Overtown

The Crosswinds Factor

 In exchange for support for ‘global agreement,’ county commissioner maims Sawyers Walk project

By Erik Bojnansky

Miami-Dade Commissioner Audrey Edmonson wants $175 million set aside for affordable housing in Overtown and land near the old Miami Arena back in the county’s hands.

Miami-Dade County Commissioners passed a $3 billion “global agreement” affecting downtown Miami on Tuesday and, in the process, took a step toward killing off a controversial Overtown project.

The agreement calls for the development of Museum Park, a Florida Marlins baseball stadium, a street car system and various other projects in Miami.

But Miami-Dade County Commissioner Audrey Edmonson insisted that she would vote yes only if her colleagues voted against reverting county-owned parcels on a lot at N.W. Sixth Street, between Second and Third avenues, to the city of Miami.

The city of Miami’s Community Redevelopment Agency intended to give the lots to Crosswinds, a Michigan-based developer that planned to build a mixed-use condominium known as Sawyers Walk on the land. Miami officials, including Overtown’s representative, Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, believe the condo will “revitalize Overtown, boost jobs and training, and attract businesses to the area.” According to a prepared statement from Spence-Jones, Crosswinds will generate $5.7 million in tax revenue for the Community Redevelopment Agency and create 740 construction jobs for local and minority residents during the project’s development, 40 ongoing property management jobs and 300 to 350 retail jobs. Some of the project’s 210 units would be set aside for affordable housing.

“While I truly understand how important it is to protect those that can’t afford the rising cost of housing, we must prepare for the future,” Spence-Jones said in the statement.

Power U, a neighborhood activist group, and other critics contend that Sawyers Walk will gentrify the area but contribute nothing to the impoverished Overtown community.

Edmonson agreed, adding that the city of Miami had land near the old Miami Arena for 20 years but accomplished nothing with it. “When January gets here, I expect my colleagues to vote no,” she said, adding that the county itself should “put something on that property … to bring economic development in this community.”

Under a previous agreement between the county and the city, Crosswinds developers had to break ground on the parcels before Dec. 31, or the county would resume control of the land. Lawsuits filed by Power U and Miami Arena owner Glenn Straub prevented the project from moving forward.

As part of the global agreement, the city of Miami sought a January hearing to again ask for control of the parcels. “We are putting ourselves at your mercy,” Miami City Manager Pete Hernandez told the board.

“I want this to revert back to the county,” Edmonson insisted.

At first, Edmonson insisted that the reverter clause be removed from the global agreement in exchange for her yes vote.

“It makes me really, really suspicious that one development can cause this to go down,” she said.

But County Attorney R.A. Cuevas insisted that any “significant change” would require the agreement to go back to the Miami City Commission for reapproval. The Miami City Commission approved the global agreement Dec. 13 by a vote of 4-1.

County Mayor Carlos Alvarez assured Edmonson that even if the commission were to approve the property’s reversion to Miami, he would veto the legislation. “I was not in agreement with that part of the agreement,” he said.

Reluctantly assenting, Edmonson also added her own amendment to the agreement, guaranteeing that the county fund a number of projects promised to Overtown under the $2.9 billion “Building Better Communities” bond — including the renovation of the Caleb Center — and set aside $175 million for affordable housing.

The global agreement calls for the expansion of Miami’s Omni and Southeast Overtown Park West redevelopment districts. It also favors extending the life of the Overtown Community Redevelopment Agency to 2030.

In turn, the Omni district would contribute $484 million to help repay bonds for the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, $88 million for the Port of Miami tunnel project and $68 million to fund capital improvements for Museum Park (now Bicentennial Park).

Southeast Overtown, meanwhile, would receive only 50 percent of revenue from property tax increases collected within the district since its establishment in the early 1980s. Overtown currently receives 95 percent of those taxes, referred to as “tax increment financing” by city and county officials. The county estimates it will receive $196 million from such a financing plan. In exchange, the county will contribute $20 million toward the construction of a streetcar system that Miami Mayor Manny Diaz wants to build through Edgewater, Omni and a sliver of Overtown (ironically, by the old Miami Arena and the controversial Crosswinds site).

Commissioner Barbara Jordan supported Edmonson’s amendment but warned of “unintended consequences” since there won’t be any county funds to reinvest into Overtown for another 10 years.

“I would hate to wait for 2017 before anything starts,” she said. “I just want to throw that out as an unintended consequence.”

In the end, the County Commission passed the global agreement by a vote of 9-4. In favor: Barbara Jordan, Dorrin Rolle, Sally Heyman, Bruno Barreiro, Carlos Gimenez, Katy Sorenson, Dennis Moss, Jose “Pepe” Diaz and Edmonson. Dissenting: Commissioners Natacha Seijas, Joe Martinez, Rebeca Sosa and Javier Souto.

Although passage of the global agreement will enable the county to capture $900 million in federal transportation funds for the port tunnel, Alvarez said it doesn’t mean that all the components are done deals.

“This is just a start of negotiations,” he said. “All these deals could fall through two weeks from now, four weeks from now, two months from now….”

Comments? E-mail erik@miamisunpost.com

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