To build a village of cargo containers in Homestead, developers want no-bid land deal

Developers with plans to create an open-air entertainment venue made with cargo containers are chasing 47 acres of government land outside of Homestead currently slated to become a maintenance yard for Miami-Dade County’s new fleet of electric buses.

The developers out of St. Petersburg have the backing of Commissioner Kionne McGhee, who has been fighting the new rapid-transit route that will use the electric buses. McGhee wants Miami-Dade to hold out for the extension of rail to South Miami-Dade, and has legislation up for a vote Wednesday instructing the county to sell the bus-depot land to the team behind the container project instead.

McGhee and the developers, Homestead Town Center LLC, weren’t available for interviews Tuesday afternoon.

Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s office released two memos Tuesday criticizing the proposal to sell the 47-acre site to make way for a cluster of restaurants, shops and offices built out of cargo containers on vacant land outside the Homestead Air Reserve Base, off of Southwest 280th Street. A developers’ presentation released by Miami-Dade includes few details, but describes using cargo containers to create restaurants, bars, office space and entertainment venues for a park that could accommodate workers during the day and visitors at night.

The memos call the proposed no-bid deal too generous — the developers contend the land is worth $4 million, a fraction of the $20 million the Levine Cava administration says would be a reasonable sales price — and argue that it would circumvent the normal vetting required for this kind of economic-development agreement.

“The Presentation lacks many of the details and information that is typically found in Proposals submitted to the County to develop County-owned land,” states the memo from Kristina Guillen, an administrator in the county’s Economic Development office. She said the proposal “offers opinions, assumptions, and suppositions as facts, as the ideas are not presented with any evidence to support or authenticate the proposer’s position.”

The county’s analysis also pointed out that other container parks, including a popular one in Las Vegas, use fewer than three acres for their footprints.

With Levine Cava’s staff trying to defeat the proposal, McGhee went public with a campaign to build support for the plan. On Tuesday afternoon, his Twitter account posted an announcement about a proposed “family oriented entertainment district” in South Miami-Dade.

“The time is now to bring our community and our children quality activities and entertainment. For far too long we have been left behind,” McGhee said in the statement. “LET’S DO THIS SOUTH DADE!!”

Florida records show the Homestead Town Center corporation was formed in October. The presentation lists four partners: investment executives Yrene Tamao and Joanne Broders, marketing executive Jossua Parini, and lawyer Ahmand Johnson.

The McGhee resolution calls for a quick deal so that a temporary container park can be in place by the time the NASCAR championship comes to Homestead in October. The county memo notes Miami-Dade can organize that kind of event using temporary event permits, rather than selling the parcels outright.

Since taking office in November 2020, McGhee has proposed legislation to slow or pause the new rapid-transit bus line approved by a previous commission in 2018. McGhee, then a member of the state Legislature, and Levine Cava, then a commissioner, both opposed the plan, and argued Miami-Dade should try harder to bring rail to the southern suburbs instead.

Elected mayor at the same time McGhee won his District 9 commission seat, Levine Cava has backed ongoing efforts to complete the bus system. That includes building a maintenance yard to service the electric buses that will run on the new express routes along the busway. The facility would also service regular buses running routes in South Miami-Dade.

While the county’s Transportation Department wants part of the 47-acre site for the maintenance yard, McGhee has asked the Levine Cava administration to find other locations.

In the second memo Levine Cava sent to commissioners Tuesday, she said McGhee’s request could delay opening the facility a year as Miami-Dade evaluates other county-owned land to use.

“This could place at risk the County’s ability to receive, store and operate the battery electric bus fleet currently in procurement, and require temporary frequent redistribution of buses to other facilities to balance space needs,” she wrote.

If Miami-Dade has to buy private land, the hunt for a new site could add two years to the process. Even then, Levine Cava said Miami-Dade likely won’t find a site large enough to handle maintenance for the county’s existing fleet, and instead would limit the facility to maintaining electric buses.

This story was originally published January 18, 2022 at 6:56 PM.