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It appears the restoration of historic Miami Marine Stadium could be destined for further delays as City of Miami staff work to prepare a cost analysis report for the city commission.
That news came at the latest meeting of the Virginia Key Advisory Board last week.
Loraine Rosado-Pietrie, with the city Office of Capital Improvements, offered an update on the status of the stadium project and said the staff may ask for further deferrals.
On Feb. 24 the city commission was scheduled to vote to reauthorize issuance of bonds to help pay for long-awaited restoration.
Instead, Commissioner Joe Carollo successfully deferred the vote after a lengthy explanation of why he wants to wait on restoration, which the commission originally approved in 2016.
At the February meeting, Mr. Carollo said: “I’d like to defer it until the administration is ready, in no less than 60 days, to come back and give us a whole realistic outlook into the first five years on the cost to the city.”
That would have called for City Manager Art Noriega and his staff to report back as early as late April.
Mr. Noriega requested more time, asking for the matter to be deferred to the May 26 city commission meeting.
Ms. Rosado-Pietrie explained the city commission’s move to pause the project and get more information before the crucial vote to reauthorize the funding.
“They want to see a five-year pro forma (financials) report. We have an accountant working on those numbers,” she said.
Asked if the report would be ready by May, Ms. Rosado-Pietrie said the matter may need to be deferred again as the city staff is awaiting much material from two outside sources in order to have a complete report for the city commission.
“It is possible we will get it deferred further,” she told the board.
At Mr. Carollo’s urging, Mr. Noriega was directed to study potential revenues and financial losses of proceeding with restoration and reopening the venue for concerts and other events.
More than five years have passed since the commission approved bond funding, yet no construction has been done. For several years the city had been working toward restoring the stadium, closed since 1992’s Hurricane Andrew.
Talk of restoring it was just that for years, until November 2016, when the commission approved $45 million bond borrowing for renovation and improvements.
In January 2017 the commission hired R.J. Heisenbottle Architects for architectural and engineering services related to the stadium. The most recent status report listed estimated costs at $47,803,022.
The deferred vote would have declared official intent “to issue tax-exempt and taxable special obligation bonds in the expected total maximum principal amount of … $61.2 million in order to, among other things, reimburse itself from the proceeds of such special obligation bonds for funds advanced by the city for certain expenses incurred with respect to certain capital improvements projects at the Miami Marine Stadium and the associated Welcome Center and Museum Complex.”
The $61.2 million figure was referred to in a slide presentation March 22 to the advisory board.
The presentation included an answer to the question, ‘why has the estimated cost of restoration increased so highly?’
An elaborate chart shows the rising costs of construction materials – steel, lumber and aluminum – since World War II, with skyrocketing price gains in 2020 reaching as high as 125%.
“There has been an exponential hike in construction costs,” Ms. Rosado-Pietrie told the board.
In February, Mr. Carollo cited increasing projected costs as one of his main concerns. He said that several years ago when restoration was discussed he asked for a study of potential costs that he has yet to see.
The island property and stadium on the basin was conveyed in 1963 from Miami-Dade County to the City of Miami.
Mr. Carollo has suggested the city is not bound to restoring the stadium but could build other structures without triggering a reverter clause to the county.
Ms. Rosado-Pietrie’s presentation included the wording of the deed restrictions, which read in part: “This deed of conveyance is made upon the express condition that the land hereby conveyed shall be perpetually used and maintained for the operation of a Marine Stadium and allied purposes only; and in the event the use of said land for such purposes shall be abandoned, then and in such event the title to said land shall revert to the grantor herein.”
In February, Mr. Carollo said he didn’t believe the current stadium had to be preserved or used and, “We could do something there with bleachers, frankly, and it would meet the intent of the contract.”
The latest slide presentation spells out more details of the restoration construction planned in regard to base design and operations equipment anticipated.
The design of the Miami Marine Stadium Restoration Project has been divided into two bid packages:
■Base Building Bid Package: Includes all restoration work of the main building and the historical plaza.
■Operations Equipment Bid Package: Includes all (furniture, fixtures, and equipment) such as food service equipment, stage lighting control systems, wall mounted LED screens, community event sound equipment, etc.
“The basis for the separation of the packages was to remove from the project items that an operator/manager may be in charge to provide and maintain. Since the venue is in a waterfront property exposed to inclement weather, it may not be in the best interest of the city to own those items,” the presentation noted.
City officials are considering a third party to operate a restored stadium.
Earlier this year, officials with the Office of Capital Improvements said an ad to hire a general contractor was to be published in March, but that was before the pause initiated by the city commission.