HomeMy WebLinkAboutOMNI CRA 2014-12-11 MinutesCity of Miami
City Hall
3500 Pan American Drive
Miami, FL 33133
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Meeting Minutes
Thursday, December 11, 2014
12:00 PM
Miami City Hall
OMNI Community Redevelopment Agency
Marc David Sarnoff, Chair
Francis Suarez, Vice Chair
Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Commissioner
Frank Carollo, Commissioner
Keon Hardemon, Commissioner
OMNI & MIDTOWN CRA OFFICE ADDRESS:
1401 N. Miami Avenue, 2nd Floor, Miami 33136
Phone: (305) 679-6868
www.miamicra.com
OMNI Community Redevelopment Agency
Meeting Minutes December 11, 2014
RESOLUTIONS
1.
14-01269
OMNI Community
Redevelopment
Agency
Present: Chair Sarnoff, Vice Chair Suarez and Commissioner Gort
Absent: Commissioner Carollo and Commissioner Hardemon
On the 11 th day of December 2014, the Board of Commissioners of the OMNI Community
Redevelopment Agency of the City of Miami met in regular session at Miami City Hall, 3500 Pan
American Drive, Miami, Florida. The meeting was called to order by Chair Sarnoff at 3: 09 p.m.,
and was adjourned at 3:19 p.m.
ALSO PRESENT:
Pieter A. Bockweg, Executive Director, CRA
Barnaby L. Min, Assistant General Counsel, CRA
Todd B. Hannon, Clerk of the Board
CRA RESOLUTION
A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF THE OMNI
REDEVELOPMENT DISTRICT COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENTAGENCY
("OMNI CRA"), WITH ATTACHMENT(S), AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR TO ISSUE AN INVITATION TO BID, IN SUBSTANTIALLY THE
ATTACHED FORM, SOLICITING PURCHASERS FOR THE OMNI CRA
OWNED REAL PROPERTY LOCATED AT 1401 N. MIAMI AVENUE, MIAMI,
FLORIDA.
14-01269 Cover Memo.pdf
14-01269 Legislation.pdf
14-01269 Exhibit.pdf
Motion by Vice -Chair Suarez, seconded by Board Member Gort, that this matter be
ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATIONS PASSED by the following vote.
Votes: Ayes: Commissioner Gort, Vice Chair Suarez and Chair Sarnoff
Absent: Commissioner Hardemon and Commissioner Carollo
CRA-R-14-0066
Chair Sarnoff. I'd like to welcome everybody to the Omni CRA (Community Redevelopment
Agency) meeting of September -- December 11, 2012 -- '14. I not only don't get the day right; I
probably won't get the year right. But hopefully, I get the rest right. So what I did to the Board
here is I thought it would be a good idea not necessarily to sell, but to see if there's interest in
selling the historic building, because it will remain historic, for the Firehouse where the Omni is
located. Now, bear in mind, we can do a number of different things. We could sell the gross
floor area, strip it of that right; we could sell the TDR (Transfer Development Rights), strip it of
that right; or we could sell two of the three, hold onto the fee simple absolute or sell the whole
thing together. And by the way, if we come back and -- somebody comes back with a very low
number, we simply don't sell. I just think in this escalating real estate market, coupled with -- I
sort of share, I think -- I don't want to speak for Suarez, but I sort of share your sentiment, which
is, "What is government's role; what is its function? And it should be an owner of certain
properties." I just think it's worth taking a look in a market that's probably at a zenith, if this is
something worth doing, so what I asked the director of the CRA to do was to do a Request for
Invitations to Bid on the property site itself so I bring that to bear.
Board Member Gort: Well, my understanding in talking to the director, there was two different
appraisals. One came out to about two -point -something; the other one came out about $8
million, so there's a discrepancy there. At the same time, when you put anything together, I think
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we should get the most value, and I agree with you. I don't think government should be in the
business if we can benefit out of it, great, it's a lot better for the CRA. But at the same time, I
believe we have the air rights to sell, also, because of historical site. So there's a lot of value to
that property, so I don't have any problem as long as we get the maximum.
Vice Chair Suarez: Mr. Chair.
Pieter A. Bockweg (Executive Director, Omni Community Redevelopment Agency): Okay.
Chair Sarnoff Go ahead.
Vice Chair Suarez: Thank you. First, I think there's been some issues or discrepancies related to
how much was spent on rehabbing the property, so I think I would want the executive director to
actually put on the record how much we've spent on the property. As far as I'm concerned, as
you stated, I think that's pretty much my philosophy. As long as we're not bound by whatever
action we take to actually sell, to me, I'm a little bit drastic or dramatic when it comes to this
issue. I think all our property should be for sale, every single one in the City, pretty much, with
the exception of some jewels like the --
Board Member Gort: City Hall.
Vice Chair Suarez: What's that? Yeah. City Hall.
Board Member Gort: City Hall, Police Station.
Vice Chair Suarez: And, of course, Miami Marine Stadium, and other jewels that we -- that are
-- you know. But I think, you know, personally, property is very fungible. It can be sold very
easily. I would urge you not only to put a Request for Invitation, but also some sort of a listing
that is a nonbinding listing, because a lot of realtors, commercial realtors look at the MLS
(Multiple Listings Service), so they may not see an Invitation for Bid, which is kind of -- it's very
much -- it's very common for government property that's being sold, but it's not very common for
private sector property that's being sold. So you may want to put it on -- but you have to be
careful, too, that you're not binding yourself. Even if you put some sort of like -- let's say you say
that the asking price is 4 million, and it's really worth 10 million. And somebody says, "Well,
we're going to give you the asking price," and how do you get out of that? So you have to look
at the legalities of that. That's why I'm -- that's the only concern that I have, is terms of binding
our self but I don't have a problem getting offers on the property at all.
Chair Sarnoff Well, I think what we're going to do is simply get invitations, which means this is
going to come back to us. And you may say, "Well, this guy's offering us 5 million, but he's
going to do this with the property, and we like that." Somebody's going to offer 7 million, but
he's going to -- by the way, it's historic, so it's never going to lose that designation and --
Vice Chair Suarez: Right.
Chair Sarnoff -- there's not very much you could do with an historic site, you know, other than
uses, but I think anything we do should come back to this Board. The only other thing you
should be aware of is that it's got TDRs to sell, which means it's historic property which presently
has a 1 multiplier. I believe we're going to bring to this Commission shortly in the MiMo (Miami
Modern) District a non-contributing building, so it could be a vacant piece of land. It's a 1.75
multiplier. A contributing building I believe gets a 2.5 multiplier, so it seems justified that we
should have at least a 2 multiplier on historic structures anywhere in the City of Miami just to
bring it in line with what we have been doing and done in MiMo, so that does bring more value.
Vice Chair Suarez: Right. And just for the -- for purposes of clarity, that means -- just -- and not
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that there's anybody necessarily watching this, but it's a transfer of development rights. In other
words, because it's a historic property, it really can't be developed. So therefore, you're leaving,
quote/unquote, "development on the table," which would be what you could have developed had
it not been a historic property. So it's the difference between what you could have developed it
and what it has to be -- what it has to stay at. And you're saying that there should be a multiplier
of 2 to I for that sort of development right.
Chair Sarnoff And I'm saying that I believe that's true --
Vice Chair Suarez: Right.
Chair Sarnoff -- everywhere in the City of Miami; that a historic structure that's declared
should get a 2 multiplier.
Vice Chair Suarez: And the reason there is you want to incentivize people to have historic
properties and there is a value lost, in essence, and we've seen that in places -- in cases that have
come before us where people have wanted to maintain a property historic, but they think that the
economic value of -- the lost value is too great, so we're giving them an incentive to do both.
Board Member Gort: What I understand from the both attorneys is what they want to see is
something go out nonbinding.
Chair Sarnoff Right.
Mr. Bockweg: If I may --
Board Member Gort: Is that correct; is that what we're saying?
Barnaby Min (Deputy City Attorney): (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
Board Member Gort: Okay, thank you.
Mr. Bockweg: Ili may, Mr. Chair; just to address Commissioner Suarez' concern -- question --
the total amount the CRA -- the property was deeded over to the Omni CRA by the City of Miami.
Vice Chair Suarez: For acquisition, cost zero.
Mr. Bockweg: Zero. The total rehab cost for the historic building, which is on the National
Historic Registry, so it will not be changed from a usage standpoint, is $2.9 million;
$2, 944,102.48 to be exact.
Vice Chair Suarez: Good.
Mr. Bockweg: The -- so what I'll -- what I'm hearing from the Board is I'll put the Invitation to
Bid. Everything -- this is just asking approval to put something out. The bidders will come back
and I will have to bring it back before you for final approval. On top of that, one of the deed
restrictions is -- when the property was deeded to us -- is that City Commission will also have to
approve the final sale. So once the Board approves it, then I will have to bring it back to City
Commission before that's approved, and the reason for that is because it's originally a City of
Miami building.
Chair Sarnoff Is there any sense to putting a minimum, or are we better off just staying away
from that?
Mr. Bockweg: Well, the appraisals that was discussed by Commissioner Gort, one was done on
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the market value and the other one was done on an investment value, so the calculations were
that vastly different between the two. I would look to the Board if you would like an absolute
minimum. I have an idea of what we cost -- like I told you -- how much we put into the building.
I have an estimate of how much TDRs we have to sell; add a dollar value to that. But it's really
up to the Board on what that number should be. The number that's in the packet in front of you
is the minimum that we spent on the building, so the $3 million; that does not include the TDRs.
Vice Chair Suarez: But let me just say that as a general principle -- and this is an odd case,
because we got the land for free, so that's odd right there. Usually, you pay for the land; that's
incorporated in the value. And then if you spent 2.9 improving the land, the value should be
north of the improvements, certainly; otherwise, you made a bad investment. So, you know,
when you're talking about land plus improvements, just alone, excluding the TDRs, you should
be at sufficiently over $3 million, exclusive of the TDRs. Now, TDRs is a whole 'nother ball
game.
Board Member Gort: Let's come out a minimum 4 million.
Chair Sarnoff Right, you're very close, at least.
Board Member Gort: Minimum 4 million. Let's see what they come up with.
Vice Chair Suarez: But that's exclusive of the TDRs, maybe.
Chair Sarnoff No, that probably includes the TDR.
Vice Chair Suarez: Really?
Chair Sarnoff Think about that, because unless we -- once we value up the TDRs, then you're
probably at 5 million, but as it sits today, it's probably a minimum 4, but it's probably going to
go to a 5.
Board Member Gort: Doesn't mean we have to accept that when it comes back.
Chair Sarnoff Right.
Board Member Gort: That's why it's -- got to make sure it's nonbinding.
Chair Sarnoff Why don't --
Mr. Bockweg: It's -- I'm sorry.
Chair Sarnoff -- we give you the opportunity to spend about three months. Nobody's in a rush,
but, certainly, you're going to get the zenith of the market and see what comes back.
Mr. Bockweg: Okay, I'll make sure that I come back -- I'll put it out for an "X" amount of time.
I'll put it out in the beginning of the year or mid -January, about there for about 30 or 60 days;
come back before the Board once I'm within -- I'll put a minimum of $4 million. That is not
binding.
Chair Sarnoff Okay.
Mr. Bockweg: So you have the right to reject any and all bids.
Chair Sarnoff I'm going to take that as a motion by Commissioner Suarez, and I'm going to take
it as a second by Commissioner Gort.
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ADJOURNMENT
Board Member Gort: Yes.
Vice Chair Suarez: Right.
Chair Sarnoff All right. All in favor, then please say "aye."
The Board (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Sarnoff All right. Thank you. The meeting is now closed.
Mr. Bockweg: Thank you.
Board Member Gort: Thank you. Can we get the Attorneys Office to announce the next
meeting?
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Chair, Chair.
Board Member Gort: Yes.
Mr. Hannon: I just need two minutes to flip the tape.
Board Member Gort: Okay.
The meeting adjourned at 3:19 p.m.
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