Vote on Beckham stadium not likely soon. One key critic won’t be in office anymore.
The next commissioner representing Miami’s District 1 will have a say in whether the city leases its only golf course to develop a soccer stadium and commercial complex for upcoming Major League Soccer franchise Inter Miami.
The city is negotiating a no-bid, 99-year lease to redevelop the city-owned Melreese golf course into Miami Freedom Park, a $1 billion complex that will include retail, restaurants, a hotel, an office park and a 25,000-seat stadium that would host home games for the team co-owned by David Beckham, MasTec chairman Jorge Mas and their partners.
At a special meeting Tuesday, Miami commissioners decided they won’t consider a lease until at least December 12, meaning one current commissioner who is critical of the project will no longer be in office. Wifredo “Willy” Gort, whose district includes the golf course at 1802 NW 37th Ave., will not get to vote on it.
Tuesday’s hearing was mostly a rehash of longstanding arguments from opponents and proponents among the commissioners and members of the public who spoke. Some argued against the proposal, saying the referendum that authorized the city to work on the no-bid deal was unclear, so voters didn’t know what they were voting for.
“It was definitely misleading, there’s no doubt in my mind, to the point where neighbors thought they were voting for a soccer stadium when, in fact, they were voting for a no-bid process,” said Terri Morales, who lives in the Grapeland Heights neighborhood in a house two blocks away from Melreese.
Others support the redevelopment plan and felt that some of the rhetoric from the deal’s opponents is minimizing the support from the 60% of voters who approved the no-bid process in November 2018.
“I feel that the vote of the community is being canceled out,” said Andres Debayle, a resident from The Roads, “that our voice is being censored out.”
Gort, who represents District 1, is term-limited this year — the runoff election to choose his successor will be decided Nov. 19. Former state senator Alex Diaz de la Portilla and auto parts retailer Miguel Angel Gabela are running for Gort’s open seat. The winner would be sworn in in late November or early December, and therefore would be in office whenever a finalized lease comes before the commission.
On the campaign trail, both candidates have said they would only vote in favor of Miami Freedom Park if it was a good deal for the city, emphasizing that details are unclear because a final lease has not been proposed. They both said they want to see more specifics before opining, specifics that will not be determined until after the election.
“There is only one commissioner at a time,” Diaz de la Portilla told the Miami Herald on Wednesday.
Gabela said he needs to be convinced that traffic around Grapeland Heights and the airport won’t get worse with the redevelopment, but he can’t judge a half-cooked deal.
“I want to do the reasonable thing, the correct thing, and not make a judgment and reserved my judgment until after the election,” he said.
Gabela’s campaign manager, Steve Marin, is a well-known player in Miami politics and a top consultant for Miami Freedom Park. Gabela has maintained that his relationship with Marin would not influence his vote.
Gort has been a critic of the proposal since it debuted in the summer of 2018, when commissioners decided to hold a referendum to allow voters to decide if the city should skip its normal bidding process and negotiate a deal directly with Mas and his partners. With another commissioner adamantly opposing the deal, Commissioner Manolo Reyes, the lease appeared to have long political odds this year.
Now, the next District 1 commissioner will come into office with what could be a deciding vote on the matter, though other commissioners have shared their own sticking points that could factor into the final vote. Ken Russell, who was re-elected last week and sworn-in to his second four-year term during Tuesday’s meeting, has insisted he would not vote for a contract unless Mas and his partners can replace all of the green space that is redeveloped at Miami Freedom Park. Joe Carollo has long maintained that the city should consider opening up Melreese to any bidder who wants to redevelop, possibly for a golf resort or some sort of commercial center.
This story was originally published November 12, 2019 at 1:59 PM.
