David Beckham’s PortMiami MLS stadium plan may be opposed by a major cruise ship line and a bunch of local mayors, but at least he can rest assured that it has the steadfast backing of Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez wait what?
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez upended the negotiations with David Beckham and his investors Monday by proposing that the group consider building a Major League Soccer stadium on the downtown waterfront — but not at PortMiami.
Okay, that almost certainly sticks a fork in the PortMiami site, then. And where does Gimenez want Beckham to build instead, according to the Miami Herald?
As an alternative, Gimenez proposed filling a massive boat slip between Museum Park and AmericanAirlines Arena, which, according to the mayor, would create enough new land for a stadium as well as a pedestrian walkway along Biscayne Bay.
The Herald says that filling in the boat slip could be pricey — $10-16 million for the fill material alone — and the land (er, water? underwater land?) would have to be transferred from the city, which owns it, to the county. But Royal Caribbean isn’t opposed to the site, so apparently Gimenez feels that cutting one 800-pound gorilla from the mix is worth the tradeoff. Or he could just always kill two birds with one stone and fill the boat slip with 800-pound gorillas.
No, this just brings out another 800lb Miami Heat asking for more subsidies to not oppose new development on land they want for free. Iam in the development business there is always opposition no matter where, unless they put it in a ghetto.
+1 Neil. Well done.
Steven,
Land for free? The beckham group has said multiple times they will pay fair market price for the land as rent.
Ryan, yes Beckham wants to pay rent but the special interest opposition won’t pay rent.