Rickenbacker Causeway redo in trouble as Miami-Dade mayor backs off bidding plan

Facing backlash against a private developer’s proposal to upgrade the Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava wants to scrap a bidding process she initially recommended and start fresh with the $500 million plan to upgrade the toll road to Key Biscayne and replace Bear Cut Bridge.

Levine Cava’s Tuesday memo recommending cancellation of the current bidding process to find a private developer and operator for the Rickenbacker is the largest setback yet for the investment group that launched the effort in March.

The Plan Z consortium — led by local architect Bernard Zyscovich and backed by a Swiss-based private equity firm — submitted a confidential plan to take over both the Rickenbacker and Miami Beach’s Venetian Causeway and profit off the toll revenue while upgrading the infrastructure.

The effort ran into political resistance from the start, with Miami-Dade first dropping the Venetian from the proposal, then Levine Cava hiring a consultant to study whether to proceed with the bidding process Plan Z would need to win to take over a toll system generating more than $10 million a year.

Rebel Group consultant Marcel Ham told an online county meeting Monday night that “an optimal procurement process would involve more time” to pursue federal dollars that could lower needed toll increases. That county meeting was followed by Levine Cava releasing her recommendation that commissioners scrap the current request for proposals, a memo the mayor’s office said was drafted over the weekend and updated Tuesday morning.

“Since advertisement of the RFP, there have been many important questions and concerns raised about the unsolicited proposal process as well as the project,” Levine Cava wrote commissioners. She stated her recommendation was to “cancel this procurement, and restart a procurement later.”

The 13-seat commission can ignore Levine Cava’s request and proceed with a bidding process, with proposals due in March. Or the board can side with Levine Cava and the commissioner representing Key Biscayne, Raquel Regalado, who last month urged Levine Cava to start again.

“Hopefully the rest of the commission will support them,” said Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey. “It’s a great step. It’s a big step. I appreciate [Levine Cava] having the courage to step up and say this isn’t the right way to proceed.”

Plan Z proposed transforming the Rickenbacker into more of a recreational destination, with a separate structure for bikes, pedestrian overpasses and expanded parkland along Biscayne Bay, along with completing a needed replacement of Bear Cut Bridge.

Key Biscayne leaders called the project too focused on cycling while ignoring the traffic upgrades needed for the lone road between Key Biscayne and Miami.

Canceling the procurement would mean the Plan Z group loses the procurement-related confidentiality shield for the original proposal it submitted to Levine Cava in March outlining its plans and revenue forecasts, including schedules for toll increases.

The private financing strategy known as a “public-private partnership” typically has Wall Street investors paying for public infrastructure projects upfront, then earning profits over decade-long agreements to operate the project in exchange for yearly revenue — either through direct payments from the government or through revenue that would ordinarily go to the government.

In the case of the Rickenbacker, the “P3” revenue source would be tolls and concessions, event spaces and restaurants a developer might operate on the county beaches and parkland off Virginia Key that would also come with the project. In a letter released Monday, the Plan Z group said it planned to nearly double the existing Rickenbacker toll of $2.25 to $4.25, with small yearly increases likely after that.

Plan Z representatives argued scrapping the current process and making the original submission public would sour other P3 investors from exploring “unsolicited” proposals with Miami-Dade. That could also make it harder to drum up interest for a second Rickenbacker bidding process, they said.

“It makes the county look flaky,” Eric Singer, a Plan Z lawyer and lobbyist with Bilzin Sumberg, said during an interview ahead of Levine Cava’s recommendation. “I’d wonder whether those third-party investors get scared away.”

This story was originally published December 7, 2021 at 2:41 PM.