Beckham Submits Soccer Stadium Lease Plan for Miami's Melreese Golf Course
The proposed rent would be at least $3.57 million a year and possibly more for the city-owned municipal course east of Miami International Airport.
June 05, 2019 at 02:39 PM
4 minute read
David Beckham and his Major League Soccer stadium partners filed a draft lease with Miami on Wednesday to take over the Melreese public golf course.
Miami Freedom Park LLC would pay at least $3.57 million in annual rent and possibly more. The soccer group could be paying rent equal to the fair market value of the property or 5% of tenants' rent, whichever is greater, according to the proposed lease and development agreement.
Miami Freedom Park wants a 39-year lease with an option to renew its contract for two 30-year terms.
Beckham and partners, MasTec Inc. executives and brothers Jorge and Jose Mas, plan a 25,000-seat stadium, more than 1 million square feet of other real estate development and a 750-room hotel on 73 acres east of Miami International Airport.
The project would include an adjacent 58-acre public park and 11 public soccer fields atop a parking garage.
The team is offering $20 million over 30 years for improvements to city parks and $5 million to help pay for the city's downtown waterfront walkway.
Miami Freedom Park promises to pay a living wage, one of the sticking points last summer that held up a City Commission vote to put the proposal up for a referendum. Miamians last November voted in favor of leasing the public land for the soccer project and unrelated development.
Miami Freedom Park said it will pay $15 an hour to employees who don't sign up for employer health care coverage and $13.19 an hour to employees who choose the benefit. Also, the group said its tenants also would pay a living wage starting at $11 an hour and increasing each year over four years. The Florida minimum wage is $8.46 an hour.
Miami Freedom Park also pledged 20% of its construction workers would be union members and it won't seek city funds or matching funds for state or federal grants.
The soccer group also has vowed to pay for all environmental remediation of Melreese, which sits atop toxic ash dumped there from city incinerators.
The draft lease was delivered a week after the soccer group secured a $50 million loan to help pay for construction of stadiums in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
The group is replacing Fort Lauderdale's Lockhart Stadium to host the team's first two seasons. Inter Miami CF starts play in 2020 but needs temporary quarters until the permanent Miami stadium opens. The Fort Lauderdale project will include a training facility.
The group previously reached an agreement with Miami and The First Tee Miami to move the youth golf nonprofit to another golf course. First Tee has its golf, academic, camp and other programming at Melreese.
City staff members will review the proposed lease, which requires a super-majority four-fifths vote of approval from the City Commission to move forward.
The Beckham group also agreed May 21 to buy land in Miami's Overtown neighborhood from Miami-Dade County without explaining what it has in mind. The county acreage and adjacent property near Miami Marlins Stadium was envisioned earlier as a soccer stadium venue.
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