Ken Griffin tops big donors list for Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava

An all-star roster of South Florida real estate heavyweights want Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to serve another four years, an analysis by The Real Deal shows. 

Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, whose company Citadel is developing a new supertall office tower headquarters in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood, leads the pack that’s financially supporting Our Democracy, a political action committee backing Levine Cava’s reelection, campaign finance records show. 

In June, Griffin contributed $500,000 to Our Democracy. It marks the single largest donation to the PAC since it was formed in 2019 when Levine Cava launched her first mayoral campaign, which she won in the 2020 November election. Griffin, who moved from Chicago to Miami, along with his firm, praised Levine Cava in a statement to Bloomberg last month.

“Mayor Levine-Cava is an accomplished and proactive leader,” Griffin said. “She has improved the quality of schools for children, driven initiatives to strengthen resilience against natural disasters, worked to reduce crime and enhance public safety, and been a steadfast proponent of creating meaningful opportunities for people throughout our community.”

Combined with Griffin’s donation, Our Democracy raised $1.2 million from 17 real estate developers and commercial property investors, accounting for a quarter of the $4.6 million the PAC has raised since 2022, finance reports analyzed by TRD show. 

Levine Cava faces six opponents, including Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid, in the election to be held Aug. 20.

Some of the PAC’s donors have benefitted from Levine Cava’s recommendations to approve lucrative development deals and zoning decisions.

As strong mayor, Levine Cava serves as the county’s top administrator responsible for preparing and presenting legislative, procurement and land use items for the 13-member board of county commissioners to adopt or reject. She does not have a vote on the commission.

For instance, her administration obtained a plat approval from the county commission in April 2022 for a station near Aventura Mall for high-speed train company Brightline that opened in December of the same year, county records show. Between January 2022 and April of last year, Brightline’s parent company, Florida East Coast Industries, made four separate donations to Our Democracy totaling $125,000. 

In addition, Aventura Mall co-owner Turnberry, also based in Aventura, donated $25,000 to Our Democracy in May of last year. The same day, an affiliate of Dacra, the Miami-based development firm led by Craig Robins, husband of Turnberry CEO Jackie Soffer, also contributed $25,000 to the PAC. 

Steve Ross, the billionaire real estate developer who owns the Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, is another big booster for Our Democracy, making four separate contributions between February 2022 and March of this year totaling $44,000. In November 2022, Levine Cava’s administration negotiated a new agreement that provides Hard Rock Stadium with millions of dollars in taxpayer monies for hosting national and international sporting events.

The deal, added at the last minute to a county commission agenda, increased the cap of an annual subsidy the venue receives to $7 million from $5.8 million. It also includes a new separate $15 million incentive for hosting World Cup matches in 2026, county records show. 

In July of last year, county commissioners also approved Levine Cava’s recommendation that Miami-Dade award a joint venture between Ross and Jeffrey Soffer’s Aventura-based Fontainebleau Development to build a new Westin-branded hotel at Miami International Airport. In October of 2022, Soffer’s firm donated $10,000 to Our Democracy, campaign finance reports show. 

Affiliates of Coconut Grove-based Swerdlow Group, led by Michael Swerdlow, and the firm’s vice-president, Nicholas Swerdlow, contributed a total of $55,000 to Our Democracy between September of last year and last month, campaign finance records show. In May, county commissioners approved an agreement negotiated by Levine Cava’s administration to sell a county-owned 17-acre site in southwest Miami-Dade to Swerdlow Group for $8.1 million — even though two independent appraisals valued the land at $31 million, published reports state. 

Other big donors to Our Democracy include Miami-based Atlantic Pacific Communities, which donated a combined $40,000 between April 2022 and May 2023. Entities managed by Miami Lakes-based developer Lewis Swezy kicked in a total of $79,000 between April of 2022 and March of last year. And Vlad Doronin’s OKO Group contributed $50,000 in three separate donations between July 2022 and March of last year.

Also last year, David Martin’s Coconut Grove-based Terra and Coral Gables-based Codina Partners, led by Armando Codina and Ana-Marie Codina Barlick, donated $25,000 and $22,000, respectively.