Miami-Dade School Board revisits mega downtown deal with Russell Galbut

The Miami-Dade School Board is about to take another step in what has become one of the most ambitious — and controversial — real estate deals involving public land in downtown Miami.

Yes, another one.

At Wednesday’s meeting, board members are expected to consider a series of agreements involving the Miami Omni Community Redevelopment Agency, developer Russell Galbut‘s Crescent Heights and a prime School Board-owned parcel, at 1370 NE 2nd Ave., located across from the Arsht Center.

Sounds boring. It’s not.

What is being described in agenda language as a “strategic redevelopment framework for the full downtown assemblage” is really the latest chapter in a years-long effort to transform some of the most valuable publicly owned real estate in Miami into a massive mixed-use development. The property at the center of the deal sits in the heart of the Arts and Entertainment District, where land values have exploded and developers have spent years assembling sites for luxury residential towers.

Among them is Galbut, one of South Florida’s most prolific developers and a man who rarely sees a prime piece of real estate without imagining something much taller on it. He is also one of the developers basically extorting Miami-Dade County over the PortMiami fuel depot on Fisher Island.

The proposal would move forward a redevelopment plan involving school board property known as Parcel 7 and would authorize additional negotiations tied to a larger downtown assemblage that could reshape a significant portion of the neighborhood. The school board already agreed to convey 1.1 acres of its property for just a little more than $20 million, which sounds like a steal.

Casa Forma Residences is a planned 55-story, multi-use tower designed by the late, world-renowned architect Rafael Viñoly and developed by Crescent Heights. Located directly west of the Adrienne Arsht Center, the project is a public-private partnership built on the school district’s Parcel 7 site combined with adjacent developer-owned land. The proposal calls for 1,441 residential units, 120,000 square feet of office space (which includes new offices for the School Board), more than 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, a 17,000-square-foot spa and retail deck on the 11th floor and a major parking garage to service the area and the performing arts center.

The Arsht Center board has sent communications to the School Board wanting to be involved in the negotiations.

Supporters say the deal is exactly the kind of creative public-private partnership government should pursue. The School Board gets to unlock the value of underutilized land, modernize facilities and leverage private investment rather than asking taxpayers to shoulder the entire burden.

Critics see something else. They see a public school system spending an awful lot of time acting like a real estate developer. And they wonder whether taxpayers are receiving maximum value for one of the most desirable pieces of public land in downtown Miami.

Those questions are only becoming louder as the proposal continues evolving. The involvement of the Omni CRA — which was extended longer to accommodate this project — adds another layer of complexity. And controversy. Community redevelopment agencies have become increasingly popular vehicles for financing large-scale projects, but they have also become magnets for criticism from watchdogs who argue that public money too often finds its way into private developments under the banner of economic development.

Which brings us back to the School Board.

“I was very clear that this could not become a real estate exercise,” School Board Member Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall said at the committee meeting last week. She has insisted that Iprep Academy become a part of the plan and that space be made for the charter school.

The deal could also include moving a future promised city of Miami fire station (yeah, right) from one side of the street to another.

“The more this advances, the more complicated this becomes,” said School Board Member Daniel Espino, asking for a flow chart. “I’m a developer and a land use attorney and I don’t understand how this works.”

All the board members said they had questions. Joe Geller wants more information on how the school board offices would work — if they would share elevators with residents, for instance — and how the auditorium would be accessed. “I’d like to see some additional clarity and some attention to these details so we know what we’re getting,” Geller said.

Miami-Dade Public Schools exists to educate children and has spent the past few years warning about enrollment challenges, budget pressures and aging facilities. At the same time, one of its most valuable assets has effectively become part of a long-running downtown real-estate saga involving one of South Florida’s most prolific developers.

Wednesday’s agenda item reads less like an education policy discussion and more like something that would be presented at a commercial real estate convention. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But it does raise an important question.

When public land worth millions of dollars is being assembled into a redevelopment package with one of the region’s biggest developers, who is making sure that taxpayers and schoolchildren are getting the best possible deal from land that belongs to them?

School Board members — of whom all but one was already re-elected this year with zero opposition — will have to answer that question Wednesday.

The Miami-Dade School Board meeting begins at 11 a.m. Wednesday at 1450 NE 2nd Avenue and can be seen live as streamed online on the board’s website.

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Miami-Dade School Board revisits mega downtown deal with Russell Galbut added by Ladra on June 17, 2026
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