FYI Miami: June 20, 2019

Below are some of the FYIs in this week’s edition. The entire content of this week’s FYIs and Insider sections is available by subscription only. To subscribe click here.

RIVERSIDE CENTER RE-DO: Without explanation, three proposed resolutions to advance construction of a new government office complex for the City of Miami, and a large mixed-use private grouping of towers on the Miami River, were deferred by city commissioners June 13. City Manager Emilio González requested the items be deferred until June 27. The city has been negotiating a deal to have an Adler affiliate company named Lancelot build a new city office building at 230 SW Third St., immediately north of the city’s current Miami Riverside Center at 444 and 460 SW Second Ave. It includes a 99-year lease with an option to buy to Lancelot, for an annual rent equal to $3,620,000, for the Riverside site. A third resolution is the city’s intent to issue tax-exempt and taxable special obligation bonds of $150 million “for certain expenses incurred with respect to the acquisition of real property, the development, construction, and installations for a new city administration building” and related parking facilities.

TRANSIT CHANGE REVIEWS SHELVED: A proposed amendment to the Miami-Dade County code that would increase the need for public hearings and county lawmakers’ oversight of transit route modifications has been shelved to no date certain. Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava pulled her item – onto which Chairwoman Audrey Edmonson and Barbara Jordan and Dennis Moss signed as co-sponsors – from consideration this month, citing a need to review pending information from the county transportation department. “I am awaiting some data from the department that will show the list of 100-plus routes where adjustments were made and the percentage of the route on each to be accounted for,” she said. “We need this data, because Miami-Dade County transit is suffering, our community is suffering and we need to do better with our transit system, and we need to be accountable.”

OBSTACLE COURSE NO OBSTACLE: An aquapark with an air inflatable obstacle course 210 feet long by 135 feet wide would be added to the Miami Watersports Complex at Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah if county commissioners approve a plan by waterpark operator Miami Wakeboard-Cable Complex LLC. The commission’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Committee recommended passage in a 4-0 vote last week. The change would come in the modification of an agreement with the operator that has paid the county an average of $83,273 per years for the past three years for use of the site. The agreement before commissioners would add about $24,000 a year to those receipts if approved. The county gets 8% of gross receipts on the first $1 million of yearly revenues and 10% above $1 million. The license agreement won commission approval in October 2012.