An aerial rendering of David Beckham's proposed Miami Freedom Park for Melreese golf course.

Miami will keep negotiating a lease for David Beckham's proposed Miami Freedom Park after city commissioners convened to vote on the controversial project but did nothing to change the current course.

The City Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to reject a resolution on Miami Freedom Park, which amounted to a denial of the lease as it is now with blanks and vital missing information.

Some of the notable holes in the contract can be filled only after the city receives studies including an environmental assessment and appraisals to determine the fair market rent the city should receive for the stadium site, which is now the city-owned Melreese golf course.

A separate item calling for the city to stop negotiations with Beckham's group and issue a competitive solicitation for the golf course land was altered. Commissioner Joe Carollo, who sponsored the resolution, amended it to direct staff to bring back either a complete, final lease or a discussion item on the lease for the Dec. 12 commission meeting.

Beckham, brothers Jorge and Jose Mas of infrastructure contractor MasTec Inc. executives and other investors want to develop a 25,000-seat soccer stadium plus Miami Freedom Park a 1 million-square-foot commercial complex on public land east of Miami International Airport. Miami voters last November approved a referendum allowing negotiations of a 99-year lease.

The soccer group plans to build a home for Beckham's Inter Miami CF Major League Soccer team and commercial development 73 acres and develop 58 acres of public parks at the 155-acre Melreese property.

Commissioner Manolo Reyes, a staunch opponent, was pushing for a vote on the lease before Commissioner Willy Gort, another opponent whose district includes Melreese, steps down from the dais. Gort, who is term limited, is serving until a Nov. 19 runoff between Alex Diaz de la Portilla and Miguel Gabela.

The outcome Tuesday was good news for Miami Freedom Park.

"We are grateful that commissioners voted unanimously to allow us the opportunity to negotiate the best deal for the city of Miami, supporting the will of an overwhelming majority of Miami voters," Jorge Mas said in an emailed statement. "We will continue to work as quickly as possible to finalize a lease."

That reaction came after Reyes vocalized his gripes, arguing the correct legal process for the project wasn't followed. He wanted a solicitation for developers rather than the no-bid process pursued by the soccer group.

City Attorney Victoria Mendez responded the process the city followed is legal.

A lawsuit that challenged the no-bid route failed after a circuit court judge said the plaintiff lacked standing and didn't demonstrate harm beyond that of the general public. An appeal also failed.

Mayor Francis Suarez, a project champion, said a competitive solicitation made no sense.

"If the city were to have issued an request for proposals where the city says, 'To develop this property we need a team that has an MLS franchise and can develop 1 million square feet of offices,' there's only one team that could have responded to this solicitation," Suarez said. "We could have undertaken a variety of different processes. This was the best process."

Suarez and Reyes clashed several times during the meeting.

"Very nice rhetoric, very good," Reyes responded to Suarez's points and then alleged a backroom deal. "This didn't go to RFP because the mind was already set by you and administration that that was going to be the place where you want the stadium to be built. All the steps were taken in order to benefit the soccer stadium and the owner of the soccer stadium."

Reyes also raised issue with the appraisals and lease negotiations taking a year.

"Have you agreed on anything? Have any of the terms been agreed on?" he asked Shutts & Bowen attorneys the city hired as outside counsel to help with lease negotiations.

The land valuations must calculate the property's projected value once all the development is in palce, and it's difficult to appraise real estate that's not there yet, the attorneys said.

"This is not a simple real estate transaction. This is not cookie cutter," said Shutts partner and former City Commission Marc Sarnoff. "We are just not at the stage right now to give you answers. … We have been negotiating over the past month almost daily with each other."

Jorge Mas urged commissioners to allow negotiations to continue and touted the soccer group's community outreach in the Grapeland Heights neighborhood east of the golf course and the project's potential economic impact. He also touched on the skipped RFP process.

Since "we commenced this process, it has not precluded anyone or any party from making a proposal over a different use for the land of Melreese," he said.

While stadiums alone aren't economic drivers, the expanded Miami Freedom Park as a whole would be a boon, Mas said.

He projects it will generate more than $40 million in tax revenue annually for the state, county, city and public school district while using no taxpayer funding for development or environmental remediation. Melreese, a former dumping ground for incinerator ash, has soil contamination.

Commission Chairman Ken Russell said he opposes the lease in its current form because it doesn't reflect some of the points he had insisted on last year when he voted for the referendum. One of his conditions was no loss of public green space.

The city charter has a no-net-loss policy, and Russell said the current draft contract doesn't meet his requirement.

Carollo said his main concern is that the city gets fair market rent for its property and Miami Freedom Park must meet the rents derived from the appraisals to get his vote.

"Frankly, and I will say this to Mr. Beckham, Mr. Mas and everyone else, that if they cannot meet what experts we have hired tell us the market value is that they should be paying us, then we are going to have a problem," Carollo said.

One of proponents' main arguments has been commissioners should honor the people's will based on the referendum.

"I agree a referendum went on," Reyes said. "But a referendum does not make us accept a contract."

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Uncertainty Looms Ahead of Showdown Vote on Miami's Beckham Stadium