Miami: Joe Carollo uses eminent domain to take private property for park

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Critics say it is another vanity project for his wife

Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo — in the midst of a federal trial about abuse of power and political retaliation — wants to seize two parcels on the Miami River through eminent domain so he can build a park dedicated to South American liberator Simon Bolivar as a gift for his wife, who is Venezuelan.

Arturo Ortega, who owns the properties, doesn’t want to sell. He has plans to develop the site and has a signed lease agreement from a tenant waiting and willing to pay a guaranteed $1.1 million in annual rent. He sent commissioners a letter Monday asking them to stop the process. There’s an evidentiary “order of taking” hearing Thursday, and Ortega is afraid he could lose his properties right then.

None of the commissioners have responded.

But Ortega’s attorneys have laid out so many reasons why the eminent domain should not be granted that it’s hard to believe that Crazy Joe will get his hands on this land.

It would also be criminal.

Carollo and the city haven’t acted in good faith, making a ridiculous low ball offer of $4.5 million. The city has not done its due diligence and actually deviated from its comprehensive master plan. There is no study that shows a park is needed here or that it’s the best use for the land. There are six parks nearby, within 6/10ths of a mile, including Jose Marti Park, which is exactly four parcels away.

There are properties between Simon Bolivar Park and Jose Marti Park that are owned by the Florida Department of Transportation and prevent the city from connecting the two in order to create one linear riverfront parkway, as Carollo wants. The previous owner gets first dibs — or right on first refusal — on the property if the FDOT sells, so it’s a long-shot for the city.

Unless, of course, the plan is not to build a park but something else.

El Pollo Carollo has done this before. He took another property through eminent domain to build a park. It is now the site of the Patria Y Vida affordable housing complex. Could the same thing happen here?

The city is also asking the court to take the property through a “quick take,” which would transfer the title first and then assign a value to it or what will be paid to Ortega.

“It is common knowledge that properties along the river are extremely expensive,” Ortega wrote in his letter. “The City Commission voted in favor of leasing city land for the $185 million Wharf project. Additionally, a month ago, three parcels less than half a mile away from my properties sold for $15.5 million — 131, 129, 125 NW South River Dr. A third, smaller property across the river from our properties sold for $9.5 million in May 2021.”

What it will end up costing, however, is much more, including the legal fees for the proceedings, which started in 2021, and any mitigation of the lease agreement that Ortega already has in hand.

“In conclusion, our property could end-up costing taxpayers an amount well into the mid-eight-figures, ranging between $25 million and $40 million,” Ortega said in his letter. “If the city is successful in its taking of my private property, the City will likely end up paying tens of millions of dollars for properties that will sit vacant for years.”

Ortega has actually proposed an alternative that provides public access to 48% of the property through promenades and the riverfront for the Miami River Greenway Riverwalk, as required by Miami 21.

“The city could have a linear park occupying 48% of my private property, where all improvements are paid by me, and maintenance in perpetuity must be paid by me, at NO COST to the City of Miami,” Ortega writes. “Instead, the City has stubbornly chosen to spend tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money for the remaining 52% of the property to put a park on the riverfront, which would render the same result under my private development—a linear park.”