Commission looks again at big-name airport hotel bids

A mayoral bid for development giants Stephen Ross and Jeffrey Soffer to jointly get a 50-year lease to build and run a four-star hotel at Miami International Airport was pulled off the runway at a committee meeting as Chairman Keon Hardemon called it “one of the most peculiar processes I’ve ever seen.”

Reversing a firm stance she took in December against the lease with a company owned jointly by the owners of the Miami Dolphins and of the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, Mayor Daniella Levine had asked county’s Airports and Economic Development Committee on May 10 to expedite the lease for a 451-room hotel.

Instead, the committee moved toward reopening the procurement process at its June 14 meeting, asking both RFP Miami, the joint operation that had been chosen by the mayor after a selection committee had acted, and second-place Parmco Airport Hospitality LLC to prepare 15-minute presentations on what each planned to do.

At that meeting, Mr. Hardemon said, the committee is to discuss “how to move it forward to the [full county commission], if we in fact move it forward to the larger body, or how we do it.”

Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins asked whether that means “that we are the selection committee on this?”

Mr. Hardemon, noting that the mayor had sent three different recommendations to the commission in separate memos, replied that “we are the ultimate decision-makers.” Later, he said, “The board has the opportunity to do what it chooses. That’s what this board is for.”

Mr. Hardemon also noted that committee meetings are videotaped, so the promises of potential developers and information from the administration can be reviewed later. He has been told things by the administration in his office, he said, “but it doesn’t actualize here on the dais.”

After two unions objected in December, the mayor blocked a lease that a selection panel last August had recommended go to FDR Miami. The mayor then called for a new request for proposals (RFP) focused on workers, local hiring, the environment and community benefits.
In a subsequent memo she cited rapid air traffic growth and said “an entirely new RFP could delay forward progress on this important infrastructure project that is key to our continued growth at the airport.” She emphasized that FDR Miami had made new deals with the objecting unions and “it’s critical that we take full advantage of this RFP to invest in our local workforce.”

At the May 10 Airports and Economic Development Committee meeting, Commissioner Marleine Bastien asked that the administration bring to the June 14 meeting a timeline of all that had transpired in the selection effort, which Commissioner Cohen Higgins noted now has gone on for three years.

Commissioner Bastien, saying that she had reviewed the documents submitted by the mayor for committee review, said they spoke of “contracts or MOUs (Memoranda of Understanding) with unions – different unions – but I don’t think I saw any MOUs in these reports.” She asked that the committee receive copies of all of them.

In the 1.82-acre, 50-year proposed lease that the mayor sought to expedite, FDR would design, build, finance, operate and maintain the hotel. The administration anticipated $240 million total from FDR, starting at $197,832 rent the first year at $2.50 per foot. Rent would rise yearly and total about $20 million over the 50 years.

But the bigger payout was to begin in the fourth year as the hotel opened, when the county would get the larger of $2.5 million a year or 3.5% of gross receipts, calculated monthly. The guarantee would rise with the Consumer Price Index to total an expected $220 million – the administration counted on far more as 3.5% of gross came to exceed the guarantee.

The hotel site is east of the Dolphin Garage and south of the terminal, to link to Concourse D via a climate-controlled bridge with moving sidewalk. FDR would pay airport rates for exclusive use of 200 parking spaces in that garage or elsewhere at the airport for the hotel valet service.

Westin Hotels & Resorts would operate the FDR hotel.

The proposal does not mention the current hotel at the airport, the 63-year-old, 252-room Miami International Airport Hotel that has been a thorn in the side of airport directors for 20 years as they several times sought to oust varying operators and deal with operating irregularities. That hotel is built into the heart of the main terminal at Concourse E.

“I have had an opportunity to be a customer at our airport hotel and it’s not the best experience, to put it lightly,” Mr. Hardemon told the committee. “I know that we can do better in Miami-Dade County.”