Miami commissioners on Thursday abandoned a plan to take someone’s riverside property through eminent domain proceedings and, instead, purchase another property in Little Havana owned by the same man. Instead of a park along the Miami River, the city will use the vacant land between 8th and 7th streets at 14th Avenue to build affordable housing.
Arturo Ortega didn’t want to sell his waterfront property in what’s becoming a fast-rising hot spot and where he recently started construction on a two story restaurant. Maybe he doesn’t really want to sell the lots in Little Havana either. Ladra can’t know for sure because he did not call back after a voice and text message was left on his phone. But he may not have a choice.
City Commissioner Joe Carollo wanted to build Simón Bolivar Park, in honor of the Venezuelan hero, on the riverside property — a vanity project for his wife, who is Venezuelan. He got the city to take Ortega to court. Crazy Joe gets them to do all kinds of crazy things. In 2023, a judge ruled that the city could take the land through eminent domain, a process by which a government can force the sale of private property for a necessary public use, paying a fair market value. And, last month, a jury decided that the property was worth $10.8 million, which is more than the city wanted to pay but less than Ortega though he should get.
Read related: Miami: Joe Carollo uses eminent domain to take private property for park
The city had 20 days from the ruling to make the payment, but on Thursday entered into a settlement with Ortega to buy the 8th Street property for $9 million, instead. Carollo agreed because the riverfront lot equaled about 15,000 square feet, or a third of an acre, while the Little Havana property is about an acre.
“There’s a lot that the city could do with that property,” Carollo said, although the resolution from the city’s Department of Real Estate and Asset Management specifically says it will be an affordable housing project.
Carollo always claimed that the slice of riverside land should be a park, even though Jose Marti Park is a hop and a skip away.
Ortega bought the property for $4.3 million in 2014, according to the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser’s records. So he’s still making a tidy profit. But he was likely strong-armed into selling it so that he could keep the riverside lot.
Political Cortadito will be watching and reporting on the Little Havana property and the affordable housing project to come.
Miami swaps ‘taking’ of riverside land for Little Havana property instead added by Ladra on
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