Six years after allegedly trashing a vacant property it intended to buy for $10.7 million, the city of Doral will pay the landowner nearly double the originally agreed purchase price.
On Wednesday, the Doral City Council approved a settlement agreement that will pay Doral 10, an entity managed by Lizbeth Arencibia of Hialeah Gardens, $21 million to drop a 2019 civil lawsuit in Miami federal court. The settlement includes $17 million to buy the 9.6-acre site, with the remainder paying for Doral 10’s losses from not being able to use the property and attorney fees, said Raul Gastesi, a private lawyer representing the city.
Arencibia is the daughter of the late Lowell Dunn, a developer whose family members are among the largest landowners in northwest Miami-Dade County. The 9.6 acres are between Northwest 102nd Avenue and 104th Avenue just north of 68th Street.
“The market has changed dramatically since [the lawsuit was filed],” Gastesi told the city council. “And we were not doing well in court. [Doral 10] has not been able to develop the land or do anything on the land due to contamination that they allege we caused.”
Doral 10’s attorney, Alejandro Brito, did not respond to requests for comment. The property owner sought $30 million in damages when Doral 10 initially filed its complaint in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. The lawsuit was transferred to federal court, where the city won a dismissal in 2020, court records show. The ruling was overturned on appeal in 2023.
The lawsuit also named three contractors, JVA Engineering Contractor, EE&G Environmental Services and BBC Engineering, as defendants. But Doral 10 voluntarily dismissed the counts against the three firms, which were hired by Doral, court records show.
Between January and May 2019, the city and its trio of contractors used the site as a staging area for a roadway project without Doral 10’s consent, the complaint alleges. Yet, city officials allegedly “falsely and knowingly represented” to JVA and Miami-Dade County’s environmental permitting department that they had obtained the property owner’s permission.
Doral 10 also accused JVA of taking clean fill from the vacant site to recycle contaminated soil that was excavated for the roadway project. The contractor then deposited contaminated soil mixed with clean fill onto Doral 10’s property, the lawsuit states.
Four months into using the site as a staging area and without informing Doral 10, city officials informed the property owner that a required environmental remediation of the land would cost a minimum of $2.8 million, according to the complaint. As a result, Doral officials opted to terminate the deal to buy the land, which the city planned to convert into a park.
Gastesi provided city council members with a grim outlook if Doral took the case to trial. “I would rather recommend you purchase the land rather than pay the damages,” he said. “The court is likely to find against Doral.”