School Board maneuvering with developers to transform downtown HQ ... and add housing

The Miami-Dade County School Board wants to downsize from its 10 acres of prime, development-ready land in downtown Miami.

District officials are turning to a private developer and a community redevelopment agency to leverage its downtown headquarters for office space next door. It’s a move they say will finance the rebuild of two nearby schools, include affordable housing for teachers and the elderly, and eventually direct more dollars that could be used for teacher salaries and educational programs.

The conversation started in 2015, but on Wednesday, the School Board voted unanimously to continue those negotiations and set into motion a “21-acre vision” that keeps the School Board in the arts and entertainment district. It would, however, use about $40 million in tax dollars diverted away from police, parks and transit.

“It’s unprecedented, the complexity of this,” said Jaime Torrens, the district’s chief facilities officer. “It’s gonna be something we look back on favorably.”

Here’s how it works: Last year, the school district awarded a one-acre parcel of land currently used for district employee parking to juggernaut developer Crescent Heights, which already owns the parking lot just south of that acre.

Instead of money changing hands, the district maneuvered for Crescent Heights to allow the district to occupy two to three floors in its mixed use development for office space, along with 600 parking spaces in the daytime. That plan includes a space for the School Board auditorium and WLRN Radio.

The Omni CRA would pay about $42 million for 120,000 square feet of office space for the school district. The investment could cost up to $62 million, but that value includes the $20 million parcel contributed by the School Board. The public parking garage, managed by Miami Parking Authority, would be used by the Adrienne Arsht Center at night.

The CRA is a redevelopment agency that retains property-tax revenue that grows with new construction and higher real estate values each year. That money is diverted from general government expenditures in Miami and Miami-Dade to fund projects within the boundaries of the redevelopment area. In 2019, Miami and Miami-Dade paid the Omni CRA about $19 million from property taxes, as required under the law that established the redevelopment agency.

The current CRA financial plan doesn’t have enough spare cash to subsidize the Crescent Heights project, so backers of the School Board’s plan want Miami-Dade to green light extending the life of the CRA for another 17 years. The School Board, which collects its own property tax to fund the school system, does not want to contribute tax dollars to the project, arguing its land should be enough to justify creation of a new headquarters.

“For us, it’s really this giant piece that affects everything around it. We’re trying to avoid all one way or all the other way,” said Adam Old, director of planning and policy at the Omni CRA. “It could be a new Brickell City Center if we don’t do anything, or could be sitting there as a blighted surface parking lot for another 20 years if we don’t do anything.”

The School Board would own its space in the Crescent Heights building, similar to a condo arrangement. Representatives of Crescent Heights did not respond to requests for comment. The Miami-Dade Property Appraiser’s website says the land said to be owned by Crescent Heights is listed belonging to 1302 Mirmelli Trust A&J LLC.

Because the School Board’s property is currently untaxed, its development by a private company would generate millions on the tax roll. Old says the CRA would be able to use some of that funding for the rest of the school district’s plan:

▪ iPrep Academy, housed in one of the School Board buildings, would move to City of Miami property on Northeast 19th Street next to the City Cemetery. That would be built with School Board dollars, but CRA dollars would be spent for hundreds of affordable housing units for the elderly atop the school.

▪ Phillis Wheatley Elementary, long overdue for a makeover on the edge of Overtown, would also be rebuilt with hundreds of units for affordable housing for teachers on top. Those units were negotiated as part of a deal the district struck with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

HUD gave land to the school district for a satellite campus to an overflowing Southside Elementary in Brickell. A 10-unit residential component is planned for that site, too.

“It might look like the CRA is giving too much on this, but when you look at the larger picture,” Old said, “we will have both the funding and the development capacity to add thousands of affordable units to the entire project.”

Once all those plans are put in motion, the school district will explore its opportunities. It could issue a ground lease on its remaining acreage to developers and direct that revenue toward teacher salaries and educational programming.

But it’s all a nonstarter if the Miami-Dade County Commission doesn’t approve extending the life span of the CRA from 2030 to 2047. That extension was already approved by the City of Miami, whose commissioners run the CRA, but they added a caveat: Commissioner Ken Russell in June expanded the CRA so West Coconut Grove could benefit by using tax dollars for redevelopment and public housing.

The school district says the commission is expected to take the issue up within the next two months. Chairwoman Audrey Edmonson, who is a trust specialist at Booker T. Washington Senior High, did not respond to requests for comment.

The Omni CRA is hosting a community meeting on the School Board’s plans at 6 p.m. Thursday at the School Board Administration Building, 1450 NE Second Ave in Miami.

Miami Herald staff writer Douglas Hanks contributed to this report.

This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 6:36 PM.