Miami Beach Convention Center proposed to be renamed after Norwegian Cruise Line
The Miami Beach Convention Center may soon be renamed under a proposed 10-year sponsorship agreement the city is negotiating with Norwegian Cruise Line.
If approved by the City Commission, the city-owned building would be renamed the Norwegian Cruise Line Center at Miami Beach.
City Manager Alina Hudak announced the proposed naming rights agreement Monday in a memo to commissioners. She said the deal would earn the city between $1 million and $1.35 million. It would begin March 1 and end January 2032, according to the memo.
Hudak said the city and NCL senior management discussed dedicating the sponsorship revenue toward areas like public safety, parks and wellness, cultural arts and sustainability.
The 1.4-million-square-foot convention center, located across the street from City Hall and near Lincoln Road, has hosted Art Basel, a Super Bowl fan convention and regularly scheduled expos. It underwent a $620 million renovation in 2018.
Compared to other convention center deals, Hudak said, the proposed sponsorship agreement would be among the highest grossing in the country.
“The proposed annual value of the City of Miami Beach and NCL partnership at $1.175M/year would make the Convention Center one of the top Naming Rights Agreements by annual investment value in the country,” she wrote in the memo.
Influential Miami Beach developer Russell Galbut is chairman of the board for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.
The convention center is not the only city-owned building that could potentially be renamed in the future. The city signed a contract in 2020 with Spectra, the company that manages the convention center, to look for sponsorship deals for six other public facilities, city-owned parking garages and two future city projects.
The list includes the North Beach Bandshell, the Colony Theater, Historic City Hall on Washington Avenue and the office building near current City Hall that houses some city departments.
Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez said she opposes the proposed sponsorship agreement to rename the convention center.
“I am 100 percent against the prostitution of our city assets — I would have never voted to approve the Spectra contract and I plan to fight this current naming rights proposal,” she wrote in a text message.
A city spokeswoman said the city administration is not currently negotiating any other naming rights agreements but that commissioners approved the list of other properties to potentially be considered for future sponsorship agreements.
“All buildings on the list are potentials for naming rights, but we have not been presented with any other concrete proposals at this time,” she wrote in an email.
This story was originally published January 4, 2022 at 4:46 PM.
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