Miami delays vote on whether to give Olympia Theater to charter school

Miami officials on Thursday decided to delay voting on a controversial plan to transfer ownership of the historic downtown Olympia Theater to a public charter school.

The plan to turn over the landmark appeared on the City Commission agenda for Thursday’s meeting and spurred around a dozen residents to speak against the measure during the session’s public comment period.

“We’ve put the cart before the horses here,” Orlando Alonso, 47, told the commission during the public hearing. “We have to think about what is artistically important for the Olympia.”

Alonso, a concert pianist who lives a short walk from the theater, said later in an interview with the Miami Herald that the Olympia could become “the Carnegie Hall of Florida,” but he worried that “a charter school will not be the right steward for a theater of the magnitude and potential of the Olympia Theater. I’m afraid it could turn into a school auditorium.”

Following the largely negative opinions expressed by the public over the theater’s handover, City Manager Arthur Noriega defended the proposition but suggested the commission delay a vote on the issue until a meeting next month.

“People want the opportunity to reactivate the space the way it should be activated,” Noriega said, “but nobody has really had the resources to do that — now we have an opportunity to accomplish that.”

Noriega suggested public meetings on the matter could help residents learn more about the proposition. “This opportunity will be an incredible public benefit when we really get to the finish line on this,” he said.

Commissioner Joe Carollo voiced numerous questions and concerns about the proposition.

“Why at this point in time does the city of Miami have to give the Olympia Theater away?” Carollo said. “Why can’t we come up with any other idea to maintain it?”

Carollo and other commission members agreed that more time and public input was needed, and commissioners unanimously passed a motion to delay the decision until a meeting on July 24.

“I think these are people that have shown that every project they take, they make a success out of it,” Carollo said, referring to Sports Leadership Arts Management, or SLAM, the charter school that may be allowed to renovate and use the Olympia if the measure passes. SLAM is perhaps best known for having rapper Pitbull as its spokesperson.

“They’ve got the pockets to accomplish this,” Carollo added, “but this needs a lot more working on than what I see here.”

This story was originally published June 26, 2025 at 1:35 PM.