No-bid county land deal for Homestead soccer stadium advances to next stage

This story was originally published Nov. 19 and was updated Nov. 20 with news that the Miami-Dade County Commission had advanced the proposal.

Professional soccer may be coming to the Homestead area through a no-bid land deal advanced by the Miami-Dade County Commission on Wednesday.

An investment group that includes the president of Miami FC, a second-league pro soccer team, may now begin exclusive negotiations for a 99-year lease on county land outside the Homestead Air Reserve Base. Two commissioners, Raquel Regalado and Micky Steinberg, voted no on legislation allowing the negotiations with the administration of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. Regalado said she learned more details about the proposal from the media than she did from the item on Wednesday’s agenda.

“It’s difficult as a county commissioner when you read your agenda and you learn more about a project from the Miami Herald than you do from the item,” she said. “There’s a lot of information in the article that was not in the item.”

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The investors want to build a 10,000-seat stadium at the center of a for-profit project called the Sports Performance Hub Miami-Dade, according to a website promoting the project. The stadium would be home to two pro soccer teams – a men’s team that likely would be Miami FC and an unnamed women’s team.

The 20-acre campus would include a sports academy for young athletes playing basketball, tennis, soccer and football, with dormitories to house up to 400 students, said spokesperson J.P. Reynal.

A 200-room hotel would be part of the $300 million complex at the county site outside of Homestead and south of Southwest 280th Street, using land that the federal government gave to Miami-Dade in the 1990s to promote economic growth after Hurricane Andrew devastated the area.

Partners plan to fund construction of public basketball and tennis courts and football, rugby and soccer fields on an adjoining county park that would be used by the academy as part of its offerings.

“The pitch is: It’s not going to cost you a dime. You’re going to get new fields at no cost to the community, with access for the community,” Reynal said. “On top of that you’re going to get a new stadium with tons of programming and entertainment.”

Commissioners voted to allow VSGS Facilities LLC, the corporate entity behind the plan, to negotiate a lease with the administration.

The proposal advanced through a committee of the County Commission that voted in favor of it last week without discussion after it was added to the agenda as the meeting began.

The timing upset Homestead Mayor Steven Losner, who said nobody from the county notified him about a deal that’s been in the works for months just outside city limits.

“There has been no public input whatsoever,” Losner said Tuesday, adding that he would rather see county land outside the Air Reserve base be used to recruit high-paying jobs related to aerospace. “To me, the fix is in.”

VSGS has been active on the political front.

The company this year donated $22,500 to the political committee of commission Vice Chair Anthony Rodriguez, who is expected to be elected the board’s chair at Wednesday’s meeting. The company also donated $10,000 to the political committee for outgoing chair Oliver Gilbert and $15,000 to the political committee of the item’s sponsor, Commissioner Kionne McGhee. Levine Cava’s political committee received $20,000 at the end of 2023 from Dario Sala, a partner in the venture.

“They’re just supporting good candidates,” said Jacqui Carmona, a lobbyist hired by VSGS to pursue the county contract. “That’s pretty commonplace.”

VSGS also hired Levine Cava’s campaign consultant, Christian Ulvert, to handle public affairs, Carmona said.

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The partners behind the hub complex want to avoid the normal bidding procedure for a county lease by pitching the project as an economic-development venture.

Florida law allows local governments to suspend bidding rules for job-producing projects, and Christopher Penelas, a VSGS lobbyist, said the Homestead hub is expected to employ about 600 people once construction is finished.

“This historic deal is about more than just a stadium,” McGhee said in a statement Tuesday. He called the project a source of jobs and opportunities “that will impact our community for generations.” At Wednesday’s meeting, McGhee said he planned to seek community input on the project during the negotiation period. “We will assure that the voices of the South Dade community are heard,” he said.

In July, the Levine Cava administration removed the land for the proposed stadium from what was a 123-acre parcel designed for a private steel mill that investors want to build outside the Homestead base. That project remains in the pipeline, but with a smaller footprint of county land to use.

The legislation on the sports hub directs Levine Cava to bring back a proposed lease by early January or identify obstacles to a deal.

Partners at VSGS include Riccardo Silva, an owner of Miami FC, a pro team in a soccer league that lacks the high profile of David Beckham’s Inter Miami franchise but sells tickets for games played at Florida International University’s Pitbull Stadium. The partnership isn’t saying which soccer team would play at the Homestead facility, but the project’s website mentions Miami FC under the heading “Our Highlights.” Reynal said he also couldn’t share details on which women’s team would come to Homestead for its games but that the project hopes to capitalize on Miami’s growing soccer profile with the arrival of World Cup games in 2026.

“The more facilities and infrastructure Miami has to greet these teams — it positions the city and the county in a way that is unique around the globe,” he said. “This is one more piece to the puzzle.”

This story was originally published November 19, 2024 at 5:42 PM.