With questions still lingering, Miami delays decision on Olympia Theater sale
The Miami City Commission has opted to delay its decision on the sale of the historic Olympia Theater after it became apparent during Thursday’s meeting that several key details remained unresolved ahead of the highly anticipated vote.
The commission voted on Thursday to authorize City Manager Art Noriega to negotiate the sale of the property. But with the contract for the proposed transaction only about 80% complete, according to Noriega, the commission directed him to bring back a more fleshed-out version before they’d sign off on the deal.
It will come back to the commission again in September, at which point a final vote could be taken.
Under the proposal, the city would transfer the deed of the 1926 theater to the public charter school Sports Leadership Arts Management, or SLAM for short.
SLAM would take the title to the rundown 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.
A draft version of the contract lists the official sale price as $10. However, the restoration and renovations would cost upward of $50 million, according to Fernando Zulueta, the president of Academica, a global charter school network that includes SLAM. Officials at SLAM and Academica have said there will be a minimum requirement for 180 days of community programming in the theater each year, though the draft contract does not include that language.
City commissioners generally expressed support for the proposal but said several key details are still not finalized or confirmed. That includes the appraised value of the property, a more precise number for the estimated cost of repairs and more specifics about public access to the theater.
“We need to get all the facts so we can make a sound judgment,” Commissioner Joe Carollo said. “Not one in emotions.”
Resident reactions
The proposal drew mixed reactions from residents. Some argued that the city would be giving away a precious asset without sufficient public input, while others said it would provide an avenue to save the aging theater from further disrepair without a financial burden on taxpayers.
Coconut Grove resident Debbie Dolson said at Thursday’s meeting that “the city has failed as a steward of the Olympia Theater.”
“It’s time to pass it on to an organization that will restore it, educate our children and make it available to the public,” Dolson said. “The city does not have the funds or the will to save this theater.”
Resident Stella Santamaria said the entities who would be tasked with repairing the property are “true stewards” who “aren’t just patching things up.”
“It’s such a beautiful building, and most of the time it’s just laying there empty, and it makes me very sad because I know how much potential it has,” Santamaria said. “I really believe it could be the heart of our neighborhood, and for the city of Miami.”
Others expressed concern. Flagler resident Zully Pardo called the proposed deal a “no-bid giveaway” and said the city would lose millions of dollars in development rights by offloading the property.
“This is a defining moment for our city,” Pardo said. “You have been entrusted to protect and preserve the Olympia, ensure that the Olympia Theater remains a vibrant, community-serving cultural institution — not a casualty of political expediency.”
Resident Jessica Johnson said at Thursday’s meeting that when residents vocalize concerns about the project, “it feels always like we are being met with contempt.”
“Living in the city of Miami is being heartbroken over and over again, because time and time again, we watch you abandon what matters most,” Johnson said. “Our shared spaces, our history and historic buildings, our culture and creativity, our small businesses and homeowners. … All sacrificed in favor of real estate developers, political favors and money. Beauty and care is bulldozed and covered in concrete.”
How we got here
In 1975, entrepreneur and philanthropist Maurice Gusman gifted the theater and its adjoining office building to the city of Miami. However, there was a stipulation that the semi-autonomous Miami Parking Authority manage the property because Gusman didn’t trust city politicians to manage it properly.
But in 2011, the parking authority stepped away from management in 2011 — potentially breaking with the terms of Gusman’s covenant.
Then in 2018, after years of neglect and deterioration, the city’s code compliance division issued a “repair or demolish” order for the theater. That prompted Gusman family heirs to sue the city in 2019 to reclaim ownership of the property, arguing that a reversion clause in the deed had been triggered when the MPA stepped back from managing the building. That lawsuit is still ongoing.
The Gusman family supports the deal with SLAM. Their attorney, Timothy Barket, has argued that the Gusman family needs to sign off on any new deal in order for it to move forward.
The deal began to take shape when the family’s attorney contacted Academica’s Zulueta “several months ago,” Zulueta said.
“They had heard of the work we’d done by creating some of the city’s most successful public charter schools,” Zulueta said at a meeting last week, “and they wanted to see whether there was some way we could breathe new life into the Olympia.”
.jpg)