PortMiami Land Once Eyed By Beckham For Soccer Stadium Could Get A Hotel And Convention Center

A company is proposing to develop a project called Miami Yacht Harbor at PortMiami, on land where David Beckham wanted to build a soccer stadium.

MITC-2015 Inc. is the company that is pushing the proposal. Rene LaComb, who was part of an investment group last year that unsuccessfully tried to take over the Miami Marine Stadium last year, is the company’s principal.

The project could include a convention center, hotel, and yacht marina on 8.7 acres at the southwest corner of the port. Dade County’s 2035 Master Plan for the port envisions exactly that type of development.

Marine Spill Response Corporation currently has a long term lease for most of the land. Dade commissioners will vote this week to authorize negotiations that would move them to another part of the port at no cost.

Details of a lease for the valuable plan have yet to be worked out, but MITC-2015 claims that the project could generate $76 million for the county over the first ten years, including lease payments, sales tax and ad valorem tax.

The Downtown Development Authority last year wrote a letter opposing commercial development at the port, saying that it would flood the market and cause a glut of space.

Beckham’s plans to build a soccer stadium on the land were killed after Royal Caribbean funded a campaign opposing the stadium there, while also threatening to move their cruise ships elsewhere. RCL has a below-market lease for their headquarters building and parking lot on adjacent land, and a stadium would have blocked their views of downtown.

Dade’s Trade and Tourism Committee will vote on whether to begin negotiations later this week.

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Story by: TNM Staff on August 24, 2015
Photo Courtesy: The Next Miami Staff

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