With Inter Miami CF’s first home match in the team’s brand-new MLS stadium looming, Miami’s city government in recent weeks rewrote its contract with the stadium’s developer, Miami Freedom Park, to give it a lengthy extension on a required $10 million payment for public park improvements.

Miami Freedom Park had been on the hook to pay the money to the city prior to receiving a crucial permit to complete its stadium, which is still awaiting final approvals as the team prepares to host more than 20,000 fans in its first-ever game in Miami on Saturday.

But on March 4, the city issued the permit without receiving the payment, after agreeing to give the developer a flexible timeline to sink the $10 million it owes the city into an onsite park promised to voters when they signed off on the project eight years ago.

The change — included in contract revisions the City Commission approved in February — is the latest example of the city bending on its requirements to move the project forward as the anticipation around the stadium heightened. Inter Miami, coming off its first MLS championship with star Lionel Messi, has been selling tickets to Saturday’s game since last April, with team co-owner David Beckham hyping the opening of Nu Stadium on social media.

READ MORE: Inside Inter Miami: Nu Stadium at last! Plus, Messi during FIFA break and more

Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins, who inherited the project when she was elected in December, told the Miami Herald in an interview this week that she is “perfectly comfortable adapting contracts when they make sense.”

“I had absolutely nothing to do with the [initial] contract that was signed, and there’s a history of contracts being signed in the city that were not particularly rock solid,” she said. “That’s fine. That’s the past. What we’re living in today is, we have a project that is going to be fantastic, and we have to adapt to the realities of how we’re building it.”

The lobbyist representing Miami Freedom Park in the city did not respond to questions or a request to interview Inter Miami Managing Owner Jorge Mas for this story. Neither did Inter Miami CF.

If things had gone according to plan, Miami Freedom Park would have paid the city a total of $20 million for public parks by now. The first $10 million installment was paid in 2024 — over 100 days late.

The remaining $10 million payment was due in January 2025, when the city issued a permit allowing the developer to begin vertical construction of the stadium. That deadline came and went. Construction continued.

The $10 million payment never came.

In the weeks leading up to Saturday’s grand opening, the city retooled the contract in a way that gave Miami Freedom Park even more flexibility on paying its outstanding eight-figure balance.

Rather than making a lump sum payment to the city, the developer will now spend the remaining $10 million directly on the 58-acre public park attached to the stadium site, without a fixed deadline to do so.

Former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell was one of four city commissioners who voted to award the 99-year lease to Beckham and business partners Jose and Jorge Mas four years ago. He said in an interview Thursday that various changes made to the project have echoes of past Miami stadium deals, like the much-criticized Marlins Park deal.

Russell said the stadium proponents “promised everyone this was the anti-Marlins deal, that this was the best stadium deal in the country. And when we voted on it, it was. What they have done to it since then is a sham.”

Russell, who was the swing vote, only agreed to support the soccer stadium deal after the parties promised to spend half of the $20 million contribution on creating parks throughout the city. But, as the Herald previously reported, the City Commission last year passed legislation that undid that promise, allowing the developers to keep all $20 million at the park site attached to the stadium.

The recent contract changes that give the developer a more flexible payment deadline were part of legislation that passed an initial vote late last year under the previous administration led by former City Manager Art Noriega and former Mayor Francis Suarez. But they were ultimately adopted by the City Commission in February under the leadership of Higgins and the new city manager, James Reyes. Higgins signed the legislation on Feb. 19.

Higgins stands behind the recent contract changes, saying they are beneficial to residents because they will allow the developer to turn over a more complete park to the city.

“I’m very pleased,” she said. “I think this is going to provide an amazing place for people to visit, to play with their kids, to participate in sports. It’s going to be much better than just having, you know, a blank piece of grass.”

Under the previous plans, the developer was supposed to pay all $20 million to the city, to be kept in a separate account. The developer would also turn over the completed on-site public park to the city. After that, the city would still have the $20 million park fund to spend on park improvements.

But instead of having the developer hand over a park that is “basically a grassy field,” Higgins said, the recent contract changes allow the developer to invest the remaining $10 million directly into the park. The “enhanced park,” as it’s now called, is slated to include courts for pickleball, tennis and basketball, as well as a dog park, a sculpture garden and more.

“We want that park built as quickly as possible,” Higgins said. “We’ve revised the strategy so we get it fast — sooner rather than later.”

Reyes declined to comment for this story.

Moving goalposts

Standing against the backdrop of the under-construction stadium for his final State of the City address last January, Suarez praised the project as the “best sports deal in America.”

But it wasn’t all roses between the city and the developer.

Records show that on Jan. 3, 2025, the city gave the developer authorization for an “early start” on the stadium construction.

The city’s real estate department invoiced the developer for the remaining $10 million payment days later, according to an internal report. Then on Jan. 10, the city issued the vertical permit.

The city at the time was insistent that the developer owed the remaining $10 million as a condition for actually beginning vertical construction of the stadium.

During an interview with the Herald at the time, Assistant City Manager Asael Marrero said the developer was “on notice” that the remaining public benefits payment was due and that the city would be withholding the master permit and “any future permits” until the money was received. Marrero described the master permit as “the most important permit in this particular development,” without which “you can never, ever complete this project.”

Jorge Mas himself had promised that the public benefits contribution would be paid to the city before any meaningful construction could begin.

“I, number one, in order to build a stadium, I have to deliver the public benefits first. First,” Mas said at the 2022 City Commission meeting when his 99-year lease was approved. “Everything that I just mentioned has to be done before I go up three feet on the vertical [construction] of the stadium.”

But the month after putting the developer “on notice” for failure to pay the final $10 million, the city softened its position. Rather than insisting the payment was due immediately, the city said the remaining payment “will be due prior to the issuance of the Master Permit” and said “construction can partially continue.”

As recently as last summer, city officials were still expecting the payment, according to an internal report.

Then, earlier this year, as the stadium’s grand opening loomed, the goalpost moved again.

Under the contract changes approved less than two months ago, the developer was relieved of the obligation to make a lump-sum payment as a condition for receiving the master permit.

City could be on the hook for park costs

The parties recently agreed to a $29.9 million budget that Miami Freedom Park will spend on the park. It consists of:

$9.9 million the developer will spend on expenses like stormwater drainage, sewers, irrigation, trees, sod, plant installation and lighting. That’s what the parties estimate it will cost to complete the basic park, which was always the developer’s responsibility, before additional amenities and improvements.
The first $10 million parks payment the developer made to the city, which is held in a separate account that the city controls.
The remaining $10 million that the developer owes the city as part of the public benefits contribution, which the developer will now spend directly on improvements for the 58-acre park.

There is no official deadline attached to spending the remaining $10 million, according to city staff.

The park is set to be completed in four phases. The first phase includes landscaping, greenspaces with irrigation, lighting and a dog park.

Phase 2, with a September deadline, is supposed to include a fitness area with playgrounds, shade structures and water fountains.

April 2027 is the deadline for Phase 3, which includes a 7,500-square-foot sports center building, as well as courts for basketball, tennis and pickleball.

Phases 3b and 4 are tied to external milestones, including the county’s issuance of final permits, rather than fixed calendar dates. Those phases include more greenspace, irrigation, utilities and a connection path connecting Northwest 17th Street to the Freedom Park site.

Failure to meet those deadlines could trigger penalties for the developer or contractor, ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 per day.

Assistant City Manager Barbie Hernandez said in an interview that she anticipates the remaining $10 million the developer owes for the park will be spent by either Phase 2 or 3.

Under the new contract, the city is now on the hook for any overages that exceed the $29.9 million budget.

That’s also a departure from the original deal. The ballot referendum that voters passed in 2018 green-lighting the Miami Freedom Park development on the city-owned Melreese golf course site included the caveat that it would be done at “no cost” to the city.

Higgins affirmed that the city’s goal is to avoid passing any financial burden onto taxpayers.

If the park is on track to exceed the $29.9 million budget, she said the city would first look to scale back the amenities, like reducing the number of sports courts, for example.

“Every project has a budget, and you value-engineer down to the budget,” Higgins said. “That’s just how it’s done.”

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