By Robert J. Romano, JD LLM of St. John’s University
The Miami Freedom Park, LLC, a sports business group led by businessman Jorge Mas and international soccer icon David Beckham, overcame what it hopes is the last legal hurdle to continue moving forward with a plan to build a billion-dollar soccer complex known as Miami Freedom Park. The proposed site is where Melreese Country Club is currently located, seventy-three-acres of city-owned property located at 1400 Northwest 37th Avenue, Miami, Florida.
When the City of Miami and MFP began discussing this project in 2018, it attracted significant opposition due to the fact that, a) the proposed site included the only public golf course in the City of Miami, a popular venue for residents and for a wide variety of charitable activities, b) community activists were outspoken in asserting that MFP is trying to capitalize on the relatively cheap price of the land located in a poorer, historically black section of the city, and that c) a significant portion of the costs for the project will be absorbed by the taxpayers for both the land and construction of the stadium, concerns similar to those the citizens of Miami confronted when a new stadium was built for Major League Baseball’s Miami Marlins.
One prominent Miami resident and taxpayer, multi-millionaire Bruce C. Matheson, asserted that the stadium will destroy the neighborhood’s quality of life, arguing that, “Twenty-five thousand people entering that neighborhood will wreak havoc with noise, traffic, and pedestrian congestion, because it’s not only a proposed soccer stadium, it’s a proposed concert stadium.”[1] Similar concerns were echoed by other neighborhood residents and land owners at various city meetings and public hearings.
However, Matheson went further than just voicing his objections, he filed a lawsuit in state court to end the stadium development project altogether. Per his lawsuit, Matheson alleged that the $9 million MFP offered to pay for the land was below market value and that the county could have demanded much more for the property if the proper public bidding criteria were followed. Specifically, Matheson’s suit claimed that granting MFP publicly owned land in a no-bid deal was a violation of law and that the ballot initiative surrounding the proposed stadium and related commercial development was therefore invalidated because of such. On March 21, 2019, however, the trial court did not agree with Matheson’s assertions and granted the City’s motion for summary judgment before entering a final judgment in favor of both the City of Miami and MFP.
Undeterred, Matheson continued his fight by filing an appeal with the Court of Appeals of Florida, 3rd District. Per the appeal, Matheson claimed that (a) the trial court applied the wrong standard for reviewing a ballot question challenge[2]; (b) the ballot question camouflaged the chief purpose of the charter amendment, which was to waive the existing charter protections of competitive bidding and fair market value; and (c) the ballot question was defective because the proposed terms were misleading as presented.[3]
The Appeals Court, however, was not persuaded, and the three-judge panel affirmed the lower court’s decision, holding that Matheson’s lawsuit failed to demonstrate that the ballot summary was clearly and conclusively defective and in addition, the ballot summary gave fair notice of its chief purpose and therefore was not misleading to the public.[4]
With no more legal challenges, and since the citizens of Miami previously approved through a referendum vote that the City of Miami can rent the Melreese land for the project, MFP has proposed a lease to the City of Miami which includes the following provisions:
A 99-year lease with annual rent payments to the City of Miami of no less than $3.5 million per year, with the total amount being based on a third-party fair-market-value appraisal;
The creation of a 58-acre public park and 11 soccer fields;
Payment of the full cost of remediation of the property to permit for public use of the park;
The construction of Inter Miami CF’s home stadium, entertainment and retail space, office tech hub and hotel at no cost to city taxpayers;
Living-wage salary for employees;
A commitment to complete creation of the public park at the same time or prior to completing construction of the stadium.[5]
Additionally, MFP will provide, through what is being called a community benefits agreement, $5 million to the City of Miami for a Riverwalk/Baywalk project, $20 million for park maintenance and free access to the soccer fields at Miami Freedom Park for City of Miami youth.[6] The new stadium is scheduled to be completed by the 2021 season, however the additional community benefits will be finalized over the course of the next several years. The draft lease, which still needs the approval of the City, can be found on the Miami Freedom Park website, together with artist renderings of the final project.
[1] https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/wealthy-miami-heir-bruce-matheson-sues-to-kill-david-beckham-soccer-stadium-deal-9514392
[2] MFP position was that Matheson failed to preserve the argument that the trial court committed reversible error in applying the accuracy test to the referendum. Matheson contends that the accuracy test requires a challenger only to prove that the summary either was not “clear and unambiguous,” or was misleading (a disjunctive rather than conjunctive burden), rather than both of these alleged deficiencies.
[3] 2020 Fla. App. LEXIS 11122
[4] 2020 Fla. App. LEXIS 11122
[5] https://miamifreedompark.com
[6] https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/david-beckhams-stadium-plans-met-with-skepticism-at-first-overtown-meeting-9356613
