A rendering of David Beckham's proposed Miami Freedom Park soccer stadium-anchored complex at the Melreese golf course. Rendering courtesy of Arquitectonica

Retired soccer star David Beckham's Miami Freedom Park LLC applied for a wide-ranging zoning change to remake the city-owned Melreese golf course by developing a Major League Soccer stadium and other commercial real estate.

Beckham is an investor in the soccer group that started and owns the Inter Miami CF team to play at a 25,000-seat stadium, which would be only a segment of a planned $1 billion real estate venture. Other big-name investors include two politically connected businessmen, brothers Jorge and Jose Mas, executives with infrastructure contractor MasTec Inc.

Miami Freedom Park wants to redevelop the 131-acre golf course east of Miami International Airport but won't build-out the city's only public golf course. The plan is to lease 73 acres for the stadium, 750-room hotel and an office complex intended to be a tech hub. The remaining 58 acres would be a public park.

The special area plan application shows a mile-long wellness loop, a mile-long bicycle path, Soccer Village with shopping and restaurants, and public soccer and football fields atop a garage. There also would be a farmers market and space for food trucks and 5,400 parking places.

The application dated Friday and submitted this week arrived as the city and private group negotiate terms for a 99-year lease paying at least $3.5 million in rent annually.

About 60% of Miamians approved a 2018 referendum for a no-bid lease for the stadium.

The project turned controversial over the lack of competitive bidding, quality of life impacts in the surrounding Grapeland neighborhood, environmental remediation of the contaminated site and the loss of public green space.

The application vows to take care of cleaning up the entire 131-acre property at no cost to the city. The development group also pledged to create 21 acres of parkland that would be lost with the commercial rezoning elsewhere in city and likely in smaller pieces.

The group touts the project as an economic driver that will contribute $42.7 million annually in taxes to the state, county, city and public school district. The project is to create 15,000 jobs, 13,935 of them for construction and 1,795 permanent positions.

Jorge Mas, managing owner of Inter Miami, issued a statement saying the SAP application is in line with the city vote.

"With the goal of following through on the will of Miami voters, we are submitting the Miami Freedom Park zoning application so it can be reviewed as we continue to advance lease agreement negotiations," Mas said. "This parallel path will allow us to more quickly bring the creation of one of the city's largest public parks, the future home stadium of our Major League Soccer team, more than 15,000 jobs, and contributions of $42.7 million in annual tax revenue, all at no cost to city taxpayers."

The soccer group submitted a proposed lease last year, but an agreement is far from final, according to the Miami Herald, which first reported the SAP submission.

The other investors are SoftBank Group CEO Marcelo Claure and SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son.

Inter Miami played two away games in early March, losing both, and then postponed its first home game at a temporary Fort Lauderdale stadium once social-distancing requirements were imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The team is to resume its season July 8 against Orlando City.