Jury says Miami must pay $10.8M to seize private property. Will the city take the deal?
A jury has valuated a small slice of land on the Miami River that the city is trying to seize from a private owner at $10.78 million, concluding a weeklong trial where the judge considered declaring a mistrial due to an error in calculations by one of the city’s expert witnesses.
Once the judge enters the final order, the city will have 20 days to decide if it’s willing to pay that price for the approximately 15,000-square-foot property owned by South River Warehouse LLC, which plans to build a two-story restaurant operated by hospitality mogul Roman Jones on the property. South River Warehouse recently began construction on the property.
The city, however, is hoping to acquire the land via eminent domain and turn it into a public park — a proposal spearheaded by City Commissioner Joe Carollo.
Attorneys for the city argued that the land was worth $5 million to $6 million, while the owner’s team appraised the land value at a little over $13.8 million.
READ MORE: How much should city pay to seize Miami River property from owner? A jury will decide
“I’m not elated, and I’m not disappointed,” J. Wiley Hicks, an attorney for South River Warehouse, said after the jury handed down its verdict. He added that he feels “fortunate” that jurors valued the property as high as they did.
“The bottom line is there really isn’t any amount of money they would’ve felt compensated them fully for the taking,” Hicks said of his clients.
Robert Schreiber, also an attorney for South River Warehouse, said there remains a “question mark” about whether the city will accept the deal. No matter the outcome, the city is on the hook to pay South River Warehouse’s legal fees in the matter.
The city’s team of lawyers, which included in-house attorneys as well as outside counsel from Weiss Serota, declined to comment after the verdict, instead directing questions to a city spokesperson. The spokesperson acknowledged the questions from the Miami Herald but did not provide an immediate response.
The 12-member jury was tasked with determining the fair market value of the land. The expert testimony largely focused on the likelihood of success for opening a restaurant on the south side of the Miami River, where the site is located, with the city’s experts saying that the level of risk was extremely high because of a lack of parking and other development in the area.
But Jones, the restaurateur who has signed a lease agreement to operate a restaurant in the soon-to-be-constructed building on the site, testified Friday that he projects approximately $10 million in sales in the first year. He said the restaurant will have a “warm and cozy” atmosphere and be more affordable than his high-end restaurants.
Jones operates other restaurants on the Miami River, including Kiki on the River and Habibi. The city pointed out that all of those restaurants are on the north side of the river. Jones, however, said his “preference is to be on the river” and that he’s less concerned with being on the north or south side.
The city pointed to the lack of parking in the area as a major point of concern for the future restaurant’s viability, but Jones wasn’t as concerned.
“We’ll find a solution,” he said, adding that he may contract with a valet service, as he’s done at other restaurants in the area. He also said the “vast majority” of clients arrive to nearby Kiki on the River via rideshare.
Trouble with expert witness
The city experienced a hiccup during trial when one of its expert witnesses, real estate appraiser Robert Gallaher, realized the night before he was set to testify that he had an error in his calculations. Gallaher had been using the incorrect square footage — off by several thousand square feet — when calculating the price per square foot of a nearby property that had recently sold for about $15 million.
Gallaher said he informed the city of the error as soon as he realized, which was the night before he was set to testify. The city, however, did not inform opposing counsel, which learned about the issue as Gallaher was testifying.
Schreiber, an attorney for South River Warehouse, told the Herald that he believes that “the city should have exercised a modicum of good faith and, at a bare minimum, alerted us to the change in his opinion ... before he started testifying.”
The city did not immediately respond to a question asking why it didn’t alert the opposing counsel sooner.
Because of the mid-trial revelation, South River Warehouse’s lawyers asked for Judge Reemberto Diaz to declare a mistrial. Diaz asked Gallaher to acknowledge the mistake to the jury, which he did. After allowing Gallaher to finish his testimony and own up to the mistake, Diaz said he would not declare a mistrial and that the jurors could weigh his credibility against the error.
While jurors focused on the value of the land based on its highest and best use, they didn’t hear about the broader context for their appraisal, including the fact that the city hopes to turn the land into a public park.
Years ago, in 2021, the city first offered to buy the land from South River Warehouse, offering a little under $4.5 million; the owner declined. The request came from Carollo, who wants the property to become a park honoring Venezuelan revolutionary Simón Bolívar.
Since that offer, South River Warehouse has been in a protracted battle with the city over the land.
This story was originally published December 13, 2024 at 4:33 PM.
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to accurately reflect the restaurants operated by Roman Jones.
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