REALTOR^®Hometown Hero

Dossier: Sandra Goldstein

BY LESLIE CUMMINGS

Leading smart

When Sandra Goldstein, CCIM, CIPS, sees a problem, she takes charge. Take smart growth.

“About 600,000 people are expected to move to South Florida in the next 10 to 15 years—and we’re running out of land,” says the commercial specialist whose company, Sandra Goldstein and Associates Inc., is based in Key Biscayne, Fla.

But Goldstein isn’t waiting for the crowds to thicken. She’s developing initiatives to educate practitioners and the community. For her efforts, Goldstein has been named a REALTOR^® Hometown Hero by NAR President Cathy Whatley.

Goldstein joined the smart growth debate in 2000 as chair of the corporate board of the REALTOR^® Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches. She immediately identified a major problem: Environmentalists, developers, city council members, and others concerned about growth weren’t sharing solutions. So she put together a symposium on growth issues and invited all the players. “There was lots of synergy,” she says. “Each group shared what it was doing to address growth issues.”

Those issues, such as an overtaxed transportation system and disappearing farmland, are integral to the economic viability of the region, says the 24-year real estate veteran. “Businesses are leaving because owners don’t want to deal with our clogged highways, and they often move their homes, too,” she says.

Since the symposium, community leaders in her region have planned additional forums and REALTORS^® in Florida are forming a smart growth council. Meanwhile, Goldstein is working with two local universities on a smart growth continuing education program for the state association.

Addressing smart growth is good for the community, the association, and your business, Goldstein says. “I’ve formed strong relationships with elected officials, environmental regulators, agricultural leaders, and those dealing with brownfields. That’s helped me help clients navigate bureaucracy and achieve solutions.”

Dossier: Sandra Goldstein
Sandra Goldstein and Associates, Inc., Key Biscayne, Fla.