Miami Beach residents ‘won’t pay a penny’ for convention center, attorney says

With the Miami Beach City Commission poised to select a winner of two teams vying for its $1.2 billion convention center bid July 8, attorney Al Dotson, who represents South Beach ACE, pledged that residents “won’t have to pay a penny” for the project, Daily Business Review reported.

The city decided last year to partner with a developer to redevelop the city-owned 52-acre site that includes the boxy convention center, the site of Miami’s annual Art Basel; the Jackie Gleason Theater and the city botanical gardens.

The city would issue bonds to pay for half of the project, its share financing the cost of expansion and renovation of the convention center, public parking and landscaping. The bonds would be paid with a 1 percent resort tax, convention center revenue and parking fees.

The private partner will contribute a hotel, retail space and private parking and pay rent on an under the ground lease near the rent-rich outdoor Lincoln Road mall.

South Beach ACE, which consists of New York-based Tishman Hotel & Realty and Miami Beach-based UIA Management, with Rem Koolhaas’ OMA as architects, is competing for the project against Portman CMC, a partnership between Atlanta-based Portman Holdings LLC and Miami-based CMC Group Inc. that boasts Bjarke Ingels Group as its lead architect. [Daily Business Review] –Emily Schmall