New housing, higher costs, expanded bakery. See top Miami-area business stories

From a major affordable housing push to a Cuban bakery’s expansion and federal scrutiny of hospital pricing, South Florida’s business landscape saw significant developments.

Here’s a roundup of the top stories shaping the region:

• Affordable housing redevelopment: Developers are replacing aging county-owned public housing with denser affordable and workforce units to address Miami-Dade’s shortage of roughly 90,000 affordable homes. Projects like Rhapsody at Rainbow Village will swap 136 old apartments for more than 1,500 new mixed-income units.
• Aventura Mall bookstore moves: Quade Books has relocated to a kiosk across from the Nike store, marking its third move since opening at Aventura Mall in July 2024. The Argentina-based shop was the mall’s first bookstore in two decades.
• CAO Bakery expands to Pembroke Pines: The Miami-based Cuban bakery is opening a second Pembroke Pines location in July at 12221 Taft St., taking over the former Char-Hut space. Founded in 2018 by third-generation baker Tony Cao, the bakery is an offshoot of his grandfather’s Vicky Bakery.
• Hospitals flagged for pricing errors: The Trump administration sent warning letters to over 500 hospitals, including Baptist Hospital and several other South Florida facilities, citing price transparency disclosure errors. The hospitals blamed technical issues tied to updated 2026 reporting rules and said they have since corrected them.
• Inflation surges in May: U.S. inflation rose 4.2% year-over-year in May, the sharpest annual increase since 2023, driven in part by energy prices climbing nearly 24% over 12 months. With interest rates stuck at 3.75%, South Florida buyers face mounting hurdles from housing, insurance and essential costs.

This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence and using our own originally reported, written and published content. It was reviewed and edited by our journalists.