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By a 4-1 vote, Miami commissioners agreed Thursday to give a nonprofit group seeking to save the iconic but shuttered Miami Marine Stadium control over the full site, including parking lots, so they can develop a detailed plan to reopen the facility.
Leaders of Friends of the Miami Marine Stadium said the vote allows them to start raising millions of dollars to renovate the 1963 stadium, regarded as an architectural and engineering treasure, and reopen it as a public park. The plan would include some small-scale development, including a marine exhibition center and restaurants, to support the stadium’s operation.
That plan would still have to come back to the commission for approval, Friends co-founder Jorge Hernandez told the commission.
Commissioner Frank Carollo, the lone dissenting vote, said he believed the proposal should go to a public referendum. Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, who had previously voted against a separate agreement allowing the group to move forward with its plan, said she was reassured by the establishment of an escrow account at the National trust for Historic Preservation to handle money raised by the group for the project.
Friends has secured $10 million so far, including $3 million from a county preservation fund, and now has two years to raise the balance of the estimated $30 million it will take to renovate the stadium.
Members of the Miami-Dade legislative delegation delivered a letter to the commission Thursday pledging to seek between $500,000 and $1.5 million in state funding for the stadium next year.
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