Commission clears way for massive industrial project in Opa-locka

A long-stalled industrial development near the Miami-Opalocka Executive Airport was given new life Thursday, when Miami-Dade County commissioners reportedly approved a needed land deal for the project.

County commissioners approved a new agreement with the Carrie Meek Foundation that would allow the nonprofit to keep its control of roughly 120 acres of land near the airport, where it’s planning a massive single-tenant industrial project, according to the Miami Herald.

Plans call for a single warehouse measuring 860,000 square feet, and sources told the Herald that its single occupant would be Amazon.

The Meek foundation, headed by former congresswoman Carrie Meek, is backed by the Orlando-based developer Foundry Commercial that’s worked on projects like Doral’s Beacon Center industrial park, the Herald reported.

Under the deal, Meek’s team has a 65-year lease on the land and a new development deadline that stipulates $18 million worth of progress has to be made by 2019, with the whole $110 million project completed by 2025.

Meek’s team had first signed a lease for the land in 2008 with plans to build an industrial park, according to the Herald, but the recession threw a wrench into progress. [Miami Herald] — Sean Stewart-Muniz