UHealth buys naming rights to a Metrorail stop

Capping 16 years of effort, Miami-Dade has sold naming rights to a transit station. It agreed to sell the title of the Civic Center Metrorail Station to the University of Miami’s Health System for just over $2.9 million for 20 years.

The station will become UHealth Jackson Station on July 1. By federal rules, funds from a transit naming right sale must go to the county’s Department of Transportation and Public Works for transit uses.

The county commission approved the deal unanimously last week with no discussion or prior hearing. UHealth approached the county last year about station marketing privileges and naming rights, a memo said. The county-owned Jackson Health System was part of the negotiations.

The transit system had been trying to sell off station names since 2008, when it hired Front Row Marketing Services to bring in deals along Metromover. Front Row estimated the county could get $48,000 a year for the Third Street Station at Bayfront Park, $42,500 for the Omni stop, $37,000 for Government Center and $32,000 for Eighth Street in Brickell.

Those sales were never made, but the county has made other highly publicized sales, most recently getting $117 million to name the county’s basketball arena Kaseya Center for 17 years after an ongoing center naming deal with currency trader FTX collapsed along with FTX.

The county has 22 more Metrorail stations remaining for possible deals, and UHealth holds options to renew its deal for two 10-year periods.

UHealth is to pay the cost to update wayfinding signs with the station’s new name and throughout the Metrorail system. UHealth will also pay to install digital high-resolution displays, wall mounted and in kiosks, “for informative content, branding, and engagement material for transit riders passing through the station.”

An advertising program managed by Outfront Media Group will still sell other outdoor advertising at the station.