Miami-Dade Commissioners are expected to ask Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Aviation Director Emilio Gonzalez on Wednesday to take a n
ew, fresh look at the much-ballyhooed and delayed Airport City project at Miami International Airport and come back in 60 days with a recommendation for the best use of the property.
Some observers think it’s really a cunningly disguised move to scrap the negotiations for development of a five-star hotel, restaurants and shops connected to MIA that started at least four years ago with Odebrecht USA — which came under fire because it’s Brazil-based parent company has projects in Cuba — and start the process all over again.
That’s what Commissioner Esteban Bovo really wanted when he brought up the issue at the county finance committee this week. Bovo reasons that economic conditions have changed over the years since the project was first discussed, the real estate market is better and MIA has flourished. Then there’s the fact that MIA Director Gonzalez wants to take back part of the 33.5 acres first envisioned in 2008 to scale the project back 
somewhere between six and nine acres today. Gonzalez said MIA — which is growing fast and this year met the projections set for 2017 — will likely need the biggest parcel adjacent to the terminal for aviation use purposes.
But Commissioner Dennis Moss wants the mayor to move forward and finalize the negotiations for the hotel mixed-use project, estimated at about $530 million.
The issue is set for a possible showdown in commission chambers Wednesday. Expect Gonzalez, who told Ladra that he was going to work on it over the long weekend, to come up with an alternative plan. When you talk to him, you can tell he has a different vision for the airport land. Expect that word, “vision,” to be used.
Gonzalez wants to seem neutral. “It’s not my decision. There are benefits to let it proceed. And there are benefits to starting again,” he told Ladra. But everything else he said seems to indicate that he prefers the latter.
“Since this thing is five years old, is there a better use for this property than what they were thinking five years ago,” Gonzalez asks, almost figuratively but you know he’s prodding.
And it’s a fair question. If there were no other suspected political shenanigan factors going on here and there had never been any reported foot-dragging, the idea of stepping back and starting over at this point seems downright, well, proper.
Expect Odebrecht, which still wants to move forward despite the smaller footprint, to pipe in with why it’s not. They’ll say how they have invested a rumored $10 million in the process — one year of FAA approval and three years of drawings and revisions — and what would happen if it went back to square one.
Their lobbyist, Jose Luis Castillo is cushy with a few of the commissioners, including Vice Chair Lynda Bell, whose re-election campaign he is managing this year, again. Wonder how she’s gonna go.
Word is, Odebrecht has also sought the help of DC lobbyist and former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Al Cardenas to help them by maybe getting Sen. Marco Rubio or Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to call Bovo and Chairwoman Rebeca Sosa and say “leave this alone.” Cardenas said he was not hired as a lobbyist. He simply has a “small interest” in a company that would develop part of the project, Cardenas told Ladra.
Some people believe Bovo’s real motivation is Odebrecht’s Cuba connection, which is a big no-no in his Hialeah-heavy district and has been fodder for the Cuban radio before. Las malas lenguas say that is also one of the reasons Gimenez has been dragging his feet on the negotiations. He already has trouble with the Cuban-American voter bloc, believe it or not, and it could come back to bite him in the ballot in 2016.
Another reason, sources say, is that the mayor’s buddies at Munilla Construction Management — who came in second, losing the negotiation process to Odebrecht — would love another bite at this apple.
It’s a win-win from the mayor’s POV!
Gonzalez assured Ladra last week, however, that the mayor has nothing to do with the delays. Both he and the mayor inherited the project and it has been a priority to get it moving, Gonzalez said. “To the mayor’s credit, he’s been deliberate. He has deferred to me on a lot of this stuff.”
Delays have been because of the year of FAA process and the changing development plans that have to be approved per parcel, Gonzalez said. There are only two parcels, however, now that the big one has been taken back.
The changing needs at the airport are why Ladra believes Gonzalez will come back with a new idea and the process will start all over again. He has hinted to as much when he said that there were better uses that could be identified now. And he is probably right. Aren’t there always? He particularly poopooed on the dry cleaner and gas station.
And he said Odebrecht never had a lock on the project. “Just because you come in first, doesn’t mean it’s awarded,” Gonzalez told Ladra. “They were ranked first but at no point is that a guarantee.”
Sounds like he’s practicing.
Bovo told Ladra he would still like to see the process start anew. And it has nothing to do with Cuba, he assures us. “The city attorney has been very clear on that,” Bovo said, referring to legal precedent set last year. But it’s out there. In 2011, a few Miami-Dade cities passed resolutions opposing Airport City and the powerful Latin Builders Association skipped an information session on the project precisely because of Odebrecht’s parent company’s subsidiary work in Cuba. And several county commissioners said at the time that they wanted to stop awarding contracts to the firm. In 2012, 62% of voters who said yes to a nonbinding ballot question that asked if Miami-Dade should ban hiring companies that “actively” do business with state sponsors of terrorism — like Cuba and Syria.
There has always been suspicion that Cuba is why this project was dead en el agua. Odebrecht USA — which also built the Adrienne Arsht Performing Arts Center — complained last year that it was ready to move forward but that paperwork sat on the shelf for weeks and plans were never submitted for review to the commission.
Of course, they can’t complain too loudly. They have other things they want to build in the county, like the soon to be discussed Metro Zoo movie world theme park (more on that later).
Bovo insisted that he wants to go back to square one because so much time has passed and too much has changed.
“Airport City doesn’t exist,” he said, referring to the original plan.
Commissioner Sally Heyman, who voted with Bovo at the finance committee but only because the request was amended from scrapping the plan altogether, has mixed feelings but seems willing to start over.
“Just because it was decided in 2008. We only had two bids. The banks weren’t loaning money. The director said instead of 33 acres now it’s just 9.5 acres,” Heyman said. “Then how do you move forward in good faith?”
But she is also worried about getting another ding in the county reputation as a place for insiders where things move v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y, if at all.
“We keep asking for people to participate and then we keep changing our minds,” Heyman said.
Commissioner Juan Zapata said that as long as the project is the best use for the property, he doesn’t care who builds i
t. He is willing to look at alternatives as long as they “ready to go” in 60 days.”If there are other offers there on the table, we should look at them. But we gotta move now, so we gotta make a decision,” Zapata said.
He also told Ladra that Odebrecht would likely have an advantage if the process were opened up to bids again.
“Whoever they had a deal with at the FAA has the upper hand. Especially if it could take another year to get it approved with someone else,” Zapata told Ladra, agreeing that the whole process had been sorta tainted.
“I think it’s politics. Everything is unnecessarily delayed,” Zapata said, adding that the project had been approved by the former airport director. “There’s always action to take, we can take action, and we decide not to.”
At the end of the day, it does seem like the right thing to do in light of the changes and it being one of our prime properties and most important projects.
It just also does seem like the powers that be always wanted it this way.
Delayed Airport City project battle brews at Miami-Dade added by Ladra on
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