Herald recommends: Voters need more answers on plan for Knight Center expansion in Miami | Editorial

City of Miami voters will be asked to vote Yes or No on a ballot question to allow the redevelopment and lease extension of the Hyatt Regency Hotel and the James L. Knight Center on the Miami River.

Anyone familiar with the hotel/convention center knows it’s already in a tight spot — literally — wedged into congested stretch of downtown Miami, served by a single traffic lane. It is not easy to reach and it’s difficult to navigate one’s way to parking.

The Hyatt Hotels Corp. needs voter approval to redo the hotel, which opened in 1982, and build three skyscrapers on four city-owned acres behind the hotel near the mouth of the river at 400 SE Second Ave.

It also wants a 99-year lease extension on the property, which it has leased from the city since 1979..

These mammoth deals between the city and developers require special scrutiny because they involve coveted waterfront property, politicians and lots of cash flowing, but usually not into taxpayers’ pockets.

As per the city charter, voters must approve any long-term lease of public land on waterfront property, in addition to changes to existing leases.

In its quest to get voters to give it the green light, Hyatt has hired a few highly paid local political consultants, Miami Herald reporter Joe Flechas recently reported. Humberto Hernandez is one of them. He’s the former Miami city commissioner jailed for mortgage and voter fraud over two decades ago. He now runs a lobbying firm called H.E.H. & Associates. The Editorial Board left him a message seeking comment, but it went unanswered. However, he told Flechas last week that “H.E.H. & Associates is being paid to assist with the campaign’s voter outreach, community engagement and Spanish-language media placement efforts designed to communicate the benefits” of the redevelopment proposal.”

The company is also using the services of the law firm Greenberg Traurig and the famed Arquitectonica architectural firm.

As Flechas reported, the developer proposes a $1.5 billion plan to build a three-tower structure that would include 615 hotel rooms, 1,500 market-rate apartments, 190,000 square feet of Class A meeting space and a public riverfront promenade. The project would add about 480 feet of space to the Miami Riverwalk. The existing concrete complex would be replaced with rounded, glass facades. Two 61-story towers would include apartments, hotel rooms and extended-stay units. A third would rise more than 1,000 feet with 860 residential apartments. A “skybridge” with a restaurant would connect two of the three towers, providing a view of the city from 700 feet off the ground.

Whew!

The Miami commission had rejected putting the question on the ballot in the past.

Commissioner Alex Diaz De La Portilla said. “I like the ability of voters to decide this issue,” he said in a text to the Editorial Board. “They always guide my decision. If they say ‘no,’ it’s ‘no;’ if they say ‘yes,’ it is ‘yes.’ ”

The Nov. 8 ballot question asks:

“Shall Miami’s Charter be amended authorizing the city to amend the Hyatt Lease with HRM Owner LLC, including the Knight Center property, extending to 99 years, waiving bidding, and requiring, at no cost to the city:”

• Public river-front green space;
• New Hyatt Hotel, additional parking, convention space, and apartments;
• Increased annual rent to city from $250,000 to a minimum of $2.5 million or 2.5% of gross revenues, whichever greater;
• Minimum $25 million affordable-housing contribution;
• Expanded public riverwalk

Diaz de la Portilla may be leaving it up to chance, but Hyatt is not.

As noted in the ballot language, the developers will sweeten the deal for the city by increasing its annual rent for use of the riverfront property from $250,000 to $2.5 million, or 2.5% of gross revenues. They also promise to expand the green space around the project and donate $25 million to help in Miami’s affordable-housing crisis.

“Chicken feed,” said Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, who opposes the project until its impact on that section of downtown is fully analyzed and solutions offered.

“This is a greedy project that could become the cog that finally paralyzes downtown Miami,” Carollo said. He is concerned about its scope and that the traffic around the hotel is serviced by one lane of traffic and a one-lane exit ramp.

We agree. Where are all the new vehicles attracted by the expansion going to fit?

Developers says a large circular driveway with several lanes will prevent long lines of cars from extending into downtown’s already-congested roadways.

Carollo says $400,000 has been put aside for an impact study. Why has that not already been done. Without it, do voters have the full picture of what this massive redevelopment will do to the area? Proposals have circulated about possibly building a two-lane exit ramp that feeds into Biscayne Boulevard, but they remain just that — proposals.

Horacio Aguirre, chairman of the Miami River Commission, said the redevelopment proposal was floated to the full commission. “We approved the real-estate part of the project,” said Aguirre, a commercial project banking manager, who was speaking as a private citizen and not for the full commission.

“The developer included everything that is required, but we especially stayed away from approving or disapproving the developer’s financial deal with the city. Is this a good deal for the city and its residents? We do not know,” Aguirre said.

Neither do we. Voters need more answers on that score.

Until then, the Miami Herald Editorial Board recommends NO to the Miami charter amendment.

This story was originally published October 27, 2022 at 4:00 AM.