Subaru dealership bids for 30-year airport lease

An unsolicited offer for more than 14 vacant acres at Miami Executive Airport to build a Subaru auto dealership in a 30-year lease that could net the county nearly $78 million won committee approval last week without comment.

The offer from a company fully owned by Craig A. Zinn, who has dealerships in North Dade and Broward County, reached the county in March and has been under administration review and negotiations since then.

In the non-competitive development lease agreement, BTZ Operations LLC would build an auto dealership for $15 million, run it for 30 years with two five-year renewal options, and create 70 jobs starting at $65,000 average annual salary, hiring at rising pay levels later in the contract.

As part of the negotiated deal presented to the county’s Airport and Economic Development Committee last week, BTZ would donate $50,000 yearly to one or more unspecified automotive job training programs and $50,000 a year to the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Foundation.

A document from Alex Muñoz, county internal services director, says BTZ projections show the dealership anticipates $108 million in annual gross revenues, $21,535,000 in annual gross profits, and estimated annual net income of $6,315,000.

That document cites a commitment from Mr. Zinn to self-fund all project costs.

Speaking to the committee before it voted, Eric Greenwald of KTMB Acquisitions LLC team, a first-tier contractor on the project, pointed to “a long and deliberative process between [the Miami-Dade Aviation Department] and BTZ” on the contract.

“I believe that this lease is a true corporate partnership in the best sense of the term that will be a win for the county and a model for future development leases,” he said, adding that “the tenant Zinn Group has a long history of constructing and operating dealerships in North Dade and Broward County.”

The dealership would rise on the northwest corner of Southwest 137th Avenue and Southwest 136th Street. But beyond both the committee’s approval last week and a final commission vote Dec. 12, the project must clear a number of hurdles.

First is an 18-month due diligence period starting when the lease takes effect during which BTZ would get approvals to begin development. Those include surveys, environmental site assessments, tests, permits and changes to county land use and zoning – the land is now zoned for aviation only.

During due diligence, BTZ would pay a reduced rent of $7,500 monthly and be barred from business or construction on the land. BTZ could terminate the contract during that period for any reason with no penalty. But once it got past due diligence, BTZ would pay rent of a bit over $1.5 million a year.

Following a development and operations period following due diligence, BTZ would be required to begin operations within the next 40 months.

Milestones would require BTZ to submit development plans to the aviation department within nine months, submit those plans to other government agencies as required within 30 days after aviation department approval, get construction permits within 18 months after the start of the development period, start construction within 19 months after the start of the period, and finish construction within 37 months after the start of the period.

The county would be paid $135,000 in the due diligence period, $72,561,000 in the remainder of the 30-year lease, and $5,175,000 after the first 10 years in fees for improvements on the land.