Pérez puts price tag of Watson Island at $1B

Remaking Miami’s Watson Island is worth spending at least $1 billion, developer Jorge Pérez told the city.

Pérez, who heads Related Group, told commissioners that he and his partners are already well on their way to investing 10 figures in a mega-yacht complex on the island that has been stalled for a dozen years, exMiami reported.

The project, which Pérez described as a “crowning achievement,” is being designed by local firm Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe; the developers, which include Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross of New York’s Related Companies, have already paid several millions of dollars in architectural and legal fees.

Pérez and Ross became co-developers of the property earlier this summer along with Flagstone Island Gardens, which received a lease extension from the commission.

Earlier this month, resident Stephen Herbits filed a lawsuit, pushing for the release of public documents on the delayed project. Herbits claims that Pérez and Ross are trying to circumvent the permitting process. [exMiami] – Melanie Gray