A recent Miami-Dade County study recommends tripling the rent paid by the Miami Heat on a waterfront lot behind the AmericanAirlines Arena.
The Heat is reportedly pushing back against higher rent, which is estimated to generate an additional $150,000 annually for the county.
The five-acre vacant lot, known as Parcel B, is used for valet parking, event staging and elephant habitat, the Miami Herald reported. Plans for the future Cuban Exile Museum have county and Heat officials at odds with each other.
In the 1996 referendum campaign to build the arena, the county-owned land was supposed to become a waterfront park.
“If we’re going to sacrifice that park space, I want to be compensated for it,” county commissioner Juan C. Zapata told the Miami Herald. [Miami Herald] — Katherine Kallergis