned.

And here are two stories to watch from my entrepreneurship/tech/startups beat:

Innovation districts: If you build them …: Art Week brought to light the vision for an innovation district called Magic City. Developer Tony Cho and investor Bob Zangrillo, who have amassed 15 acres in Little Haiti, want the district to include an innovation center, music and events spaces (already opened), an amphitheatre, sculpture garden and green space, much of it renovated from industrial buildings and spaces already there, as well as micro-unit housing and a much larger innovation center in later phases. This follows announced plans by Moishe Mana for a 25-acre development in Wynwood catering to tech companies, creatives and millennials, and a Miami Innovation District on 10 acres in downtown Miami, announced by Michael Simkins. Will these visions begin taking shape in 2017 as they work through the planning and development phases?

The proliferation of pot-preneurs: Amendment 2’s passage on Nov. 8  means that the state’s medical marijuana law will become effective Jan. 3, and health regulators have six months from that date to put regulations into effect. The law requires that the state begin licensing dispensaries and issuing IDs by early October. There are still a lot of unknowns, although lawyers have seen increased interest from real-estate investors seeking plots of industrial land suitable for growing or storefronts for dispensaries. And while all that rule-making goes on, South Florida startups have already been ramping up for the new industry.

Read the full story, including top stories from the real estate, travel/tourism, international biz and media beats,  here.

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