Leonard Abess backs off zoning push for South Dade project that wants UDB moved

As developers neared a preliminary vote before the Miami-Dade County Commission in September to expand the Urban Development Boundary for a nearly 800-acre commercial complex outside Homestead, a prominent owner of farmland included in the plan filed a zoning application to allow for construction of the planned warehouses, office spaces and other buildings.

But last month that landowner, environmental philanthropist and retired banker Leonard Abess Jr., instructed the county to freeze the zoning requests his Archimedes holding companies had filed in August to be part of the South Dade Logistics and Technology District touted by developer Aligned Real Estate Holdings as an economic game changer.

In a Nov. 19 letter, a lawyer for Archimedes, which lists Abess as its owner in a zoning disclosure document, cited concerns raised in the required state review of Aligned’s proposal. The project is a 9-million-square-foot commercial hub on low-lying farmland near Biscayne Bay that’s targeted for potential Everglades restoration work by the federal government.

“Pursuant to the comments and concerns raised by the reviewing agencies, Archimedes is not comfortable proceeding with the Archimedes Rezoning Applications on its properties at this time, particularly within the expedited time frame through which [the] application is proceeding,” Brian Adler, a lawyer and lobbyist with Bilzin Sumberg, wrote Nathan Kogon, a zoning official with Miami-Dade.

Aligned, which controls less than 50% of the 800 acres in its UDB application, doesn’t need cooperation from Archimedes or other land holders that haven’t signed on to pursue the zoning changes to actually construct the 9 million square feet of warehouses, offices, distribution centers and other commercial buildings the developers say will bring about 12,000 jobs to the region.

A key part of Aligned’s request to expand the county’s Urban Development Boundary — which divides farmland and rural areas from land where developers can build residential subdivisions and commercial complexes — involves Miami-Dade dropping a 2020 policy requiring that zoning applications accompany proposals to expand the UDB.

But that gap between Aligned’s proposal and its land holdings was one of several objections Miami-Dade’s planning staff raised in recommending commissioners reject the project ahead of the first of two UDB votes on Sept. 9. And losing the participation of Abess could be a challenge heading into a second and binding vote by the County Commission.

“If we’re going to really consider bringing an area in [to the Urban Development Boundary], we want to have the development program totally nailed down,” Jerry Bell, the county’s planning director, told commissioners. “This one leaves way too many questions.”

For UDB debate: jobs and Everglades restoration

The change in course by Abess — a benefactor of the University of Miami Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy — followed warnings by Florida regulators and others that the Aligned project could hinder the federal government’s Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.

Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection issued its objection to county administrators as part of a state review of the Aligned application that was triggered by commissioners voting 9 to 3 on Sept. 9 to advance the project to a final vote.

Abess companies and Florida Power & Light own large parcels of farmland that are part of Aligned’s proposal for a jobs hub, but haven’t signed on to actually allow anyone to build on their properties.

When Aligned first made its proposal to expand the UDB, Abess lawyers called it “unfair” to propose a development plan on the Archimedes land, including density restrictions that would restrict what could be built there to fit the commercial blueprint that Aligned submitted. That included timelines that would relegate the South Dade project’s construction on the Archimedes land until the first two phases of the industrial park are completed.

Abess lawyer Michael Kreitzer wrote the county on June 9 that Archimedes would “stand to lose the most by an unfair Amendment Request” to the county’s Comprehensive Master Development Plan, the portion of county law that includes the boundaries of the Urban Development Boundary. Kreitzer, of Greenberg Traurig, said Miami-Dade should consider more permissive development limits for the Archimedes farmland as part of the Aligned proposal.

On Aug. 25, the Archimedes position changed. Adler wrote Kogon a letter requesting to be part of the industrial zoning district Aligned wants to create.

Leonard Abess and the UDB

The letter praised the project as being in an “ideal” location for an industrial hub “designed to bring well-planned warehouse and logistic center spaces closer to residential communities in order to meet the increasing demand in South Florida for additional e-commerce centers.”

But Archimedes changed its stance again last month with its Nov. 19 letter telling the county to pause the zoning application. Archimedes did not state which objections prompted the deferral of the August zoning application. Adler held out the possibility that the Abess holding companies could once again pursue permission to bring the kind of commercial construction Aligned wants on the 160 acres of Archimedes farmland.

He wrote that Archimedes would continue to monitor the Aligned application as it “evaluates whether the comments and concerns of the reviewing departments and agencies have been adequately addressed, or can be addressed ...” before deciding whether to restart the zoning application for the holding companies’ 160 acres.

Job creation is the main pitch for the proposed South Dade project, which would impose land-use restrictions on the 370 acres the Aligned development group controls as well as the 425 acres it does not. Economic studies commissioned by the developers predict 12,000 jobs in the area between the Florida Turnpike and Southwest 268th Street once it is fully built out with warehouses, offices, a hotel and other businesses.

About two miles northeast of the Homestead Air Reserve Base, the complex would bring new employment to a suburban and rural area where a large number of residents commute north through congested U.S. 1 for work.

“It’s clear that South Dade has lagged the rest of the county economically,” Aligned lawyer and lobbyist Jeffrey Bercow told commissioners at the Sept. 9 meeting. “Why? Because the county hasn’t planned for industrial and office development in South Dade.”

Aligned representatives declined interview requests about the Archimedes zoning indefinite deferral. Abess and Adler did not respond to interview requests.

When will Miami-Dade commissioners decide on UDB?

A final commission vote is expected sometime in 2022. Expanding the UDB requires yes votes from two-thirds of the 13-seat commission, and Aligned secured the needed 9 votes at the Sept. 9 meeting.

Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has raised the threat of a veto if opponents can’t beat back Aligned’s proposal by expanding the number of no votes beyond the Sept. 9 dissenters of Eileen Higgins, Danielle Cohen Higgins and Raquel Regalado. (Commissioner Keon Hardemon missed the meeting.) Overriding a veto also requires a two-thirds vote, but only of commissioners present at the next meeting after a veto.

Environmental groups, including the Friends of the Everglades and the Tropical Audubon Society, oppose Aligned’s request to expand the UDB for the first time since 2013, and see the proposal as a misguided attempt to jam commercial construction into an area at risk from coastal flooding about two miles from Biscayne Bay.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from West Miami, also opposes moving the UDB for the project because of potential harm to the federal Everglades effort.

In a Dec. 7 letter to U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall on his opposition to a separate effort to bring civilian aircraft operations to the Homestead base, Rubio said the aviation expansion could help the “misguided” effort to expand the UDB for the Aligned project and create a warehouse hub that “would conflict with ongoing efforts to restore flows of fresh water from the Everglades to Biscayne Bay.”

Environmental causes are part of philanthropic efforts by Abess and his wife, Jayne. The former owner of City National Bank, Abess sold the one-time family bank for about $1 billion in 2008 and won a mention in Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address for giving $60 million of the proceeds to bank employees.

Along with the UM ecology center named after the Abesses, there’s also the Abess Center for Environmental Studies at Miami Country Day School, which the Abess children attended. “I’ve always felt an affinity to nature and the outdoors,” he told Miami Today in 2020, “and in my adult life I have participated however I was able, trying to be a part of the solution and not part of the problem.”

This story was originally published December 10, 2021 at 5:49 PM.