Miami wants to give Olympia Theater to charter school. Read a draft of the contract
The Miami City Commission is scheduled to vote next week on a controversial proposal to turn over the city’s iconic 1926 Olympia Theater to a charter school affiliated with rapper Pitbull.
The deal would entail the public charter school, called Sports Leadership Arts Management, or SLAM for short, taking title to the run-down theater and adjacent 10-story building, in which the actual school would be housed. In exchange, the school would agree to restore and repair the aging theater in compliance with historic preservation requirements.
Ahead of next week’s meeting, the Miami Herald obtained a copy of the contract — still in draft form. You can take a look for yourself here:
The official purchase price is listed as $10, although the school would be on the hook to invest tens of millions of dollars into restoring the property.
The proposal is set to go before the City Commission on Thursday, July 24, when commissioners will vote on whether to authorize City Manager Art Noriega to negotiate and execute the sale.
The deal entails “zero obligation or liability on the city’s part financially,” Noriega said during a public Zoom meeting on Monday.
“I think that we’d be absolutely crazy to look past this opportunity,” Noriega said. “And I quite frankly think if we don’t take advantage of it, we may reflect back five, 10 years from now and really regret the decision not to do it.”
READ MORE: Miami’s Olympia theater holds lifetime of memories for this reporter. And probably you
Community members have argued that the deal feels rushed. Noriega said the parties are motivated to move quickly so that some portion of the property can be ready for use in time for the start of the school year.
Several key details still need to be ironed out. For example, it remains unclear if the school would have exclusive access to the theater for a certain portion of the week or if there would be any parameters on the type of programming allowed.
SLAM’s chief administrative officer, Millie Sanchez, said at Monday’s meeting that there will be a minimum requirement for 180 days of community programming in the theater each year, though the draft contract does not yet include that language.
“We’re not turning [the theater] into a school,” Sanchez said. “There will be a school in the adjacent building that will actually ignite, will be the engine, to help run and ignite the cultural programming that will be open to the public in the theater.”
The draft contract states that the property shall be used “exclusively for public education purposes” and that the theater itself “may be used for publicly accessible events that are cultural, artistic, civic, or community-oriented, provided that such events are consistent with the public education purpose.”
The draft contract also stipulates that the property will revert back to the city if SLAM fails to meet its repair and restoration obligations, or if the space is no longer used for public education purposes.
Mayor Francis Suarez told the Herald on Tuesday that he was confident in the city’s plan, noting that the theater has been languishing for years.
“I’ve been here for 16 years,” Suarez said. “No one’s given me a better idea.”
Noriega credited Suarez with bringing the deal to the city. Suarez agreed with that assessment, saying it’s “fair to say that I helped connect all the dots.”
The city is hosting two more community meetings about the proposed sale. The next one is taking place Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Olympia Theater, and a third is happening 6 p.m. Thursday at Miami City Hall.
Community activists opposing the proposal are holding a press conference outside the Olympia Theater at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, shortly before the public meeting begins.
This story was originally published July 16, 2025 at 11:48 AM.
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