In Overtown, David Beckham tries to keep ‘alternative’ site alive for soccer stadium

As David Beckham and partners try to close a stadium deal with Miami for the city’s Melreese golf course, the group also needs a break from Miami-Dade County to keep its back-up stadium option alive in Overtown.

Last week, a lawyer for Beckham’s soccer venture asked Miami-Dade County’s mayor for an extension on a 2017 land deal that has largely faded from public attention in recent years as the partners pursued a grander deal for a mall, office complex and Major League Soccer stadium at the Melreese site.

But the county deal remains in the Beckham group’s portfolio: three acres of real estate near the Miami River that a representative for the venture said continues to be part of a Plan B option if talks for the 73-acre Melreese site fall apart.

“As you may know, we are currently amid negotiations with the City of Miami...to develop a soccer stadium on City property,” lawyer Pablo Alvarez wrote county Mayor Daniella Levine Cava on Friday, June 18. “Should those discussions fail to reach acceptable terms, the Property remains the preferred alternative site for a soccer stadium project that would bring major league soccer to Miami-Dade County.”

For the last two years, Beckham’s Inter Miami MLS squad has played home games in a temporary stadium the partnership built in Fort Lauderdale.

For now, Alvarez proposed turning the former county site in Overtown into playing fields for different community sports — described as a “a multi-purpose mini sports pitch.”

Beckham group misses deadline with county

The correspondence came as the Beckham group missed a legal deadline embedded in the no-bid land deal approved by county commissioners in 2017.

The agreement required the entity that bought the land, 0101 Miami Properties, to obtain a building permit for a stadium within two years of the purchase — a deal that closed in June 2019. That meant the deadline landed on June 18, prompting the request for an extension, as allowed under the agreement.

A Levine Cava representative on Wednesday said the administration is preparing a response that could be out by the end of the week. Levine Cava, elected in November after six years as a county commissioner, cast one of the four votes against the 2017 deal granting Beckham and partners the county site.

MLS Miami group needs extension from Levine Cava

The letter from Alvarez, corporate lawyer to Beckham’s lead partners, Jorge and José Mas of Miami’s MasTec, also reflects the group’s other ambitions for Overtown. The former county truck depot in the 600 block of Northwest Seventh Avenue makes up about a third of the nine-acre stadium site Beckham and partners assembled for the MLS stadium in 2016 and 2017.

The Beckham group paid $9 million for the county site in 2019, two years after the commission vote approving the deal. At the time, the partners had already shifted their plans to Melreese, and the purchase was the first sign that the group may have development plans in Overtown beyond a stadium.

The partners’ assemblage, a mix of land bought from the county and private owners, sits next to a Miami-Dade housing complex slated for redevelopment, Culmer Gardens, and blocks from the Culmer Metrorail station.

The lots are currently vacant and framed by chain-link fences and barbed wire. There’s a No Trespassing sign greeting visitors with a telephone number for 0101 Miami Properties.

Soccer fields in Overtown from Beckham?

In his letter, Alvarez asked Levine Cava to designate someone from her administration to “discuss potential alternative economic development purposes for the Property should it no longer be needed for a soccer stadium.”

The original 2017 deal requires the county land be used for a soccer stadium, but county commissioners could likely change those terms with a majority vote. Bruce Matheson, who owns land nearby, tried to block the 2019 no-bid sale in court, but Florida courts upheld the county’s ability to negotiate exclusive land sales in the name of economic development.

James Adams, bishop at the St. John Institutional Missionary Baptist Church in Overtown, helped lead neighborhood opposition to the stadium deal ahead of the 2017 commission vote. He said he was hired by the Beckham group to help build public support for the Melreese deal, but hasn’t been on the payroll since a successful 2018 city referendum authorizing the current lease talks for the golf course.

This week, he said he’s relieved the Beckham stadium push stalled in Overtown and wants to see commercial and residential development come to the site once reserved for MLS. That wish list includes a big-box store to spur foot traffic and spending, and a mix of housing options, including market-rate condominiums and apartments reserved for people with low incomes.

“This is an opportunity,” he said. “It’s a prime piece of real estate.”

This story was originally published June 23, 2021 at 7:35 PM.