How much should city pay to seize Miami River property from owner? A jury will decide

In a trial that begins this week, jurors will decide the sale price for a piece of land that the city of Miami is trying to seize from a private owner at the behest of City Commissioner Joe Carollo, who wants to turn the small Miami River property into a public park honoring Venezuelan revolutionary Simón Bolívar.

Jury selection began Monday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in the eminent domain trial for the property on South River Drive, marking the latest development in a yearslong saga in which the city has attempted to take the land against the owner’s will.

“The founding fathers would be rolling over in their graves if they knew about this case, because it’s a violation of private property rights,” said Arturo Ortega, whose development firm South River Warehouse LLC owns the approximately 15,000-square-foot lot.

Ortega has been in a protracted battle with the city since 2021, when officials first initiated the process of acquiring the property via eminent domain, throwing a wrench into his plans to open a restaurant on the site. Florida law allows a municipality to purchase private property for certain purposes, including creating public parks, even when the owner doesn’t want to sell.

The city nearly had the property in its grasp last year, when a judge granted Miami permission to take the land. The city then had a 20-day window to pay a deposit of approximately $3.5 million, a number set by a judge based on property appraisals. That expedited approach, known as “quick take,” would have allowed the city to take the title to the land once it paid the deposit. A jury would later decide the total sale price, and the city would’ve been on the hook to pay it.

However, the city failed to pay the deposit by the summer 2023 deadline. Reached for comment last week, the City Attorney’s Office declined to say why it let the 20 days lapse without paying, saying it is “an active legal matter.”

So now the city is taking a different approach to seizing the land through what’s known as a “slow take.” This time around, the city doesn’t need to pay a deposit. And once the jury decides the sale price, the city can opt out of the deal if the number is more than it’s willing to pay.

The City Attorney’s Office declined to say what it considers to be a fair price for the land. But in 2021, city officials had initially offered a little less than $4.5 million, according to court filings; the owner rejected that offer.

Construction underway

When the judge set the deposit amount at $3.5 million last summer, the parcel in question was a vacant lot. But the circumstances have changed since then.

Months later, in May of this year, the city granted permits for the developer to build a restaurant on the site, which Ortega says will be two stories tall.

Construction is now actively underway at the site. Ortega said they broke ground in the fall.

According to Ortega, construction is slated to be done by May of 2025, with the restaurant opening for business by the end of next year. He declined to say the name of the restaurant operator, citing a non-disclosure agreement. Ortega said his firm has invested over a half-million on construction and foundation work so far.

In an interview with the Miami Herald, Carollo expressed some regret over the city not taking title to the land “right then and there” when it had the opportunity to do so last summer before construction began.

“Now, because of that, it’s probably gonna cost more than it would’ve before,” the commissioner said.

Ortega said “we have an obligation under contract with our tenants to build that building” and that the decision to begin construction this year was unrelated to the trial.

Ortega said he doesn’t understand why the city is so “fixated” on his property. But according to Carollo, the goal is to simply increase park space in his district.

“The only reason ... that we wanted that property was to expand our park space along the river for the residents, mainly of District 3, along with the rest of the city,” Carollo said. The park would honor Simón Bolívar, whom Carollo described as “one of the greatest heroes of the Western hemisphere.”

Carollo explained that the initial idea was to connect the property to nearby José Martí Park.

That’s backed up by other records, including a 2022 deposition from City Manager Art Noriega, who said that Carollo’s “vision for that whole riverfront” was to “create some connectivity all the way down along the riverfront and connect all the way to José Martí Park.”

While Carollo acknowledged that he had “absolutely” requested the city purchase the land in order to create a park, he had support from the City Commission, which voted 3-0 in 2021 to approve legislation allowing the city to begin the eminent domain process.

Carollo criticized the concept of building a restaurant on the property: “A park is what most residents want,” he said.

But Ortega said the project has been years in the making and that he’s intent on seeing it through.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Ortega said.

This story was originally published December 10, 2024 at 5:00 AM.

Tess Riski

Miami Herald

Tess Riski covers Miami City Hall. She joined the Miami Herald in 2022 and has covered local politics throughout Miami-Dade County. She is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School’s Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.