FORT LAUDERDALE — A deal is a deal, right?
Not always.
In the case of Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beckham United, a snazzy pink and gray stadium now sits on taxpayer-owned land, but residents are still waiting on a long-promised public park. The park, a carrot in the deal the soccer club owners negotiated with the city, was supposed to open a year ago.
The owners of Inter Miami — soccer legend David Beckham and billionaire brothers Jorge and Jose Mas — got a new deadline last year to get the park built.
Their new July 18 deadline will soon come and go, but they have yet to break ground.
Now it’s looking like the city may have to build the park on its own. That option is spelled out in the deal the city made with Beckham United in 2019, along with the $1 a year in rent the owners are paying to lease the public land for 50 years.
The future park, 20 acres of dirt and grass, sits south of the popular DRV PNK stadium along Commercial Boulevard, just west of Interstate 95.
Under the deal, the city can build the park if Beckham United blows the deadline. But the team’s owners will have to pay for it.
But even that might not be so cut-and-dried, an assistant city attorney recently warned the Fort Lauderdale commission. There’s a chance Beckham United would dispute the bill and the city would have to take the battle to court.
So be it, says Commissioner John Herbst, whose district includes the stadium.
“We’ll build the park and submit them with a bill before construction begins,” Herbst said. “If they refuse to pay, we’d sue them for the amount we’re owed, plus attorneys’ fees.”
Susan Stocker / South Florida Sun Sentinel
A grassy 20-acre parcel sits to the south of Inter Miami’s soccer stadium in Fort Lauderdale. One day, a $25 million park will rise on the spot, if Commissioner John Herbst gets his way.
He estimates the park will cost $25 million. Beckham United’s portion would come to $13 million and the rest would come out of a voter-approved parks bond.
If all goes well, the park will open by late 2025, Herbst says.
The new park will have sports fields that can be used for soccer, football, baseball, ultimate frisbee and even rugby, Herbst said. Other features include a running and walking trail, playground, dog park and paved parking lot.
Stall tactic?
In recent weeks, Herbst has accused the team’s owners of stalling on their promise to build the park because they need the land for parking.
The team has been using the land for overflow parking until just two weeks ago when the city put a stop to it.
Fort Lauderdale officials warned the team’s owners they’d lose access to the lot if they did not pay $1.4 million in overdue building permit fees by May 31. The fees remain unpaid to this day.
Pablo Alvarez, general counsel for Beckham United, could not be reached for comment.
Beckham United officials plan to spend $1 billion on Miami Freedom Park, where Inter Miami will eventually play home matches.
Last year, Miami commissioners approved a 99-year lease deal with Beckham United, paving the way for a 25,000-seat soccer stadium on public land. The project also calls for a 58-acre park and 750-room hotel along with restaurants and shops.
Herbst says he wonders if Miami officials are paying attention to what’s going on in Fort Lauderdale.
“If I’m Miami right now, I’m scared to death if I look at how they’ve treated the city of Fort Lauderdale,” Herbst said. “I’m hoping I wrote a much better contract in Miami than the guys in Fort Lauderdale did.”
Is Miami watching?
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who announced Wednesday that he plans to run for president in 2024, could not be reached for comment this week.
Miami Commissioner Manolo Reyes says he is well aware of the feud in Fort Lauderdale and hopes the same thing doesn’t happen in his city.
“They have to have the park built at the same time they build the stadium,” he said. “They have four years to get it done. I hope we don’t have to go through the same thing Fort Lauderdale is going through.”
Ken Russell, a former Miami commissioner who voted in favor of Beckham United’s stadium plan, thinks the city negotiated an airtight deal.
Miami officials, wary of saddling taxpayers with a sky-high bill, wanted to avoid a Marlins stadium-style fiscal fiasco, Russell said.
Over the past decade, critics have lambasted Miami and Miami-Dade County for using $500 million in public money to build a stadium for the Marlins. They had to borrow the money. When the last payment comes due in 2048, the total bill will come to $2.4 billion.
“We had post-traumatic stress from the Marlins deal,” Russell told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “No land was given for free. And they (Inter Miami) won’t be able to move into the stadium until they deliver on their promises, including (building) the park.”
David Winker, an attorney in Miami, has been keeping an eye on Fort Lauderdale’s battle to get a park built.
“The city of Miami should be watching this closely,” Winker said. “It doesn’t portend well for what’s going to happen down here. The residents depend on our elected officials to negotiate the contracts with these developers. We have a long history of getting screwed on our stadium deals. We got screwed on the baseball stadium. It was just a bad deal.”
At least one Fort Lauderdale official holds out hope that all will end well. And that’s Mayor Dean Trantalis.
Trantalis says he’s hoping Beckham United officials will come to a future commission meeting for what he called one last Hail Mary.
“I anticipate we will be able to reach an amicable resolution that will be a win-win for the community and for Inter Miami,” he said. “I am going to get more involved in it. I’m going to discuss with the owners what options we have and how we can move forward and complete the park project as originally intended.”
No walking away
There’s another potential wrinkle in the ongoing saga.
Now that soccer superstar Lionel Messi will soon be playing for Inter Miami, some say the team will need a bigger stadium than the 18,000-seat complex at DRV PNK.
But that has no bearing on whether a park gets built, Herbst said.
Even if Inter Miami were to move to Hard Rock Stadium, Beckham United is still on the hook to pay for the park it promised Fort Lauderdale. And if they do leave DRV PNK, Herbst says he doubts the team’s owners will walk away from a $170 million stadium.
“They’ve invested millions in that stadium,” he said. “I have every expectation that the team’s owners are going to develop appropriate uses in order to maximize their investment. Some of that might be concerts, some of that might be a women’s stadium. I don’t think they’re going to let their stadium sit empty.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com or on Twitter @Susannah_Bryan