As he leaves the stage in Miami-Dade, Carvalho announced two big promises fulfilled | Editorial

This story has been updated since first published on Wednesday.

Departing Miami-Dade School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho revealed at Wednesday’s marathon School Board meeting — the item finally came up at 9 p.m. — that he had negotiated a crucial land sale guaranteeing the district a new future home inside a high-rise.

Another final move was solidifying the current leadership structure for its flagship radio station, WLRN.

Both were long-term goals and problems, Carvalho had promised the Board he would resolve. He’s making them a reality before departing on Friday, he said.

“Promises made, promises kept,” Carvalho told the Editorial Board earlier in the day.

We must agree that during his 14-year-tenure Carvalho succeeded over and over again in keeping many promises. These last two are significant for the district and the community; he’s even helping provide more parking spaces at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

Before the School Board meeting, Carvalho told the Editorial Board a deal is in the works to sell a district parking lot adjacent to the district’s downtown main office at 1450 NE Second Ave. for $25 million to Crescent Heights, a development firm that bills itself as the nation’s leading urban real-estate company and was founded by Russell Galbut, a well-known Miami Beach developer.

The parking lot is the initial component of a multi-layered acre land sale by the district which will eventually require the district to move out of its old administrative offices on Second Avenue and into three floors of a yet-to-be-built high-rise less than a block from the current offices and across from the Adrienne Arsht Center - at no cost to the district.

The old district building, a once-depressed property, is now prime redevelopment land. Carvalho seems to have savvily taken advantage of the building boom. We hope his deal is a solid one that will survive his departure.

Carvalho told the Board the land is extremely valuable to Crescent Heights because together, the district and the developer own a city block, the district owns the north end, the developer the south.

At the meeting, some Board members wanted clarification on the ownership of the proposed new district homes offices located within a second-use building.

“How do we know the Board will really own the property?” Board Vice-Chair Steve Gallon III quizzed Carvalho, who assured him that without Board ownership being honored, the rest of the real estate deal with Crescent Heights would collapse.

Carvalho said the district would forever own the three levels inside the high-rise, including a lobby, an auditorium, two floors of offices and private elevators. Gallon also wanted to put an end date to the execution of the complex land deal. That date is now December 2022. Carvalho’s deal with Crescent Heights requires that the Miami commission extend the life of Miami’s Omni Community Redevelopment Agency, which uses a portion of taxes from new development in the neighborhood to combat blight and poverty.

Carvalho says the complex give-and-take real-estate deal signals huge future savings for the district and a boost for Omni-area development. Overall, the district gets a $60 million benefit, and the Arsht Center gets 600 theater parking spaces. Smart move.

But it took until 9 p.m. Wednesday for the issue to be heard by the Board, which eventually gave its preliminary approval to the rolling land sale of parcels and parking lots and its main office and its .

Before stepping off the dais for the last time, Carvalho thanked the Board. “This is the last item I wanted the Board to consider,” he said of the land sale. “It’s an extremely innovative project. Congratulations.”

Crescent Heights did not respond to a request for comment.

Can the deal be undone once Carvalho leaves for Los Angeles on Friday? Unclear.

Carvalho also revealed that, in his final months, he and his staff — mainly Daisy Gonzalez-Diego, chief communications and community engagement officer — finished ironing out a deal that will clarify the leadership of WLRN — Miami’s local NPR affiliate. Under the new agreement, Friends of WLRN will continue managing the station and its programming for the district. A recent push by the district and the School Board to take over the station had raised eyebrows.

These longstanding issues have dogged the district for quite a while. With resolution seemingly on the horizon, Carvalho can take a bow.

This story was originally published February 9, 2022 at 12:56 PM.