Fort Lauderdale’s Chase Stadium is finally getting something it’s needed for years: A paved parking lot with 260 spaces — and a long-promised community park with 16 shaded pickleball courts.
The extra parking is part of a compromise deal between Inter Miami’s owners and Fort Lauderdale that also paves the way for a park with 16 pickleball courts, a dog park and walking trails. Together the park and parking lot will cost $25 million, with Miami Beckham United paying $4 million and the city paying $21 million.
Under the deal, Lockhart Park will break ground just south of the stadium next year — four years after it was supposed to open.
Six years ago, soccer legend David Beckham and his billionaire partners Jorge and Jose Mas made a deal with Fort Lauderdale to build a stadium on taxpayer-owned land. The Mas brothers run MasTec Inc., a $13 billion construction and engineering company based in Miami.
In return, the team’s owners agreed to pay the city $1 a year over the course of a 50-year lease. They also promised to build a park on land south of the stadium by July 2022.
The Lockhart Park project has stalled partly because Inter Miami has been using the 20-acre parcel for overflow parking on game days.
Beckham United will begin construction on the park by April 30 under a deal embraced by all but one member of the Fort Lauderdale commission.
Vice Mayor John Herbst was absent from Tuesday night’s commission meeting when the deal was approved 4-0.
But hours earlier, Herbst blasted the plan as an “absolute travesty” during a City Hall meeting Tuesday afternoon, saying the parking lot was going to take up one-third of the park.
“This is a complete abdication of everything that my district and my residents have been waiting for all these years,” Herbst said. “You took out the multi-purpose playing fields. The fields are gone and you’ve turned them into parking lots. You took one-third of the park and paved it. That’s horrible. That’s absolutely horrible.”
End to long-running dispute
The new parking lot will be built on the north end of the park, just south of the stadium.
Beckham United will have exclusive use of the new parking lot during Major League Soccer events and games, three hours before and after kickoff.
The settlement agreement ends a long-running dispute between the team’s owners and the city.
Fort Lauderdale entered into mediation talks with Beckham United two years ago to iron out several matters, including a dispute over whether the city should reimburse the team’s owners for spending $6.3 million to demolish Lockhart Stadium.
Beckham United claimed a former city manager agreed on a handshake that Fort Lauderdale would cover those costs. That handshake deal never made it into the comprehensive agreement and never received required commission approval, city officials say.
Beckham United also argued the city should cover the stadium’s building permit fees, which came to $1.4 million.
To help resolve their financial dispute, the city and Beckham United agreed to hire longtime attorney Jack Seiler as a mediator. Seiler, a former mayor of Fort Lauderdale, was paid $475 per hour, with each side splitting the bill.
Seiler gave commissioners an update during their afternoon conference meeting on Tuesday.
“It’s either agree on a resolution or this park is not going to get completed,” Seiler told the commission. “We have a proposal that I believe is fair and reasonable. I think it is a compromise that moves us forward. And most importantly, it moves us forward quickly. So we end up with a park that can get opened.”
Initial estimates put the cost of the new park at $2.4 million, Seiler said.
The price of the park, however, had swelled to $35 million based on the city’s latest wish list. Because of design changes that made way for the new parking lot, the cost to build the park is now down to under $25 million.
The park will include a community center, playground, walking trail, fitness area, sports field, 16 pickleball courts, open green space, restrooms and a maintenance building.
“It includes all the main features we originally proposed,” said Mayor Dean Trantalis, who handled negotiations for the city during mediation talks after taking over that role from Herbst several months ago.
“The only thing that isn’t here is the splash pad,” Trantalis added. “During the negotiations I asked that we eliminate the splash pad because they’re more trouble than they’re worth. They’re very costly and they’re hard to maintain.”
Good or bad deal for the city?
As part of the agreement, Beckham United would build the park and contribute $2.5 million toward the cost. Beckham United would also build the parking lot or, should the city build it, put $1.5 million toward the cost, Seiler said.
The original agreement from 2019 required Beckham United to build a high school football field near the soccer stadium, a project that cost $1.6 million.
The team’s owners have already spent $9.3 million on the football field, demolition costs and permit fees, Seiler told the commission. To help settle the dispute, they are no longer seeking reimbursement for the permit fees and demolition costs, Seiler said.
“This is the proposed agreement,” Seiler told the commission. “Is it perfect? No. Is there something in here that both sides would be a little upset about? Yes. Is there something in here that both sides can be happy about? Yes. At the end of the day, the park’s going to get built. At the end of the day, the parking is going to get resolved. And at the end of the day, it brings closure to this issue.”
Trantalis praised Seiler for playing a key role in bringing the dispute to an end.
“The bottom line, I think we’re going to get an amazing deal for the city,” Trantalis said. “One of the big issues was who’s going to pay for demolition costs. At the end of the day, Miami Beckham decided to cover that cost. They are no longer seeking reimbursement from the city on that. The other bone of contention was the permit fees. During the negotiation process we were able to get them to pay for that. And they are no longer seeking reimbursement.”
Herbst made it clear he was not at all happy with the outcome.
It was no surprise the park got cheaper, Herbst said.
“The reason you saved $10 million is you took out three multi-purpose playing fields with turf and all the drainage and everything else that went under that,” he said. “You eliminated one-third of the park. Children don’t want parking lots. Children want playing fields. I want to know where my kids in District 1 are going to play soccer. Where are they going to go?”
Trantalis had the answer.
“There’s a field just next to the football field,” he said. “They currently play rugby. It’s a multipurpose field. I think you’re exaggerating what’s going on here. We have a magnificent site plan here.”
Herbst snapped back: “It’s a horrible site plan. I take exception to that.”
Trantalis argued that the new plan was a win-win for both sides.
“I don’t think so,” Herbst replied. “Guess what’s not in the (original) agreement: This handshake deal on demolition. That was their responsibility. There was no ambiguity about that. Permit fees that they’re taking credit for, same thing. No ambiguity about it whatsoever. They don’t get credit for that.
“So that’s $9.3 million they don’t get credit for. This idea that somehow they’re giving us a gift of $9.3 million is an absolute fallacy. The comprehensive agreement is abundantly clear. And by the way (MasTec) is a multibillion-dollar company that’s made all of its money doing government contracts. This is not an unsophisticated party. Nobody knows a government contract better than somebody who’s built their entire business model on government contracts. So what we’re seeing here is …”
The mayor cut in to finish the sentence: “A compromise.”
Herbst, exasperated, said: “Mayor, please! Let me finish!” as he pounded the dais twice with an open palm.
At that point, the mayor accused Herbst of twisting the facts.
“I’m not twisting the facts,” Herbst said. “Those are the facts. Read the comprehensive agreement. I have. I think this is an abandonment of District 1. You have failed to give them what they expected. What they’ve been told they’re going to get for the last four years. It’s a horrible deal for the city financially.”
‘Not everyone’s going to be happy’
Trantalis told Herbst they can always go back to the drawing board.
“But whatever we do is going to raise the price,” Trantalis said. “We tried to come to terms that were affordable. Not everyone’s going to be happy. But we at least got to a point where we think we can finally stick a shovel in the ground and get this thing going.”
Herbst had one last thing to say.
“All I can say is we’ve taken the worst financial deal the city has ever done and amazingly managed to make it worse,” he said. “I didn’t think it could get any worse, but by God you did it.”
With that, he closed his laptop, flung his hands behind his head, leaned back in his chair and let out an exasperated sigh.
Commissioner Steve Glassman defended the deal.
“This settlement is not perfect,” he said. “However, the site plan for all of the park components is a big win for the city. The six-year negotiation process needed to come to an end and this compromise benefits both parties without the cost of litigation, which was looming over our head.”
The team plans to keep playing at its stadium in Fort Lauderdale until their new stadium in Miami opens in spring 2026. The new stadium, Miami Freedom Park, will become the team’s home base.
Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale will continue to serve a key role as the team’s corporate headquarters.
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan